Fantastic News From Newham Monitoring Project

This year is the thirtieth anniversary of Newham Monitoring Project (NMP), the grassroots organisation that supports east London communities who have suffered discrimination, racism and police misconduct. I have been actively involved in NMP for nearly 20 of those 30 years and since Newham council cut its funding in 1997 (because the Project refused to compromise on its independence - a story I look forward to writing one day), the group has experienced the familiar struggle to survive that has unfortunately forced many other organisations to close.

NMP's resilience has been down to the efforts of its activists, supporters and workers and at last, there is some fantastic news: it has secured funding from the Big Lottery for the next four years. This is the statement it put out today:

We are delighted to announce that Newham Monitoring Project has successfully secured a grant from the Big Lottery Fund which will cover our core services (casework, emergency service & community outreach work) for the next 4 years - until October 2014.

This is a terrific achievement in the current financial and political climate and recognition of the hard work and commitment put into the Project by our large collective of supporters. We would like to thank you for your continued support and dedication to NMP, which has both enabled us to secure new funding and remain a strong, independent and vocal organisation serving the local community.

This year is NMP's 30th anniversary and we are proud that, with your help, we continue to help hundreds of individuals and families experiencing racism, discrimination and unfair treatment to access justice, as well as providing training and information on rights to groups across east London.

Many congratulations to NMP - not only is its success richly deserved, but it is also a victory for anti-racist campaigners and people everywhere who argue for greater police accountability.