We are open to all kinds of projects and ideas, even if they are still early stage.

The only criteria are that:

• Your project benefits communities in Newham, Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest, and/or Hackney.

• You can demonstrate that your project will meet local needs

• You have lived experience or existing grassroots experience of these social issues

You do not need to be set up as a formal group or organisation to apply – in fact, we can help you to do this as part of your journey.

You need to be over 18 years old to participate and we ask that you are open to collaboration, peer to peer learning, and can commit to the full 6 months.

To apply to join Uplift, please complete the application form via the link on this page by midnight Friday 20th August.

By clicking ‘Apply now’ you’ll be redirected to the application form hosted on Typeform.

You’ll be asked a few initial questions about you and the project or idea you would like to submit.

We’ll then ask you to answer this simple, three-part question:

1 – Why do you want to be part of Uplift?

2 – What is your project or idea to uplift your community?

3 – What does #community mean to you?

More information on how to answer these questions is available in the application form.

The deadline for applications is midnight Friday 20th August.

Applications must be submitted via Typeform in full by this date to be accepted.

If you require support with your application please don’t hesitate to contact us – stuart@economyofhours.com

Uplift will start in early September 2021 and will run for 6 months until February 2022, with a short break over Christmas.

The cohort will be made up of 10 East London changemakers all keen to elevate their community projects or ideas to positively impact the lives of people in their neighbourhood.

With the help of our Uplift Steering Group (see below), we’ll carefully curate the cohort to ensure its balanced, diverse and inclusive whilst maximising opportunities for collaboration, knowledge sharing and mutual support.

You’ll join a collective of talented East London changemakers and be invited to shape your own journey with the Echo team, so it’s fit for purpose for your needs.

The 6-months will include access to expert-led workshops to help you build the core skills you need to make your project a success – including fundraising, branding, project planning, partnerships, social justice, leadership and much more.

Plus, there’ll be monthly peer-mentoring sessions, working collectively to solve challenges, share opportunities and maximise your impact together.

Echo’s peer to peer approach is our proven model for supporting community leaders to overcome challenges, improve their performance and set their projects up for future success.

We’ll also gift you a generous pot of Echoes to access the skills, services and help you need from 5,000+ Echo members ready to back your idea and our influential network of partners.

This could be anything from mentorship to graphic design and photography, branding to bid writing and everything in between.

We expect sessions will be a blend of online and offline (depending on government legislation at the time).

We may host some sessions online to make it easy to fit it into your day, but we’ll certainly get the cohort together in person for some of the sessions.

Where possible, we’ll take the preferences of the cohort members into account when selecting a time for the sessions.

Sessions may take place in the morning, lunchtime or evening depending on everyone’s availability. We’ll work with the group to understand what times work best, so everyone can attend.

Uplift is fully funded, so there is no charge to take part, but we ask for maximum commitment to the collective growth and that you attend the full 6 months.

Yes, if selected to join Uplift, you will need to commit to participating for the full 6-months.

We’ll encourage you to attend all the sessions to get the most out of the experience. The more time you can commit, the richer the experience you will have.

We have seed funding of up to £2,000 available to support projects to sustain and grow beyond the life of the 6-month journey. These will be available to all participating projects.

During the application process, you will be asked to outline briefly the types of costs you might encounter during the 6 months and beyond. Don’t worry this won’t be set in stone but does help us understand your needs. 

The funding can contribute towards any costs you may encounter during and even after the 6-months including but not limited to staff costs, volunteer expenses, services, materials or expertise.

If helpful, we can support you to create a spending plan, so you can get the most from the funding if that’s helpful.

We’ll also support you to use your Echoes (1 Echo = 1 hour) to access the skills, services and help you need from the Echo community to help your funding stretch further.

There may also be opportunities to collectively pool your funding with other project leaders to share resources and get a better deal e.g. local flyer drops, training or sharing printing costs, etc.

Echo is a community where people help each other by sharing skills and talents. There’s no money involved –  we use a currency called Echoes, where 1 Echo = 1 hour of your time.

As part of your journey, you’ll be gifted Echo currency to help you access the networks, skills and help you need to get your project or idea off the ground. 

Find out more about ‘How Echo Works’.

You can spend your Echoes on hours of skills, services, and expertise you need from the Echo community to help your project thrive.

You may need a photographer, help with graphic design, marketing, project management or everything in between. We’ll be on hand to help you connect with the right people.

We ideally want to support projects that are in their early stages. If you have received more than £10,000 for the project prior to this application then do get in touch before applying – stuart@economyofhours.com

Yes, ideally you’ll have a bank account separate from your personal one with at least two signatories.

If you don’t have this yet, you can still apply and we can help you with the process of getting set up.

Not necessarily. We appreciate that smaller, early-stage projects may not yet have full governance structures in place.

If you have them already, that’s a bonus. If you don’t, this is something we can support you with.

First and foremost, we are looking for the right projects led by passionate people, motivated to make their project a success and have a positive impact on the lives of those in their community.

This could be a standalone project run by an existing organisation or a new project led by an individual, handful of residents or community group.

Yes, we’re keen to support projects and ideas that are located in or benefiting people from the following local authorities Newham, Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest and/or Hackney.

If you have a project based in another area, there may be other ways we can support you. We recommend joining the Echo community to hear about the latest opportunities on offer to our members.

Echo believes that for local change to be effective, it needs to support local people and organisations to thrive, and communities need to be at the centre of any initiative, from start to finish.

To put this into action, we founded the Uplift Steering Group with the vision of amplifying resident, partner and other key local voices to have a say in how it is designed and who is accepted as a participant.

The group has representatives from the London Legacy Development Corporation, Lendlease, Here East, Triathlon Homes, Community Links, Rosetta Arts, Vine Connect, Queer Newham, Councillors and local residents.

The Steering Group will meet again in August once all the applications are in to shortlist and guide which projects are invited to join the cohort.