APPLICATIONS NOW OPEN

Discover Young Hackney 2024

Bringing arts and culture to Hackney’s young people.

Now in its 17th year, Discover Young Hackney is set to deliver another youth arts and culture programme encouraging thousands of young people to be creative and to discover pathways into training and careers in the arts, through an exciting programme of workshops and activities.

Cultural organisations and companies in Hackney will have the opportunity to deliver high-quality activities aimed at local young people ages 15-26 including those with SEND through the Discover Young Hackney Grants Scheme.

The Hackney Council initiative aims to develop creative arts and cultural skills, and experiences that young people can add to their CVs. These should include hard skills and/or soft skills. It also aims to develop creativity in young people and break down social and practical barriers in the arts.

Every year, thousands of local young people have the opportunity to choose, often for the first time, a free or low-cost experience. Artforms often include theatre, music, dance, visual arts, podcasting, and production. Recent activities included ceramic workshops, AI dance workshops and behind the scenes of an opera production.

The Context in 2024

In order to provide opportunities for young people in the ever-evolving arts and cultural sector, this year's programme is particularly interested in those who develop arts and cultural skills and experiences that young people can add to their CVs. All proposals will be considered if they meet all of the eligibility criteria.

Discover Young Hackney Grants Application Form Guidance Notes

Criteria

We seek applications that meet all of the following criteria: 

  • Offer a high-quality arts experience between Thursday, 1 August 2024 to Sunday, 1 September 2024

  • Target young people:

    • Most participants must be aged 15-26

    • Activities have the option to be suitable for those with SEND

    • Who live, work or learn in Hackney

  • Must develop arts and cultural skills and experiences that young people can add to their CVs

  • Skills should include hard skills and/or soft skills. Hard skills will be more desirable to your application.

  • Offer good value for money, accurate budgets and realistic outputs and outcomes 

  • Support activities to broaden young people’s experience of different art forms, practices and traditions

  • Produce an effective marketing campaign to promote your activity to your audience

  • Provide evaluation feedback with photos and demographic information of participants in the provided forms

Eligibility

  • Cultural organisations and companies must be based in, or working in the London Borough of Hackney (LBH)

  • Proposals can be an extension of existing activity (optional)

  • Proposals must aim to develop arts and cultural skills and experiences that young people can add to their CVs

  • All activities, workshops or events should be free or low-cost. 

  • Applications can be made for awards between £500 and £6,000.

  • Applications from sole organisations can apply for awards of up to £2,000.

  • Joint applications can apply for between £2,000 and £6,000. Joint applications are more than one organisation producing an activity. This must include a lead organisation as the applicant.

  • All applications must include a minimum match-funding of 10% of the overall project costs, in-kind or in cash. 

  • All projects must be delivered between the programme dates.

Marketing

Successful applicants must have their own marketing campaign alongside the council's Discover Young Hackney campaign. All marketing promotions must be signed off by a Council officer. For your marketing campaign to be successful, you must: 

  • Promote your activity where you have a reach - social media, print material or through other organisations /networks. 

  • Provide a Council officer with your promotional copy and images ahead of our marketing campaign in July 2024. We expect all photos, posters and flyers to be high-quality. 

  • Organisations will be responsible for providing a Council officer with their social media handle(s) and website. Please ensure your website and booking links are up-to-date and active by 30 June 2024. This also includes any external sites/pages (i.e. Eventbrite). 

  • All Organisations must be ready to accept expressions of interest/ bookings by July 2024. 


Discover Young Hackney’s marketing campaign will include logos from funded organisations.

A communications guide will be provided along with the contract agreement. 

Payment

Organisations can receive up to 50% of their grant, ahead of completing their project, once the following is completed:

  • Promotional material for the project is complete and approved by an LBH officer.

  • Booking information is live

  • The requested documents listed in the offer letter are received by an LBH officer.

  • The contract agreement is signed and returned

This is available on request, and at least 7 working days before your activity start date. Otherwise, funds will be paid on completion of the project and once the data provided for the evaluation is satisfactory. 

London Borough of Hackney (LBH) reserves the right to award part of the grant, or not award any funding if an applicant cannot demonstrate how the amount they have applied for will be spent.

Please note that the grant amount awarded to a successful applicant is final after issuing a grant offer letter.

Successful applicants will also be expected to provide the following:

  • A copy of the organisation’s constitution

  • A copy of the financial year-end accounts

  • A copy of the organisation’s latest bank statement

  • Child protection policy and DBS numbers

  • Your organisation logo. It must either be an .AI or .PNG format

Who can apply 

Not-for-profit organisations are invited to apply for an award in order to run activities during Discover Young Hackney 2024. Joint applications are welcome as we are keen to encourage skills sharing. The ‘lead organisation’ in a joint application is the applicant. The lead applicant cannot submit more than one application. Individuals (a sole person) cannot apply for funding, however, they may work in partnership with an organisation. Please speak with us first before submitting your application if your joint application includes an individual.

We will ask successful organisations to sign a written agreement with the London Borough of Hackney. The document will set out the terms and conditions of the award.

Successful applicants will need to ensure their project is ready to be promoted by July 2024. If your event details are not finalised by this date, your written agreement will be vulnerable to termination.

Please note that risk assessments, Child Protection conditions, applications for licenses and public liability insurance will be the responsibility of the grant recipient. We do not fund activities retrospectively. 

How to apply 

The Discover Young Hackney programme is overseen by the Hackney Council’s Culture team. Please get in touch at culture@hackney.gov.uk for further enquiries and more information. 

If your organisation is interested in applying for an award, please submit your online application by midnight, Sunday 7 April 2024. All questions can be viewed in advance HERE. 

All application submissions must be made through Google Forms.

We will notify you of the decision on your application by 23 April 2024. Successful projects must deliver and complete their project within the month of August 2024.