2025 winners and bursaries
Bealies Adaptive Wear
Bealies Adaptive Wear designs and produces adaptive casualwear for wheelchair users and disabled people. The brand operates an online store and is now preparing to scale through a rebrand and the launch of new products to stay aligned with mainstream fashion trends.
Mission: to pioneer inclusive fashion through thoughtful, functional design that breaks down barriers and makes style accessible to everyone.
Founder: Caron Mcluckie
DBACE funding: £16,000
Website: www.bealiesadaptivewear.co.uk
Instagram: @bealiesadaptive
Black Girl Knit Club
Black Girl Knit Club is an East London collective which aims to empower Black women and women of colour through creativity and community. By teaching hand knitting and hosting workshops and talks.
Mission: to gather and unite a community of Black women and girls through the power of craft, creating a safe, inclusive space to build confidence, celebrate identity and creativity, and empower and spotlight Black makers in the craft industry.
Co-founders: Sicgmone Kludje and Vanessa Koranteng
DBACE funding: £9,000
Website: www.blackgirlknitclub.com
Instagram: @blackgirlknitclub
LinkedIn: Black Girl Knit Club
Content is Queen
Content is Queen connects diverse audio creators with brands and commissioners through a transparent marketplace, making it easier to discover, hire, and monetise talent globally.
Mission: to help overlooked global creators build sustainable audio careers. We unlock untapped audiences for brands, enabling them to achieve better return on investment by breaking out of the echo chamber of closed networks.
Founder: Imriel Morgan
DBACE funding awarded: £10,000
Website: contentisqueen.org
Instagram: @contentisqueenhq
LinkedIn: Content is Queen
Eloquent Dance Company
Eloquent Dance is a Birmingham-based, award-winning arts organisation that empowers young people, mainly from African Caribbean and dual heritage backgrounds, through dance, music, and cross-artform projects. It creates accessible pathways from participation to professional careers, using cultural heritage as a source of creative strength.
Mission: to combine high-quality dance training with personal development, creative industry pathways, and community impact. Creating spaces where individuals build confidence, skills, and purpose for life and career.
Founder: Romanah Buchanan
DBACE funding awarded: £15,000
Website: www.eloquentdance.com
Instagram: @eloquentdanceco
LinkedIn: Eloquent Dance
Secure Storyteller Network
Secure Storyteller Network (SSN) supports filmmakers working in high-risk environments with digital security training, safety protocols, and resources. Partnering globally, SSN centers underrepresented voices and helps media adopt secure, ethical practices to ensure safe and sustainable storytelling.
Mission: to defend creative freedom by equipping filmmakers and content creators with practical security skills, ensuring marginalised voices can tell their stories safely—turning vulnerability into resilience in the face of censorship and surveillance.
Founder: Kit Hung
DBACE funding awarded: £10,000
LinkedIn: Kit Hung
DBACE 2025 bursaries
As part of the DBACE programme’s wider support offering, this year an extra five bursary memberships with
MeWe360 were offered to creative entrepreneurs who drive social impact through their enterprise. The 12-month membership provides tailored business support to develop the entrepreneur and help them achieve their enterprise’s next milestones.
Absolute Beginners CIC
Absolute Beginners CIC is a new kind of factory in North West London where local 17-21-year-olds are paid to learn how to design and make everyday products from waste materials. The goal is to equip young people with future-ready skills while promoting radically sustainable production.
Mission: to empower young people to create everyday products using radically sustainable methods, equipping them with the skills for meaningful careers, and reimagining how we make what we need without harming the planet.
Founder: Tom James
Website: https://absolute-beginners.info
Instagram: @a_beginners_
LinkedIn: Absolute Beginners
CALACA Press
CALACA Press is a publishing studio based in London, dedicated to developing interdisciplinary projects led by Latin American creatives. They produce books, magazines, moving image works, and public programmes that engage communities in dialogue around culture, identity, and territory.
Mission: to amplify the voices of the Latin American diaspora in the UK through interdisciplinary publications, moving image works, and public programmes that challenge misrepresentation and create spaces for dialogue around identity, territory, and culture.
Founder: Pedro Resendez
Website: calaca.press
Instagram: @calacapress
LinkedIn: CALACA Press
Co Labs
Co Labs is a professional music development programme for young creatives who have undergone treatment for cancer and/or long term health conditions.
Mission: to empower young creatives who have undergone life-altering diagnosis and treatment through artistic, practical, and emotional support, fostering creativity, building community, and driving change in aftercare policies for those recovering from such treatments.
Founder: Stac Dowdeswell
Website: www.colabsmusic.com
Instagram: @co_labs__
C(re)ate
C(re)ate is an online platform serving as a community hub, knowledge hub, and marketplace. It facilitates communication, knowledge exchange, and material reuse within arts sectors.
Mission: to reduce waste production in the arts industry by fostering a community of organisations working together to create a more circular economy.
Co-founders: Chloé Cornell and Valentina Miranda
Instagram: @we.are.create_
You Press
You Press is a youth-led social enterprise empowering underrepresented young people through training, storytelling, and paid creative work. They offer leadership programs and a creative agency, helping ages 13-30 build sustainable careers while delivering high-quality content for social clients.
Mission: to use creative arts and writing to help individuals find their voice, share their stories, and be heard — believing in the power of words and stories to change lives for the better.
Founder: Farah Mohammoud
Website: www.youpress.org.uk
Instagram: @you_press
LinkedIn: You Press
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