Challenge London Legacy Funding

Our programme of support for place-based partnerships for the final year of Challenge London

2022 was the final year of Challenge London, A New Direction’s partnership investment programme. As the programme came to an end, our priority was to ensure place-based partnerships are prepared as a sector for the period from 2023 onwards.

To help with this transition period, we created two new strands of investment totalling £300,000. The Transition Fund, open to established Cultural Education Partnerships and other place-based partnerships, aimed to support preparations for next steps in partnerships’ work. The Powerful Partnerships Research Programme supported place-based partnerships to focus on one area of their practice, and develop approaches to evaluation and systems thinking in order to build sustainability.

Powerful Partnerships Research Programme

A New Direction worked with B&G Partners as Lead Researcher on an action research programme for place-based partnerships in London in 2022-2023. Through collaborations between four partnerships and matched researchers, partnerships involved local communities in tackling complex questions, building sustainability, and developing approaches to monitoring, evaluation and systems thinking.

Partnerships were awarded £10,000 to design, deliver, and document an action research project. Partnerships were matched with a researcher to help them explore their action research question. The full budget for this strand was £75,000, with projects running from May 2022 to February 2023.

You can find out more about the action research process, in this document put together by B&G partners.

Partnerships receiving funding:

  • Ealing

    Research question: How can EAHA understand ways to address local young people’s health and well-being through arts activities that are co-created with them?

    Project Leads: Naomi Healy and Tanya Taylor
    Researcher: Dr Carolyn Defrin

    Research activity:

    Co-created with young people aged 14-25 to develop the research, the approach and the evaluation, the work aimed to investigate and evidence how arts activity can address mental health issues for young people, identified as a top concern through consultation with local young people. EAHA worked with them to co-create and design a series of micro arts interventions that explored and expressed positive connections with the local environment. The research aimed to act as a case study for how such interventions and an asset-based, youth-led approach could help address feelings of disconnection and isolation; test the capacity of organisations that were part of EAHA to work together, and explore how outcomes of the research might contribute to the emerging field of social prescribing in the borough.

    Learn more about the action research project developed and what was learned from it.

  • Lambeth: Elevate and London South Bank University

    Research question: How can partnership-working enhance the referral process and retention of families with SEND children attending creative workshops?

    Project Leads: Elena Marchevska and Kristina Nilles
    Researcher: Dr Carolyn Defrin

    Research activity:

    Working with Whippersnappers, a Lambeth-based organisation that offers support for children with disabilities and their families, the partnership aimed to establish how services can best assist local families with SEND children to access creative opportunities. The research aimed to build an understanding of how families currently do this and how a social prescribing approach in the borough could support better access. The project tested the idea of documented “walking interviews” as a tool for peer-to-peer learning that Whippersnappers could employ in future. The research also aimed to build on the growing body of knowledge on creative futures for Lambeth’s children and young people and for creative approaches to their health and wellbeing. It was intended as a small case study and an opportunity for further discussion with Lambeth’s multi-agency teams and other creative and cultural partners to advocate for a more joined-up approach to this work.

  • Enfield

    Research question: What investment in leadership, skills and capacity building can best drive change and sustainable outcomes to take forward the vision of Enfield CEP?

    Project Lead: Francesca Chinnery

    Research activity:

    This action research project will establish a knowledge bank regarding the best methods for embedding sustainable change in the creative education ecosystem. It aims to uncover the impact of partnership work between schools and local creative organisations, the importance of systems thinking and communication, and the leverage power of small investments to catalyse wide-reaching change. Ultimately, this research project will ensure stronger links between schools and the local arts and heritage sector, provide more creative opportunities within local schools and outline a clear plan for developing the Enfield CEP into a sustainable entity for 2023-4 and beyond.

    Over the course of the programme, we will work with researcher Meg Peterson to establish a working group from the local creative sector, engage with schools and creative partners to draft an information sharing template for local provision and work towards a future action plan for 2023 onwards.

    The project will gather qualitative evidence on recent successes and challenges of cultural education provision to inform a future offer and develop evaluation practices for ongoing work. Existing networks of cultural organisations, creatives, and educators will be drawn into the project to best represent the Enfield cultural education landscape.

  • Greenwich

    Research question: What mechanisms can be used to foster more collaboration and increased engagement between schools and cultural organisations to have a greater impact on the lives of young people in Greenwich?

    Project Lead: Pragya Kumar
    Researcher: Dr Meg Peterson

    Research activity:

    The project aimed to identify both the barriers to cultural engagement that exist for local schools and the opportunities for widening participation through better partnership work with cultural organisations. Through the action research activity, schools and cultural organisations were encouraged to co-design potential cultural curriculums with young people. Through a needs assessment and a trial cultural offer to schools, the aim was then to help create an effective mechanism to support better cultural education partnerships working across the borough.

Transition Fund

This fund comprises £225,000 to invest in continuation grants (up to £15,000) for places to consolidate and sustain high-quality partnership working. The fund primarily targets ongoing support for places currently receiving partnership investment through Challenge London, or established Local Cultural Education Partnerships currently resourcing their work through other means. Transition Fund programmes will begin in June 2022 and run until February 2023, followed by evaluation in March 2023.

Partnerships receiving funding

11 by 11 Culture Bank

Offering 11 free outstanding cultural experiences to all children and young people in Islington by Year 11

Barnet and Culture for Youth

Bringing together educational & cultural expertise to benefit young people in Barnet

Camden Spark

Ensure young people can access the fantastic creative assets of Camden and London

Creative Wandsworth

Empowering young creatives, supporting schools, and piloting creative projects

East London Cultural Education Alliance (ELCEA)

An alliance of organisations aiming to maximise the impact of cultural education across East London

Haringey Creates

Working with partners across the borough to challenge long-entrenched disparities in educational achievement

Havering

Transforming the lives of Havering’s children and young people, and better promote the value of culture in education

Inspiring Futures

Accelerating & sustaining the impact of Barking & Dagenham’s Cultural Education Partnership

Making Sense

A new Local Cultural Education Partnership for Southwark developed in response to Covid-19 and Black Lives Matter

The South West London Music Education Partnership

Developing a digital strategy across South West London Music Education Partnership informed by pupil voice

Youth Culture Revolution Ealing

Providing a high-quality universal cultural offer for all children and young people in Ealing