New year funding delight for 46 East London community projects awarded £220k

Today Stratford-based charity Foundation for Future London announces the 29 organisations and 17 individuals from Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest who will be awarded up to £5k from its Small Grant Scheme, part of the Westfield East Bank Creative Futures Fund.

With projects ranging from a Jerk & Juice Saturday Club for at risk young people to a creative platform to support female domestic abuse survivors, the grants will directly impact the lives of 2,569 people with another 90,367 audiences engaged through project activity. The Small Grant Scheme aims to develop new employment, learning and business skills and entrepreneurial opportunities and in particular be a support to young people.

Tiwa King from The Healing Tour project says, “Thanks to the Foundation for Future London grant, incredible women will have the second chance they have been praying for. A safe space, hope, healing, purpose and a platform to develop skills needed to make an impact on the wider community – all through the creative arts!”

Nawzia Sultana from the the Green Up Newham project says, “Many residents in Newham don’t have gardens: this project will allow locals to enjoy a green, safe space acting as a sanctuary to relax and unwind. The project addresses the lack of diversity in environmental projects by giving Black, Asian and ethnically diverse people the lead, while learning new skills in gardening and project management.”

“We know how vital funding local people and places is to creative placemaking and transforming lives, so the Foundation for Future London is pleased to be awarding the first of four grant schemes as part of the £1m we’re distributing this year through Westfield East Bank Creative Futures Fund,” says Maria Adebowale-Schwarte, CEO, Foundation for Future London.

“While the pandemic endures, our organisation is committed to seeing real change and inclusive growth happen for all local people in the four London boroughs surrounding the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and the new East Bank.”

Westfield East Bank Creative Futures Fund is a £10 million five-year programme funded by Westfield Stratford City that will provide new jobs, learning, training and educational programmes for the people and communities of Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest through the means of arts, culture, innovation, public realm and creative placemaking.

The Fund aims to focus on equality and social inclusion by supporting young people and giving priority to locally rooted charities and community focussed initiatives. Now in its second year, the Fund will distribute over £1 million through its four community grant schemes.

“The Westfield East Bank Creative Futures Fund is an incredibly important project for us, particularly the role it plays in supporting training and jobs for our community. We are delighted with how the project is benefitting our local community to create positive impact. We are proud to be playing an active role in supporting the people and places of East London and look forward to seeing more of the great work we can achieve with Foundation for Future London,” says Alyson Hodkinson, General Manager, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield.

Thanks to the Fund’s new Capacity Building Programme, the quality of applications received to date is higher, with a wider range of grassroots organisations applying. In its first year, the Fund awarded £660,000 to 26 community projects, benefiting over 7,000 people. The programme aims to transform and catalyse the lives and careers of people in East London by putting funding, resources and support straight into local people’s hands.

For more information on the Westfield East Bank Creative Futures Fund, see https://future.london/programme/westfield-east-bank-creative-futures-fund/.

ENDS

Westfield East Bank Creative Futures Fund
Year 2 Small Grant Scheme recipients

1. Afro-Brazilian Arts & Cultural Exchange, Young people’s social inclusion project — Tower Hamlets
2. Breaking Chains, The Breaking Free Project — Tower Hamlets
3. creative until death, when this dream is over, and the new one comes — Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest
4. Dipped In Creativity, #BRINGINGUSBACK Open Mic Night Event — Hackney, Waltham Forest
5. E17 Puppet Project, The Art of Making your own Cosmetics — Newham, Waltham Forest
6. Fiorentini Arts School Ltd, Providing disadvantaged children with performing arts training — Hackney, Tower Hamlets
7. Flourish In Diversity CIC, Flourish In Diversity Summer Programme– Hackney
8. Huriah Hemp CIC, Leaders from the Block — Hackney
9. Intermission Youth, Tunmarsh PRU drama programme — Newham
10. Jerk & Juice Catering Ltd, Jerk & Juice Saturday Club– Waltham Forest
11. Leaders in Community, Be.YOUth — Tower Hamlets
12. Maya Productions Ltd, Diverse Voices — Tower Hamlets
13. Mooradian Studio, ‘Hackney House’: How to build locally — Hackney
14. Optimistic Foundation CIC, POWER – a grassroots, artist led Green New Deal — Waltham Forest
15. Ruff Sqwad Arts Foundation, Discuss and Devour podcast — Newham
16. S.M.I.L.E-ing Boys CIC, S.M.I.L.E-ing Boys Project, Hackney — Newham
17. St Columba, Hackney Wick Town Hall Development Project — Hackney, Tower Hamlets
18. STEAMLabs Hackney CIC, Shining a Light on Creative Science — Hackney
19. The OITIJ-JO Collective, Creative Women — Tower Hamlets
20. The People Speak CIC, The People Work — Tower Hamlets
21. Tinted View LTD, Gemini Rising, Hackney — Tower Hamlets, Newham
22. Trapped in Zone One, Culture and Tower Hamlets — Tower Hamlets
23. Trashion Factory CIC, Forest Dream Team — Waltham Forest
24. True Cadence, Kids Create — Tower Hamlets
25. Vortex Jazz Club, Training of sound engineers for live music production and delivery — Hackney
26. Women of the Wick, WOWZINE – Storytelling for Women & Non-binary Entrepreneurs — Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Newham
27. Young and Talented Ltd, Y&T Young Creatives project — Tower Hamlets
28. Young Generation Needs Us, Young Generation Leaders — Newham
29. YUCAN CIC, The Young Carer Space Project, Hackney — Tower Hamlets, Newham, Waltham Forest
30. Brogan Brooks, Truce N Train Outreach — Newham
31. Katakyie Addae-Kodua, XConversation — Tower Hamlets, Newham
32. Tiwa King, The Healing Tour, Hackney — Tower Hamlets
33. Cassie Quinn, Sustainable Fashion Factory — Tower Hamlets
34. Erika Vanessa Gil-Gordillo, The ‘Love Your Culture’ project — Newham
35. Kamila Szymkiewicz, REIMAGINE NEWHAM — Newham
36. Natasha Zielazinski, Music, Motherhood and Me — Newham
37. Enni-Kukka Tuomala, Empathy HQ: Phase 3 — Tower Hamlets
38. Isaac Simpson, ‘New’ Ethnicities — Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Newham
39. Keity Pook, inklingroom – Creative choreography and performance workshop with Keity Pook — Hackney, Waltham Forest
40. Bimpe Adeyemi, Letting Imagination Take Flight, Tower Hamlets — Newham
41. Shume Rema, Shume Inspires with RB DESIGNZ UK — Tower Hamlets
42. Nazia Sultana, Green Up Newham — Newham
43. Eleanor Pearce, E7 Portrait Project — Newham
44. Lisa ODonnell, Free Art and Animation club for 6-10 year olds — Hackney
45. Noga Shatz, WF Art Club — Waltham Forest
46. Sochi Henry-Uche, Omaka on Tour — Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Newham, Waltham Forest

Suzanne Gorman, Artistic Director of Maya Productions says, “Our Diverse Voices programme aims to reduce inequality of access to theatre and the performing arts for groups traditionally underrepresented, as creators, workers, and audiences.”

Sanyu Musoke, Founder and Director of YUCAN CIC

“There is a lack of support and respite for young children carers in working-class and under-represented communities in East London. This grant will give young child carers the opportunity to take part in engaging workshops whilst having catered ‘me time’ tailored to help meet their needs and learn information about their rights and entitlements.”

Keity Pook, Choreographer & Co-founder of the art collective inklingroom

“inklingroom is committed to providing access to performance opportunities to marginalised dance communities and offering them free dance education — choreography and performance making workshops. This project will engage emerging artists from the East London area, help them find their creative voice, and support the development of artistic projects by presenting their work during the live event.”

Cassie Quinn

“Sustainability is a massive buzzword at the moment, and the younger generation are a driving force for demonstrating the importance of adopting better practices. Sustainable Fashion Factory will support young people gaining skills and knowledge to stay at the forefront of circularity in the fashion industry.”

Isaac Nanabeyin Simpson

“This grant is by young Black, Asian and ethnically diverse adults (19-29) for young people (13-18). With the simple aim to celebrate, explore and teach diverse creativity in the architectural world.”

Bimpe Adeyemi

“The grant will allow Xenogenesis to deliver an Afro-futurist project that will allow young people to dream up visions of liberation that encourage a transformation of self and the structures we live within. We believe, if the futuristic stories we imagine allow everyone to exist liberated, then we will be more inspired to make that world a reality. When we speculate about the future, it’s not just about what we imagine, but who we imagine in that future, and how we collectively engage to make ours a diverse, inclusive reality.”

Margot Przymierska, Senior Creative Producer, The People Speak 

“The People Work is a natural progression of the work we have been doing in the area for a few years now, with support from Foundation for Future London. We are finally in a place where we can offer paid employment and training opportunities for local people from Tower Hamlets, positively contributing to tackling the unemployment and low productivity levels within the borough.”

Press contact

Amy Zamarripa Solis
Communications Manager
Foundation for Future London
07854 658873
amysolis@future.london

Notes to Editors

Foundation for Future London

Foundation for Future London is an independent charity created to connect communities, the new East Bank and its globally renowned arts, innovation and cultural partners to ensure East Bank is London’s must-visit destination and becomes a resilient, thriving, world-class neighbourhood of local and global significance. We’re fundraising to expand grant-making opportunities for East Bank communities and partners and facilitating creative placemaking, to support local places, learning, training and employment through arts, education, culture and innovation. Our vision is for a vibrant and inclusive creative East Bank, creating authentic engagement with local people of East London in the boroughs of Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest.

Westfield East Bank Creative Futures Fund

Westfield East Bank Creative Futures Fund is an ambitious five-year programme that aims to invest £10 million in to local communities of Newham, Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Waltham Forest. This flagship project will provide new jobs, learning, training and educational programmes through the means of arts, culture, innovation, public realm and creative placemaking. The programme aims to transform and catalyse the lives and careers of people in East London by putting funding, resources and support straight into local people’s hands. The fund is supported by Westfield Stratford City and administered by Foundation for Future London.

Westfield Stratford City

Westfield Stratford City is London’s most popular shopping destination by footfall, located in London’s fastest growing area, and now has over 51 million annual customer visits. The centre has been a catalyst for the regeneration of the Stratford area, bringing around a million shoppers every week, as well as jobs, tourism and investment to the local community. As a group, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (URW) has invested over £1.75 billion in Westfield Stratford City with further investment of £670 million on 1,200 new homes in the surrounding area. The Group investment continues to include significant public realm improvements and green space provision, from new pedestrian routes to sustainable open space. This has created environments people want to visit, live and work in – in turn bringing further economic and social benefits.