Film premiere of Culture Exchange 2023 documentary “Culture Our Way”

On Wednesday 20 March, we celebrated the 2023 UK Culture Exchange pilot, with a premiere of a new documentary film by Social Ark about the young people involved, produced and directed by Marlon Rouse Tavares.

The documentary follows the journey of young people from an East London cohort along with young people from Birmingham, Preston and Sheffield. The film shines a light on their talent, skills, resilience and aspirations and also demonstrates the impact and lifelong learning this programme brought to all who took part.

Foundation for Future London commissioned and co-produced the Cultural Exchange pilot programme through its creative placemaking-based Westfield East Bank Creative Futures Fund, which is generously funded by East Bank founding partner Westfield Stratford City.

The premiere took place at Plexal, Here East and was accompanied by speeches from Sarah Nelson, Interim CEO, Foundation for Future London and Alyson Hodkinson, Head of Sustainability UK, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield. Audiences were also treated to a Q&A with Social Ark CEO Lisa Stepanovic MBE and young people Brogan Nathaniel-Brooks, Will Greenhalgh and Lydia Rosen, joined by Sarah Nelson and Alyson Hodkinson.

The UK Cultural Exchange is an innovative UK-wide exchange programme that was devised against the ‘levelling up’ backdrop and aims to connect young people, arts, cultural and innovation organisations, and communities across East London and other UK cities, using creative and inclusive placemaking as a learning tool while fostering leadership and change-making skills.

The Westfield East Bank Creative Futures Fund is an ambitious five-year programme that aims to invest £10 million into the local communities of Newham, Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Waltham Forest, supported by retail destination Westfield Stratford City. This flagship project will provide new jobs, learning, training and educational programmes through arts, culture, innovation, public realm and creative placemaking.

‘Culture Exchange 2023’ was a nine-month pilot that started in March 2023 and culminated in November 2023. The programme trained up 50 young people aged 18-25 through online and in person activities, with the aim of creating a new dialogue for learning, training and employment. Training covered subjects such as arts, music, culture and history, fashion, journalism, dialect, and language, digital and placemaking.

The consortium partners included Social Ark with Sirlute, Skaped, XCONVERSATION, Truce ’n’ Train, Calling4Gr8tness — working collaboratively with three UK youth engagement partners: Aalfy, Sheffield; Birmingham Says No, Birmingham; and Strive to Thrive, Preston.

Background

In 2022, the Foundation for Future London (FFL) announced a tender for a Culture Exchange Project, as part of its Westfield East Bank Creative Futures Fund, backed by Westfield Stratford City (WSC). Part of the brief was that they wanted to work with an applicant to co–design and facilitate a pilot aimed at connecting young people, arts, cultural and innovation organisations, and communities in East London and two or three other places in the UK, to create a new dialogue for learning, training and employment.

Foundation for Future London is an independent charity with a strategic focus on arts, culture and heritage, as a catalyst for equitable regeneration for the East London boroughs of Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest. The Foundation supports local people and communities to benefit from learning, training and employment opportunities delivered by our fundraising and grant-making operations.

Working with Westfield Stratford City, who provided a generous £10 million donation, the five-year programme ‘Westfield East Bank Creative Futures Fund’ (WEBCFF) was developed to do exactly this. Westfield Stratford City has been a catalyst for the regeneration of East London. As one of the first investors as part of the London 2012 Olympic legacies, by 2027, it’s estimated that £25bn will be invested in the area and this continued commitment has been shown through this programme.

Culture Exchange 2023 Impact

• 50 Young people took part in the programme and accessed paid work experience.
• 27 received Apple iPads to ensure digital inclusion throughout the programme.
• Over 30 weeks, young people averaged 2.5 hours of tailored weekly mentoring.
• 17 received £1000 grants for community-based projects and developed their creative practices and personal development.

Of the young participants:

• 100% accessed paid work experience, leading to increased employability and employability skills.
• 90% told us they have improved confidence with their creative practices and are thinking about how to implement entrepreneurship in what they do.
• 100% have raised aspirations for their futures.
• 95% reported building confidence in their potential and self-initiative.
• As a result of the programme, 3 young people have re-started further education, and 1 has gone on to university. 5 have gained new sustainable employment. The remainder are exploring their own creative development. 5 have secured places on the award-winning Social Ark Step Up entrepreneur programme.
• 3 East London young people received £5k grants from Westfield East Bank Creative Futures Fund to deliver their projects. Organisations in Sheffield, Birmingham and Preston received £5k each for their legacy projects.

This project met many of the Fund’s outcomes, including:

• increased diversity in the creative and entrepreneurial sector
• increased employment, gaining technical and creative skills,
• grow networks and awareness of opportunities
• gained confidence in potential
• young people are now able and equipped to act as agents of change in their communities.

Partners

• Social Ark is an organisation that helps young people to set up social enterprises guided by their lived experience. CEO Lisa Stepanovic, Tiwa King Culture Exchange Project Manager, Moses Adeyemi, lead facilitator socialark.co.uk
• Calling4Gr8ness is a social enterprise focused on supporting care-experienced young people. Founded by Johannan Walker, guided by her experience of the foster care system. calling4gr8ness.org.
• Sirlute is a creative charity that delivers free creative learning, mentoring and training to at-risk East London youth. Led by Lived experience leader CEO JR Josephs and team leader Shamuna. sirlute.com.
• Skaped is an artivist charity that works with young people to educate them about community building and human rights through the creative arts. Led by CEO Sandy Abdel Rahman and team leader Erin. skaped.org
• Truce n Train – An inclusive fitness and mentoring programme that supports at-risk young people in East London. @TruceNTrain Headed up by Brogan Nathaniel Brooks.
• XConversation – a podcast platform that champions ex-offenders, providing creative work experience opportunities to at-risk youth. Led by lived experienced CEO Zak and team leader Rony. xconversation.co.uk/
• AALFY is a Sheffield-based social enterprise that delivers learning experiences for young people. https://aalfy.org/ Led by Ahmed Al-Aagam and MCNige, who worked with Reach Up Youth @reachupyouth headed up by Safiya Saeed.
• Birmingham Says No is one of Birmingham’s biggest platforms against knife crime & youth violence. Led by Rachel Warren and Dee Kelly. @birminghamsaysno
• Strive to Thrive is a Preston-based social enterprise that empowers, inspires and supports young people to address the issues that directly impact them. Led by criminal justice professional Tasha Cowperthwaite.@s2tlancs