Announcing the Four Shortlisted Teams for COLLABORATE: SAFER SPACES
We’re excited to welcome four powerful, diverse-led grassroots collaborations into Foundation for Future London’s COLLABORATE: SAFER SPACES programme. Each team brings deep community knowledge, creative leadership and lived experience to the work of building safer, more inclusive spaces across East London. We’re honoured to learn alongside them as we move through this shared journey of co-creation, accountability and collective growth.
Supported through the Westfield East Bank Creative Futures Fund, our shortlisted teams — led by Higham Hill Youth Partnership, You Press, Broad Bikez and Women’s Inclusive Team — are each forging their own approaches to the theme of Safer Spaces, rooted in local partnerships and community-led practice.
This commission forms part of our Empowering Safer Spaces campaign and the Westfield East Bank Creative Futures Fund, supported by Westfield Stratford City and Foundation for Future London.
The teams
Higham Hill Youth Partnership (Creative Engagement Services CIC, Higham Hill Hub, COG Cycling, PinPoint, wider partners): Reclaim – Safer Spaces, Shared Power
A youth-led activation project in Higham Hill with Creative Engagement Services, Higham Hill Hub, COG cycling, PinPoint and wider community partners to strengthen safety, inclusion, trust and opportunity in the area. The work links ‘engage and response’ outreach and youth provision with wider local collaborators. The project runs in parallel with the construction of the new Higham Hill Hub community centre to embed youth-led safer spaces and voices in the new building’s foundation and in Higham Hill.
About the lead partners:
- Creative Engagement Services – Youth specialists leading outreach, engagement and response work, media-based projects.
- Higham Hill Hub – Anchor charity building the new community centre and supporting youth activation in Higham Hill.
- COG cycling – Cycling and mechanics partnership project in East London for young people.
- PinPoint – Youth enterprise working with and advocating for young people through creative, vocational and youth voice projects.
You Press: Design Community Research: Safer Spaces
You Press and The Centre of Development for Disabilities CIC are co-creating safer spaces for Somali youth and disabled community members through creativity, leadership and shared learning — building pathways to long-term inclusion and empowerment.
Moving Together: Strengthening Community Wellbeing Through Cycling, Skating and Cultural Events
Skate Gals & Pals CIC and Broad Bikez CIC are working together to strengthen community wellbeing and social inclusion through active travel, creative learning and safer shared spaces in East London. Together, they are developing a shared, multi-purpose community venue that will serve as a hub for cycling and skating workshops, creative training, community events and inclusive wellbeing activities. The space will bring together their communities under one roof – offering free and low-cost skate and bike repair sessions, employability and coaching programmes, cultural events and accessible social meetups.
Women’s Inclusive Team: Haawa Hope
Women’s Inclusive Team, Bromley by Bow Centre and Amour Destiné are co-developing a survivor-led, trauma-informed model supporting Black/Black Mixed heritage and South Asian women and girls affected by domestic abuse and harmful practices — embedding safety, healing and trust in community settings.
What’s next
Chosen by our Community Grant Panel, these four diverse-led East London collaborations stood out for their commitment to equitable partnership, sustainability and grassroots-led approaches to safer spaces.
Each shortlisted team will receive:
- £5,000 development grant to support early collaboration
- Up to £50,000 in flexible funding
- Co-designed wraparound support at each stage of development
- Strategic guidance from Foundation for Future London
- Access to a peer-led capacity building programme
- Opportunities to connect and collaborate with other funded teams
In the months ahead, each collaboration will work in partnership with Foundation for Future London, our Community Grant Panel, Ambassadors and fellow applicants through the co-missioning stage — developing, testing and strengthening their ideas without the constraints of traditional funding processes.
We’re looking forward to supporting this new cohort as they continue working to protect, nurture and sustain safer spaces across Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest.
Get in touch
We’d love to hear from you’re working on collaborative funding or safer spaces across London.
Foundation for Future London will also co-develop a peer-led capacity-building project to support and sustain collaborative capacity across the COLLABORATE: SAFER SPACES network and the broader sector.
If you’d like to get involved or learn more, please email Ashton Mullins, Grants and Programme Manager, at ashtonmullins@future.london.