Your Voice, Your Town
Change powered by communities - New round of Your Voice, Your Town of funding launched
Watch the VideoYour Voice, Your Town is change – powered by communities
Your Voice, Your Town is an approach to supporting community-led approach change across the 7 towns of Ealing. The approach is built on a simple principle: communities already have the ideas, skills, assets and relationships needed to improve their neighbourhoods. The council can enable the conditions in which those strengths can flourish.
Your Voice Your Town brings residents, businesses, faith, community organisations, and councillors together to improve their area and make great things happen. The approach works to unlock the skills, energy, and potential in each town to take action on the things local people care most about.
It is led by the community, with support from Ealing Council.
In each town, a Town Team, made of local residents, businesses, community groups and work to decide how to take action on the local priorities identified, and help create ways for people to get involved to shape the future of their town and address local priorities.
The approach to Your Voice Your Town was developed through two years of co-design involving more than 1,500 residents, it has created seven Town Teams that work together, to help catalyse community powered change across their community,
The journey began with borough-wide engagement to understand how residents wanted to shape the future of their towns. Rather than expecting people to attend council meetings, conversations took place in schools, places of worship, community centres, neighbourhood events and other trusted settings.
Crucially, residents were not simply asked for their views. They helped design the model itself. Communities identified what meaningful participation should look like, what structures were needed and which issues mattered most locally. Residents also voted on the initial priorities for their towns, ensuring YVYT reflected local aspirations from the outset.
Over 125 Town Teams members, recruited through a open public campaign, are now driving forward community-powered change in each of Ealing’s 7 Towns.
Whatever your idea or interest, there are lots of ways to get involved and make a difference in your area.
Find out more about the work of the Town Teams, the work they have done to date and their plans as they emerge. Town Teams
Leading change, the role of the Town Teams
At the heart of YVYT are seven Town Teams, one in each of Ealing’s towns. These bring together residents, businesses, faith groups, community organisations and councillors to focus on local priorities. More than 125 people are now involved, many of whom had never previously participated in civic decision-making or consultation.
Town Teams are not advisory groups. They:
- Identify local priorities
- Bring people together around shared challenges
- Mobilise community action
- Support new ideas and projects to grow
- Share information and learning
- Build pride and belonging in their towns
While all Town Teams work within a shared participation framework, each develops local ways of working that reflect its community. Teams meet regularly online and in person, creating consistent opportunities for collaboration and action. Find out more about Town Teams
The council has committed £480,000 annually for the Town Teams to take action on local priorities. This investment enables participatory grant making, community events and direct action opportunities, while helping Town Teams connect local resources, expertise and partnerships to priorities identified by residents.
Your Voice, Your Town community-led funds
To support and catalyse community led change, each town has been allocated funding as an enabler of change, £480,000 has been provided across all the Towns in 2026/2027.
To support action and for good ideas to flourish to address local priorities in every Town, over the last 2 years Town Teams have set up community funds to make a difference. In 2025/2026, Town Teams supported 77 ideas, with over £418,000 to catalyse community-powered change.
The 2026/2027 Funds are now open, and Town Teams have developed a range of ideas of how they want to address local priorities. Have you got an idea to drive forward community powered change? Applications across all Towns close on Thursday 3rd December 2026 at 1pm.
Your Voice, Your Town – how it started and what’s next
Ealing Council started the development of Your Voice, Your Town with a borough-wide engagement process, where hundreds of residents, businesses, faith and community groups were asked what matters most to them and their community. Now 18 months into the process, together we are catalysing community powered change.
The journey so far...
This page shows the journey of developing Your Voice, Your Town so far - how it came to life - and how things will develop in the months ahead. Working with each town we also know this approach will evolve as it responds to the people and priorities in each town.
You’ll also find ways to get involved and help shape the future of your own town.
During the engagement process, hundreds of people were asked how they wanted to work with Ealing Council. The council also wanted to understand what people and organisations were already doing in their communities, and what they would like to change in the future.
They were asked four simple questions to learn more:
- How are you currently active in your community?
- How would you like to be involved in the future?
- What would make that possible?
- What would you want to change?
During this process, the council wanted to listen to as many people as possible – especially people who don’t usually get heard. Officers heard from over 1,000 people, including 500 face-to-face conversations in 35 places across the borough.
The council used translation when needed and went back to people and places to share what they had learned from the conversations they had.
Following this initial listening phase, Ealing Council held seven town events. This was an opportunity for residents to meet local organisations and council teams to understand what support currently exists in each town.
To help shape how Your Voice, Your Town would work, and to enable a focused approach, Ealing Council asked each town to think about what mattered most in their town.
After listening to people in phase 1, the council gathered a long list of things that people in each town cared about. From this, seven common themes appeared across the borough.
People were then asked to vote for the theme they felt was the top priority for their town. This meant each town had a clear priority to focus on.
To make sure everyone had a chance to vote, council officers also visited 42 places across the borough, where people live, work, and spend time, to make it easier for as many people as possible to take part.
The council also promoted the vote through AroundEaling.com and social and local media.
Once each town had chosen its top priority, Ealing Council invited people to talk more about what that priority meant to them and their community. They also opened the conversation to local councillors.
For example, in towns where the priority was “clean and pleasant”, people were asked to share what that could look like in real life. The ideas were gathered into collective statements, which you can read on your town’s web page.
These statements helped shape the Town Team’s vision – a shared idea of what each town want to work towards.
People were also invited to sign up and tell the council how they’d like to get involved, whether that’s volunteering, sharing ideas, or helping with local projects
Anyone who joined in the priority voting and wanted to be involved in Your Voice, Your Town, or who completed an online form was invited, via email, to the first Town Team meeting in each of the towns.
Town Teams first agreed how they wanted to work together, including developing shared values or ways of working—things like respect, teamwork, and listening to each other.
Every Town Team member also signs a Participation Agreement. This explains what their role is, what they’re responsible for, and how they should handle things like sharing information.
Town Teams meet often, at times and places that suit them. They are taking different approaches, that suit their town’s needs, but have first focused on developing a community fund. You can find out more about your town’s Town Team on your town’s webpage.
Each Town Team has developed a community fund that supports local projects based on their town’s chosen priority.
Every town has been given a share of the fund, based on how many people live there:
Town Teams are deciding how people can apply for funding and what the rules should be.
Starting in October 2025, Town Teams—supported by the council—will begin promoting the community funds in each town.
Here are the dates for when applications open in each town:
| Location | Opens | Closes |
|---|---|---|
| Acton | 15 October 2025 | 30 November 2025 |
| Ealing | 17 November 2025 | 9 January 2026 |
| Greenford | 18 October 2025 | 18 December 2025 |
| Hanwell | 18 October | 6 January 2026; 31 December |
| Northolt | 16 October | 18 December 2025 |
| Perivale | 18 October | 18 December 2025 |
| Southall | To be confirmed | To be confirmed |
If you have an idea, you can find out more about the Community Funds by visiting your town’s page.
If you have an idea – big or small – and would like to apply for funding, get in touch with your Town Team by visiting your town’s page.
Your Voice, Your Town is change, powered by communities.
Want to know what each Town is working on now?
New Town Team members
In summer 2026 through an open recruitment process, anyone living, working or studying locally, could apply to become a member of a Town Team in each of Ealing’s 7 Towns. 125 Town Team members were selected with a spread across the geography of Towns, ages, ethnicity and affiliations with different groups. People who have been involved in 2025/2026 could apply to stay involved and keep the journey going. Most Town Teams are now full, but applications are still open for Northolt and Perivale. Visit your town page to apply.
What are Town Teams working on?
Over the last few months, Town Teams have been designing a programme of work, based on examining the local priorities and where Town Team members believe they can help mobilise local people for action. As part of their first phase of work, they now launched a new community fund to support and catalyse brilliant ideas in each of the Towns. Funds across all Towns close on the 3 December 2026 at 1pm. Visit your town page to find out more about your Town Team, community funding, events and activities.