Supporting extraordinary entrepreneurs

Blackout Dance Camp CIC is a recognised emerging community dance educational provider in the field of Caribbean, Hip Hop, Vernacular and Commercial diasporic dance. They hope to evolve and flourish creative talent at an international scale and improve the quality of lives of their beneficiaries, including people from all backgrounds, but specifically from marginalised groups.

An important outcome of this enterprise will be the acceptance of emotional and mental health as a positive lifestyle choice, no less important than physical health. They offer a series of activities to support their aims including ceramic and clay classes and 8-week ‘Mindfulness based cognitive therapy’ classes. They offer places in their classes for free or partial payments to those in the community who are not in the position to pay for classes as well as full fee-paying participants. They are currently working with a local domestic violence organisation Sister Space and the yoga practitioners are truly reflective of the local community making them accessible and relatable.

Trying to address several issues in east London: waste management, social inclusion, community inclusion, youth unemployment, homelessness, poverty, environmental degradation, and mental health. They hope to help elevate these issues by collecting green garden waste, food waste from food retailers, homes and restaurants, waste construction wood and convert to compost, charcoal and other saleable commodities including organically produced vegetables furniture and timber. They will provide employment, counselling, and training to individuals on the margins of society.

The working day-to-day model is as a bakery and eatery, supplying baked goods and savouries to retail and wholesale customers in Hackney Wick and beyond. The social enterprise is focussing on regeneration: social, agricultural, and industrial, a bridge between local communities and engaging them on personal and local issues over communal food. Agricultural, supporting small-scale farms and regenerative agriculture to enable farming for a better future. Industrial training to employ unemployed young people to become a new generation of hospitality professionals with an interest in environmental impacts. They hope to create a new working model for fellow food businesses to demonstrate a healthy working environment for hospitality staff where wellbeing and individual needs are put first.

Skater Gals and Pals (SGP) works to achieve fair representation and bring more exposure and opportunities for marginalised communities in today’s skate culture. Their core principles include: community building, social prescribing and physical and mental wellbeing. To make skating accessible, SGP deliver weekly skate sessions, beginner sessions for families and kids and two skate programs for young girls in collaboration with Hackney Council and Poplar HARCA housing association. Moreover, SGP offers digital and physical safe meeting spaces for individuals experiencing marginalisation and discrimination to meet, share their experiences and uplift each other.