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1 nomination from readers

• Nathan and Adam applied for the Big Boost grant in June 2007 to encourage greater cohesion in their home town of Kingston. Their experience of it was that it was a segregated local community. They decided to talk directly to local residents and council representatives to find out what might inspire greater feelings of connection and involvement between the various diverse community groups. The idea of a street party came into being and they were so encouraged by the positive response they received from 95% of the locals they spoke to that they ploughed ahead with the project. Within a short amount of time they had amassed a surprising amount of public support from people happy to donate their time and resources to the project. Over 2000 people came to the event during the day and people said that "They hadn't felt community like it since the 70s"! Nathan has now managed to tie up this project with his profession: He wanted to be able to run similar events in other places across London without losing the initial event. It was therefore a clear opportunity for him to use his time and expertise to re-skill other people within the community, enabling him to develop other sites for similar community integration projects. I feel that he is developing a classic social enterprise which benefits many people and he has a number of other projects developing as spin offs. His relationship with the council has enabled Nathan to be looking at developing potential derelict sites for music studios within run down areas.

  Nominated by Sally Wood, 03 March 2008