More information about the programme

Challenge London is a new four-year joint investment programme managed by A New Direction with funds from Arts Council England.

London’s cultural heritage, artistic and creative opportunities are rich and varied. As Londoner’s we can access world-class and cutting edge experiences in concert halls, arenas, parks and streets. However, we’re also a city with challenges of inequality, and we know that not everyone always feels empowered to shape culture and be involved with the breadth of opportunities available.

Through Challenge London we will invest £900,000 in partnership work in London between 2018 and 2022, to move towards our ambition of all young people being able to develop their creativity and play an active part in the culture and heritage of the city. For every £1 we invest, we’ll ask a partner investor to contribute another £1, doubling the pot.

A New Direction have identified six key areas we think affect young people’s capacity to be creative in our city. These represent the starting point for Challenge London. They are:

• Fairness
• Wellbeing
• Influence and power
• New London
• Preparing for work
• Pressures on institutions

You can find more about the focus and underlying evidence for these themes here.

In identifying these themes we have started from a range of reports and documentation, and our experience of working with young people and those professionals supporting them in London.

A New Direction is the lead organisation for Challenge London and seed financial support from Arts Council England is in place. Organisations are invited to become part of the Challenge by proposing, developing and delivering programmes and interventions which would help further the aims of the programme over the medium to long-term.

A New Direction will work alongside a Challenge Group and Young Challenge Group to steer the programme and help us make investment decisions.

To be eligible to apply to Challenge London, applicants had to:

• Demonstrate how their initiative would deliver against all of our programme aims, and address one or more of our identified themes
• Be based in London
• Be able to demonstrate matched funding from other sources (100% financial rather than in-kind)
• Have a clear period of activity which will be supported by investment from A New Direction that lasts between one and three years
• Include at least three partners (and organisations) and have a nominated lead partner who will act as the main point of contact
• The lead partner must be a registered charity or able to demonstrate it is non-profit distributing
• Show that young people have/will take a leadership role in developing and delivering the initiative
• Demonstrate the necessary expertise within your partnerships to contribute significantly to the cultural and creative education landscape
• If not a new initiative, show how a grant from the Challenge will bring about a step-change in your impact, and build sustainability or capacity within your group to continue to deliver for children and young people

Please note: applications to Challenge London are now closed. A New Direction are investing in 5 places through Strand 1 of the programme - you can find out more about these programmes here. Expressions of interest for Strand 2 closed on Monday 12 November. Strand 2 investments will be announced in April 2019.

Proposals to Challenge London must demonstrate match investment to an equivalent amount to that requested from A New Direction. We’re particularly interested in opportunities to unlock new investment opportunities for arts and cultural activity. The parallel investment cannot be in-kind or originating from other Arts Council sources, for example from Youth Music, National Lottery Project Grants or National Portfolio investment.

We’d love to hear from other organisations who offer investment whose work connects with ours to discuss opportunities to work together. Please get in touch with Corinne Bass.

Follow us on Twitter: ‪@A_New_Direction

Contact: A New Direction, 3rd Floor
, 20–26 Brunswick Place, London N1 6DZ.

Tel: 020 7608 2132

Email: hasina.allen@anewdirection.org.uk

Between 2015 and 2018 A New Direction invested almost £900,000 in initiatives through our London Cultural Education Challenge. We’re interested to build on this work through Challenge London. You can find out more about the London Cultural Education Challenge and the programmes in which we invested here.