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Six projects have been successful in winning funding in 2023-24

 The Community Engagement Seed Fund is a small grants scheme designed to support the development of engagement activities and partnership opportunities with east London communities.

We are delighted to announce the four successful grants in the 2023-2024 round of funding. Read more about their projects below.

Dieter Deswarte: Anthropology.

Queering the Narrative. ‘Queering the Narrative’ is a five-week documentary filmmaking course for young people aged 16-20 within the LGBTIQ+ community, designed to empower and represent this vibrant group. Working alongside east London partners, such as Friends of the Joiners Arms in Hackney, this project will aim to create a safe space and nurture the well-being of the young LGBTIQ+ participants in East London. In conjunction, the project will also organise five film screenings at the UCL East Cinema, featuring films that reflect and celebrate diverse LGBTIQ+ stories.

Ewan Soubutts: UCL Interaction Centre / Global Disability Innovation Hub

Equitable aging for older adults. This project aims to create a living lab-style community of minority ethnic older adults and deliver education around digital technologies and improve digital literacy. Partnering with AgeUK East London, they will co-design public engagement sessions to expose these older adults to novel technology and skills, which will be run at the UCL East MakeSpace. Along with an optional study workshop at 911±¬ÁÏÍø East Marshgate.

Ranjita Dhital: Arts and Sciences.

Reimagining community pharmacies counterculture. The community pharmacy is the most accessed health space we have globally. UCL East and its surrounding areas experience higher levels of health and social deprivation than other areas in London and the UK. The project, ‘Reimaging community pharmacies counterculture’, hopes to raise awareness on the value of community pharmacies and to optimise its spaces. Partnering with Bromley by Bow Centre, UCL East MASc in Creative Health, and purpleSTARS artists, they aim to codesign an exhibition as well as an interactive dialogue event to foster discussions on pharmacy spaces with local participants and explore ways to improve them.

Sarah Wolferstan: Institute of Archaeology

Community engagement through storytelling and archaeology in Whitechapel. UCL’s Archaeology South-East (ASE) will bring together UCL departments, storytellers, archaeologists, and heritage activists to co-produce the heritage interpretation of a complex and fascinating archaeological site at Stepney Way in Whitechapel. The site has a long history of occupation: London’s largest-known Iron Age settlements; a medieval manor; its first Tudor playhouse ‘The Red Lion’, and taverns that were the backdrop to many Londoners’ lives. This project will aim to grow local, national, and international understanding of the stories that are inspired by the site using community voices.

Sinead Harmey: Institute of Education

Write from the Beginning. The project ‘Write from the Beginning’, collaborates with the International Literacy Centre (UCL Institute of Education), Sheringham Nursery School and Children’s Centre, and the East London Research School to adopt a community of practice approach to support early literacy. Through workshops together, they will invite parents and caregivers to co-produce strategies to support young children’s writing. The workshops will be a welcoming space to both the caregivers and children as they put writing and family at its centre.

Eva Branscome: Bartlett School of Architecture

Focus at 10. With the proposed demolition of the old Stratford Centre, Eva Branscome’s project ‘Focus at 10’, will spotlight and celebrate stories, heritage, and the ongoing activism of those connected to the Stratford Centre and the local Stratford residents. Teaming up with East London partners, including Focus E15, a Newham social housing collective, they aim to foster a dialogue between grassroots groups and UCL academics. They will train participants in oral histories, enabling them to share and preserve their stories amid the ongoing re-development of

Visit the Community Engagement Seed Fund webpage for more information about the latest round of funding.

Email the community engagement team for more information.