Heritage Programme

About this programme

Our Heritage Programme invites diverse youth organisations that work with young people aged 13-19 to discover their cultural heritage through dance, food, music, and crafts. This unique programme is designed to help them connect with their roots, explore the fascinating stories and traditions of their communities, and lead a creative project that showcases their findings. The Heritage Programme is made possible with The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Thanks to National Lottery players.

Skills Taster Day

The programme kicks off with a skills taster day, an immersive experience that forms an integral part of the Heritage Programme, aimed at introducing young people to the rich skills within diverse heritages. It serves as a gateway for exploration and discovery, allowing participants to engage with various skills linked to heritage, including drumming, food, craft, and dance.

Oral History Workshops

Once young people have a broader understanding of the vibrant heritages in their communities and what skill they would like to learn more about, they will receive oral history workshops. Here, they learn about the importance of preserving stories by visiting a local archive, how to ethically conduct interviews and ultimately interview community members around their chosen topic. These experiences will give your group an opportunity to rediscover the skills that have shaped their community and contributed to their own cultural identity.

Whether it’s discovering traditional dance moves, learning about the importance of authentic recipes, playing traditional instruments, or creating beautiful crafts, our programme offers a unique way to explore heritage and understand that it belongs to everyone in this city.

Our partners

With training and support from London Youth and our experienced partners from On the Record, Museum of Youth Culture, Eat Club, YSM8, Kinetika Bloco and ZooNation we will guide youth workers and their group of young people through the process.

Why get involved

As an organisation, you will be able to build capacity by adopting new opportunities to engage young people in heritage and receive up to £3,000 to participate and invest in equipment to continue this important work.

Your young people will have the chance to connect with the diverse members of their community and share their stories and experiences in creative and empowered ways.

We believe that heritage is for everyone and that by preserving and celebrating this, we can collectively become stronger and create a brighter future for generations to come. Our programme provides a platform for young people to discover their cultural roots and contribute to the preservation of their community’s heritage.

The Heritage programme aims to especially work with organisations from funding cold spots, so we have narrowed down the delivery for this pilot year to the following boroughs: Haringey, Redbridge, Harrow, Ealing, Hounslow, Brent, Enfield, and Newham.

For any further questions please email cassie.doerfler@londonyouth.org

Thanks to National Lottery players.