Vine Connect

Husband and wife David and Esana have run a successful community group for the last 5 years for families in Hackney, Newham and Tower Hamlets. When it outgrew their living room, rather than turn people away they decided to pay out of their own pockets to hire a larger space at local community centre Hub67 in Hackney Wick.

They know that without community support they wouldn’t be who they are today and that’s why they’ve created a new grassroots project called Vine Connect with friend Shakirat. They are all passionate about helping young people (age 16 to 24) living in 3 of the most deprived boroughs in London to find suitable employment, training or to start on their own career path.

By raising awareness and signposting young people to the organisations and opportunities already available to them, including paid apprenticeships and free workshops and courses, they hope to decrease the unemployment rate amongst the younger population, improve community relation between young residents and local businesses, and encourage young people away from gang activity.  

They are currently going from strength to strength with the help of their grant and are keen to work with Echo members to help them refine their story into a clear narrative and build their online presence to boost their profile.

Queer Newham

Queer Newham is on a mission to create a safe space for LGBTQ+ residents, their families, supporters and allies to come together and explore the gender and sexual diversity that exists not only around the world but in the borough of Newham.

Thanks to the grant and Echo’s support, they have launched Queer Cinema, a monthly screening of LGBTQ+ short films and documentaries with special guests and interactive discussions.

The first session took place during February’s LGBT History Month and 9 more screenings of outstanding LGBTQ+ documentaries and short films are scheduled each month at Stratford Library.

Each screening is followed by the opportunity to meet others and explore the different topics raised in the films with guest speakers and local role models from different cultures, religions and beliefs who are invited to share their own journey with their identity.

Queer Newham aims to challenge prejudice and negative stereotypes by creating a safe space where people are encouraged to be themselves, offering resources on how to navigate a world that still struggles to accommodate difference.  make space for celebrating aspects of our identity that are often hidden, reducing isolation and supporting the well-being of participants by exposing them to role models, creating a safe space.

East Village Parent Club

The East Village Parent Club (EVPC) is a group for new parents who may be feeling low, lost or lonely, to come together to meet other new parents and their children in the East Village in Stratford.

It’s for new mums and dads who would like to get out of the house, but not go too far and are keen to meet the neighbours on their doorstep – creative parents, single parents, gay parents, amazing babies, future friends, completely inclusive.

After recently having a baby herself and realising there was a lack of parent groups in her local area, Chloe felt she’d take the initiative to come up with something, rather than wait for someone else to do it.

It started out small but the group keeps growing so Chloe’s moving into The Hall, a new community centre in the heart of the village providing a welcoming space for new parents who are feeling overwhelmed and lonely to pop along for a coffee and a chat.

Chloe now wants to bring in guest speakers to inspire and inform the parents on a whole host of topics to support more parents in the area.

The Palace Club

The Palace Club is a free social club for over 65-year-olds in the borough of Hackney who find themselves increasingly isolated and lonely. The club meets every Tuesdays, 10.30-1.30pm at Chats Palace in Homerton, providing a stimulating and enjoyable class designed to bring them together and improve the well-being of this vulnerable group.

The club is open to everyone currently supports around 20 elders who come to socialise and learn new hobbies. At the end of each weekly session, the participants all sit down together to share a delicious, nutritious home-cooked lunch and enjoy a slice of entertainment provided by local project partners.

Underpinning the project is a volunteer programme aimed at local people, who are invited to support run the club and socialise providing an opportunity for cross-generational interaction, support and learning.

The Palace Club is now hosting a number of drop-in workshops over the next few months thanks to the generosity of the Echo members. So far, they have had singing lessons, art and dance classes, with more planned. If you’d like to run a class for the elders or volunteer please get in touch.  

The Committee E20

The Committee is a programme set up by The Yard Theatre in Hackney Wick for 15-19-year-olds who are invited to shape the performance world to change the future of theatre for young people.

They meet fortnightly at The Yard, London’s livest theatre to learn creative producing skills, build friendships and creative networks and to genuinely lead on a series of authentic projects with The Yard’s producing team.

Their next big project is to work with The Yard to open a brand new creative community centre in East London. Rather than simply running another tired consultation exercise, they are tasking The Committee to design and deliver a creative engagement and research project in the East Village to improve people’s knowledge of the village and its needs, whilst giving young people crucial skills training with industry professionals… and free pizza, confidence-building and creative development opportunities.   

The Committee E20 will work over 12 months to create, implement and report on an insight-gathering programme, compromising of public events, pop-up installations, meetings and relationship-building and the design and dissemination of findings.

The programme will be owned by the young people, designed by their ideas and ensure that the new community centre caters for the needs of young people in the area.