Community Engagement Seed Fund announces latest successful projects.

The Community Engagement Team are delighted to announce the successful awardees of the latest round of funding from the Community Engagement Seed Fund. The announcement comes after discussion with successful projects about mitigating factors to their projects as a result of covid-19.

The Community Engagement Seed Fund is designed to enable UCL staff and students, to develop relationships with partners in east London. The grants have been awarded to allow for development and/or delivery of projects in east London particularly those with partners from the Voluntary Community Sector. The projects must be related to the vision of UCL East and should uphold the principles of collaboration, co-production and mutual benefit with their identified partner. The latest funding cycle saw us fund four successful projects:

Michael Collins: History

Windrush Hackney. Oral Histories of Migration and Settlement through Cricket. Cricket was a game of immense social and cultural importance for the so-called Windrush generation that arrived in England from the Caribbean c. 1948-1973. The story of West Indian cricket has been told either as one of ‘national awakenings’ in the Caribbean, or through ‘white majority’ reactions to touring West Indies teams. This project focuses on the Hackney Windrush generation’s own experience of organising and playing cricket in England. Catalysing interactions between UCL and local Hackney communities (through project partners Hackney Museum and Hackney council), the project would facilitate oral history interviews that produce new histories of migration.

Claire McAndrew: Bartlett School of Architecture

Enabling community-led perspectives on Housing with Automation. Growing out of a community partnership building event in July 2019, which sought to identify areas of mutual interest at the cross-over of architectural design, construction, AR and robotics, relevant to east London communities. This project will explore how our built environment and living spaces could be different if our domestic spaces were not static structures that are left to stand unoccupied while we are away. Working with a range of community partners in Hackney including both local authority and community sector representatives the project will explore how ‘ALIS’ (a modular housing prototype that uses robotic fabrication to create its building elements) could be used locally.

Hannah Sender: Institute of Global Prosperity

Youth prosperity in Action: defining youth prosperity in Hackney to improve outcomes for young people in the area. A team from Institute for Global Prosperity and youth charity Hackney Quest will involve young people (between 15-18 years old) who live in Hackney with a research and engagement project, training them up as citizens scientists to explore local issues of youth prosperity. Partnering with Hackney Quest, City Academy, Cardinal Pole Catholic School and the London Prosperity Board this project builds on a project previously funded by UCL Culture, ‘The Good Life in Hackney’, which laid the groundwork for defining youth prosperity. This second phase of research and engagement will use the prototype as a guide and allow the project to work with new partners.

Valerio Signorelli: Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis

RE-Invent: Archipelago. This project will employ web-based digital tools to enable audiences to engage with the V&A Museum of Childhood collections and a series of specially commissioned artworks during an extended period of building closure and social distancing. The CASA team is exploring solutions to enable more people to access the project using web-based solutions accessible form different devices and platforms - via pc, tablet or phone - and to provide a platform for a digital reimagining of the RE-Invent programme, ensuring the museum and collections stay accessible to local families in Tower Hamlets.

If you would like to know more about the Community Engagement Seed Fund or other work by the Community Engagement Team email the team on engagement-east@ucl.ac.uk.