UK Culture Exchange is an innovative arts and cultural initiative for young people, devised by the Foundation and funded by Westfield East Bank Creative Futures Fund, that aims to connect young people across the UK through artistic, cultural and digital media training.
The Westfield East Bank Creative Futures Fund is an award-winning 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 aims to provide over 19,000 new jobs, learning, training and educational programmes through arts, culture, innovation, public realm and creative placemaking.
In 2022, we announced a tender for a Culture Exchange Project. Part of the brief was that we 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.
The winning applicant was a consortium led by Social Ark with five East London organisations – Sirlute, Sirlute, XConversation, Truce n Train and Calling4Gr8ness – working collaboratively with three UK youth engagement partners: AALFY, Sheffield; Birmingham Says No, Birmingham; and Strive to Thrive, Preston.
UK Culture Exchange 2023
The Foundation worked with the consortium led by Social Ark to co-design and facilitate a nine-month 2023 pilot.
The pilot programme trained 50 young people aged 18-25 through online and in-person training in arts, music, culture, history, fashion, journalism, dialect, digital and placemaking, running over 30 weeks. Participants also benefited from tailored weekly 2.5 hours of mentoring.
As part of the programme, 27 young people received Apple iPads for digital inclusion, and 17 received £1k grants for community-based projects, creative practice and personal development.
The pilot culminated on 20 March 2024 with a new documentary film premiere about the young people’s journey, produced and directed by Marlon Rouse Tavares.
The documentary follows the journey of young people from East London, Birmingham, Preston and Sheffield. The film highlights their talent, skills, resilience and aspirations and demonstrates the impact and lifelong learning this programme brought to all who participated.
The premiere took place at Plexal, Here East, featuring a Q&A panel discussion with Social Ark CEO Lisa Stepanovic MBE, young people Brogan Nathaniel-Brooks, Will Greenhalgh and Lydia Rosen, along with Sarah Nelson, CEO, Foundation for Future London and Alyson Hodkinson, Head of Sustainability UK, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield.
“Such a superb event, and what a project! And what a great film! It was such a privilege to see.” – East Bank partner
Project Partners
- Social Ark is an organisation that helps young people set up social enterprises guided by their lived experience. CEO Lisa Stepanovic, Tiwa King Culture Exchange Project Manager, Moses Adeyemi, lead facilitator.
- Calling4Gr8ness is a social enterprise focused on supporting care-experienced young people. It was founded by Johannan Walker, informed by her experience in the foster care system.
- 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.
- Skaped is an artivist charity that works with young people to educate them about community building and human rights through the creative arts, which is run by CEO Sandy Abdel Rahman and team leader Erin.
- Truce n Train is an inclusive fitness and mentoring programme that supports at-risk young people in East London, headed by Brogan Nathaniel Brooks.
- XConversation is a podcast platform that champions ex-offenders, providing creative work experience opportunities to at-risk youth. It is led by lived experienced CEO Zak and team leader Rony.
- AALFY is a Sheffield-based social enterprise that delivers learning experiences for young people, led by Ahmed Al-Aagam and MCNige, who worked with Reach Up Youth, headed 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.
- Strive to Thrive is a Preston-based social enterprise that empowers, inspires and supports young people to address the issues directly impacting them, led by criminal justice professional Tasha Cowperthwaite.
UK Culture Exchange 2024
In 2024, we commissioned Social Ark to deliver a new programme for 15 young people, exploring culture across Bradford, Nottingham and East London. It ran from June to October 2024 and included another creative educational programme and a broad wrap-around support package for the participants.
The programme included:
- 15 interactive learning workshops
- Exchange weekends to Nottingham and Bradford
- Introduction to social enterprise
- Support to set up their own project
- Access to grants
- Mentoring
- Influential networking
- Tailored additional support
On 13 June 2024, we officially launched the programme with a special event featuring our patron, Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal, who awarded certificates to young people from the 2023 Culture Exchange pilot. The event was held at The Talent House, a pioneering music and dance hub based at 3 Sugar House Lane in Stratford, home to East London Dance and UD, both Foundation for Future of London grant recipients.
Impact
- 100% accessed paid work experience, leading to increased employability and employment skills
- 90% improved confidence in creative practices and entrepreneurship
- 100% raised future aspirations
- 95% increased confidence in potential and self-initiative
This initiative embraced many of the Fund’s desired 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.
Feedback from programme participants articulates the impact of the pilot programme:
“I now feel my view on culture was limited before this programme. Going out of my city has expanded my thinking.”
“If you want to develop your skills and be in spaces that are creative and supportive, this space is for you. Everyone could be themselves and celebrate who they are, regardless of their background or starting point in life.”
“Getting the £5k and learning support has really taken my business to the next step.”
“I have met so many great people, I’m now being supported to make my own music EP”
