Empowering Safer Spaces campaign

In 2024, Foundation for Future London launched a new listening-led campaign to explore what safer spaces truly mean to young people and under-resourced, marginalised communities across East London.

Rooted in lived experience, the campaign is shaping a major funding application to support long-term, community-driven change. Our ambition is to build a sustainable, five-year network across the four Olympic legacy boroughs — designed from the ground up, with co-design, capacity-building and shared learning at its heart.

The campaign has unfolded through a series of community-focused activities:

Freedom of Information requests to London borough councils (January 2024)
Community consultation sessions (March 2024)
Young people’s language workshop (May 2024)
Consumer survey (June 2024)
Public panel event (September 2024)

This work is supported by Westfield Stratford City and has involved working with a range of stakeholders, including local authorities, community partners such as the University of East London, DICE, Social Ark, and the wider East London community, whose voices continue to guide and shape the campaign.

COLLABORATE: SAFER SPACES Commission

In 2025, we were pleased to launch COLLABORATE: SAFER SPACES Commission, which offered the opportunity for four teams to receive support and funding to develop collaborative ideas around the theme of “Safer Spaces,” as part of the Westfield East Bank Creative Futures Fund, supported by Westfield Stratford City and co‑funded by the Foundation for Future London.

Four shortlisted teams received up to £ 50k each in flexible funding, including a development grant. The commission provided the time and space to develop, test, and embed collaborative work alongside partners, with wrap-around, co-designed support across each stage of programme development. Teams worked in partnership with the Foundation for Future London throughout the process, developing sustainable collaborative approaches together and supporting project development away from the restrictions of rigid applications.

In response to feedback and input from our grantees, the Westfield East Bank Creative Futures Fund Community Grant Panel, and our Empowering Safer Spaces consultation, we then sought to commission new sustainable partner collaborations across East London to support more connected responses to this work.

At Foundation for Future London, we exist to empower East London communities. Collaboration — rooted in equity, trust and shared decision-making — has always been central to our funding approach. Through this commission, we are going further by offering flexible funding alongside wraparound support, enabling organisations and networks to strengthen their partnerships and deepen the long-term impact of their work.