Annual Report 2023-24

We are delighted to present our Annual Report for 2023-24, which documents our achievements and the wide range of successful programmes, projects, commissions and collaborations we’ve enabled as a sustainable development charity for East London. 

As a sustainable and ethical fundraiser, we invest in the peoples and places of the London Boroughs of Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest, focused explicitly on creating opportunities for local people in the arts, culture, heritage, sport, education, creative sector, innovation and creative placemaking.

Our highlights include: 

• Launch of a new five-year Strategic Plan for 2024–29, with a new team structure and growth
• Launch and unveiling of the first UK Cultural Exchange Programme pilot and documentary
• Midpoint Westfield East Bank Creative Futures Fund celebration event with over 60 stakeholders held at Coppermaker Square
• Launch of Empowering Safer Spaces campaign with key research findings and community consultation workshops
• Funded 2023 Great Get Together in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park
• The community network has grown to over 400 grassroots organisations
• Key thought leadership pieces in national and regional press with over 1mn audience reach
• £50k awarded to Seats at the Table by Re-Fabricate and The DisOrdinary Architecture Project as part of the ‘Co-Designing Equity in the Public Realm’ competition
• Launched first participatory grants panel
• £2,487,665 awarded to 100 community organisations and individuals
• Connecting People and Places Collaborative Commissions 2023 awarded £154,960
• Collaboration with Lendlease to facilitate grassroots organisation productions for StratfordCross opening
• Joint strategic and operational team activities with the EastBank team to establish and test new ways of workingCollaborative workshop held with the Colombian Embassy and the Weavers of Mampuján

The report highlights the significant highlights of our two key grantmaking programmes: the five-year £10mn Westfield East Bank Creative Futures Fund, which is now entering its fifth year and made possible through our partnership with Westfield Stratford City, and our vital partnership with the City of London Corporation, which delivered a £1mn four-year programme (2019-2023) on creative education, skills and learning.

For the Westfield East Bank Creative Futures Fund, we feature the following projects as case studies:

• UK Culture Exchange 2023
• Ruff Sqwad, Discuss and Devour
• The Line, Visible/Invisible
• Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair, Young London Print Prize
• The Samosa Media Charity, More in Common Than Divides Us

For the Foundations Programme, we present case studies on the following projects:

• Co-Lab Programme
• Fusion Futures
• East Bank SEEDED
• Co-Designing Equity in the Public Realm

To request alternative versions of this report, please get in touch with us at info@future.london. 

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