Making Great Communities Incubator

Hey there! This is an inspirational pitch to all the idea makers, movers and shakers, community advocates, friendly-faces… To all those campaigners, eco warriors, supportive faces, advocates for change… To all of you who wish for more positivity, see the potential in people and places, to those who car and want to make impact (however small)… Then this is a call out to YOU!

Do you have an idea that would help make your community great? Then we want to meet you! Sign up to the Making Great Communities Incubator: enrol here

Whatever your community, whatever your idea of doing good is, this 6 week Incubator is designed to support you to build a robust project, a project that has the legs to go far, be real, do good. And with the opportunity to pitch for seed funding from a pot of £10,000, we want to help you make it happen, for real!

This project Incubator is all about what YOU wanna do. Nobody else. We are here to help you progress your ideas, support you to make your observations, insights about your community, or make your hopes and dreams a reality for the people you share your life with.

We have money to support your ideas and mentors who can help you make these ideas happen. Having a mentor helps you learn, develop, grow and feel supported and feel accountable. Mentoring helps you network and build relationships, and ultimately, mentors are really nice to you and want to help however they can – great! Sign you up you say, ok sign up here.

By signing up and taking part you will meet other likeminded students who have great ideas (or tiny, minuscule and half baked ideas), and work with each other and experts to see ideas become fully formed. You will learn what it takes to run a project, be organised, tell your story well, and build contingency. You will be supported to build connections, network and make the links you need to make things happen – Thats right, YOU will do all that. We believe in you and so do our group of fantastic mentors…

So, meet the exciting group of mentors who will lead you through this project and who you will be paired with:

Oladamola Babalola (Mr. Babz) is a cancer survivor who founded and has successfully been running a 10 + years ‘award winning’ social enterprise called Freshrb. Freshrb innovatively uses media as a tool to raise the awareness of health conditions and galvanises public engagement with health themes & research.

Mimi Dearing is the founder of Get It Done, a community arts organisation that produces creative projects to drive positive social impact, and supports young changemakers to lead their own community initiatives. 

Laura Negus is a socially engaged ceramicist. She works with community groups and charities, focusing on the positive impact working with clay can have on our wellbeing and mental health. She is experienced in working with volunteers and supporting people through recovery.

Audrey Albert is a visual artist whose research-led practice enables her to consider and investigate themes of mixed identities, collective memory and displacement. Born in Mauritius with Chagossian heritage, Albert’s practice is socially engaged and community based. Audrey is also a creative facilitator, hosting photographic workshops around identity, memory, and notions of home.

So, maybe you want to advocate for people or for a place, maybe you want to make change for the greater good, maybe you want to support others or build relationships, maybe you want to help out where you see inequalities, maybe you want to campaign for people’s rights or for the climate. We don’t know what you might bring, but everything is WELCOME!