The Digital Story Company project managed a 7-storey community mural project “The Priory Court Unity Banner” in the Priory Court Housing Estate in the London Borough of Waltham Forest. The project was funded by Clarion Futures with additional support from Wates Construction, Wood Street Walls, Impact Roofing and the London Borough of Waltham Forest. Priory Court is one of the most deprived housing estates in the UK with a history of gang crime and anti-social behaviour. This involved two paid training internships and two design and media workshops and estate wide consultation and focus groups to create the mural design. The internships resulted in getting two long term unemployed young people into paid work and opened professional opportunities for them. We had an official launch attended by over 80 local people from the estate and surrounding area. The Digital Story Company also successfully bid for Make it Happen Arts funding for another mural and media project “The Urban Fox” involving foster families from Waltham Forest, four paid traineeships for care leavers and 2 workshops for an additional 18 young people from the area. The project has been a co-creation with foster families and local media business Modular Media and arts practitioners Tom Static and Maggie Nightingale. The project is getting additional support from Blackhorse Creative Enterprise Zone, Clarion Futures and The London Borough of Waltham Forest.

The ideas for the “Priory Court Unity Banner” came from several estate-wide resident consultations, over 60 face-to- face interviews and several resident focus groups and workshops conducted by The Digital Story Company. Young people were taught a range of painting and animation techniques to demystify the creative process used by the mural artist INSA and feed in ideas for the final design. A Priory Court resident group, The Bees Knees, established for older residents to socialise and sew, contributed to the design by creating a series of appliques of foxes, which was used to fringe the mural design. Additional stakeholders were The London Borough of Waltham Forest who owned the property where we created the mural. The Urban Fox project has also involved over 60 residents in Higham Hill, in the London Borough of Waltham Forest, in the design consultation; foster families and paid trainees from the London Borough of Waltham Forest were involved the design process. Additional stakeholders were The London Borough of Waltham Forest who owned the property where we created the mural and who have funded the project through “Borough of Culture” funding. More details of each project are explained in our website https://www.thedigitalstorycompany.com/

At the end of the financial year the director Ms K Hampel is owed £188 (2024: £160) for costs accrued on various projects and Ms J Winstanley is owed NIL (2024: NIL) Ms K Hampel has not yet accrued any expenditure for her time on these projects.

No transfer of assets other than for full consideration