Social Engagement and Enterprise Awards

Project summary

Building on Culture Access’s illustrated cookbook, the project brings together migrant food cultures, disability justice and collective care through practical cooking workshops and inclusive media production. It explores how food can become a shared space for accessible learning, storytelling and community knowledge.

Watch the pilot Youtube episode here.

Image courtesy of Something Nice.

Project Summary

Project summary

The project evolved from a series of textile workshops that Professor Jorella Andrews began facilitating for members of Red Ribbon Living Well (RRLW) in 2021. RRLW is Lewisham-based Community Interest Company founded by African immigrants Husseina and Florence Daada in 2009 to support people from the African Diaspora living with HIV. Over time, these workshops enabled members to learn or reconnect with skills in sewing, knitting, crochet, and jewellery-making, igniting a passion for creativity, and boosting self-esteem. In 2025, eleven members began to identify as artists and makers with the desire to start out in creative business.  

‘Crafting Creative Entrepreneurship’ launched with a 10-week training course, “How to run your own creative enterprise”. This ran from 28 April-30 June 2026. Co-designed to meet the needs of RRLW members, it offered high quality, interactive business training structured around four priorities: Make it Visionary, Make it Enterprising, Make it Ethical, and Make it Legal, alongside facilitated in-person and online peer support. 

Given the economic challenges facing migrants—which may include limited employment options due to health, childcare, and legal hurdles, as well as language barriers—an important aim of the course, and of the project more broadly, is to help migrants navigate UK legal, employment, and social welfare systems while creating their own pathways of opportunity.  

Our expert trainers include Loretta Awuah, Strategic Business Support Manager at GLL, Siân Prime FRSA, Academic Lead: Enterprise and Head of Creative Economy and Cultural Entrepreneurship at Goldsmiths, Katy Clinch, Retail Manager at the Migration Museum Shop, and Chartered Management Accountant and Consultant Folake Ogundele of May and Moy Business Services Ltd.   

In the project’s second phase (1 July-31 December 2026), with input from Dr. Susan Kelly (Art) and Dr. Janna Graham (Visual Cultures), we will develop a Curriculum and Toolkit that other interested migrants and migrant groups can test, adapt and use.   

Our report and exhibition will communicate project insights to wider audiences and test the project’s underlying hypothesis: that the seemingly precarious strategy of blending creativity with entrepreneurship can offer resilient economic and social solutions. In this way we also wish to highlight the leadership potential of migrant founders in times of hardship.  

Project summary

The project includes co-design workshops, four youth playtesting sessions, knowledge exchange events, iterative redesign, and the creation of a final downloadable toolkit hosted on MRN’s website. The result will be a scalable, low-cost educational model that strengthens young people’s political literacy, supports democratic agency, and equips practitioners with practical tools to challenge harmful migration narratives.