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2025-07-31-accounts

Trustees' Annual Report for the period

Period start date Period end date 01 08 2024 31 07 2025 From To

Section A Reference and administration details

Charity name Intercultural Roots for Public Health

Other names charity is known by Intercultural Roots (IR / IRPH)

Registered charity number (if any) 1179885

Charity's principal address Flat 133, Thanet House

Thanet Street London Postcode WC1H 9QE

Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity

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20		 Trustee name Office (if any) Dates acted if not for whole
year		 Name of person (or body) entitled
to appoint trustee(if any)
Lynette Hunter Chair Membershipat AGM
Maryam Seif Saeidi Treasurer
Regina Gutiérrez Secretary
Alex Boyd Executive
Director
Dylan Bolles
Savita Rani
Deepa Mahadevan
Peter Atsu Adaletey
Peter-Rockford Ututau
Espiritu
Kevin O’Connor

Names of the trustees for the charity, if any, (for example, any custodian trustees)

Name Dates acted if not for whole year

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Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)

Type of adviser Name Address

Name of chief executive or names of senior staff members (Optional information)

Section B Structure, governance and management

Description of the charity’s trusts

Type of governing document

Constitution adopted 14 September 2017

(eg. trust deed, constitution) Charitable Incorporated Organisation How the charity is constituted

Elected by members at AGM Trustee selection methods

Additional governance issues (Optional information)

You may choose to include additional information, where relevant, about:

SEE ANNUAL REPORT

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Section C Objectives and activities

FOR THE PUBLIC BENEFIT, TO PROMOTE COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN HEALTHY RECREATION BY: * PROMOTING PARTICIPATION IN TAI CHI, YOGA, PILATES AND DANCE * ADVANCING EDUCATION IN THE BENEFITS OF HEALTHY RECREATION Summary of the objects of the * PROMOTING BEST PRACTICE IN THE DELIVERY OF TAI CHI, YOGA, charity set out in its PILATES AND DANCE. governing document * TO PROMOTE FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE PUBLIC, THE CONSERVATION, PROTECTION, AND IMPROVEMENT OF THE PHYSICAL AND NATURAL ENVIRONMENT, THROUGH THE PROVISION OF OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES, RESIDENCIES, AND RESEARCH, AND TO PUBLISH THE RESULTS Through the year, especially during planning meetings, the trustees have taken into account the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit (ref. ‘public benefit requirement’, The Charities Act, 2011)

SEE ANNUAL REPORT

Summary of the main activities undertaken for the public benefit in relation to these objects (include within this section the statutory declaration that trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit)

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Additional details of objectives and activities (Optional information)

SEE ANNUAL REPORT

You may choose to include further statements, where relevant, about:

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Section D Achievements and performance

Summary of the main SEE ANNUAL REPORT achievements of the charity during the year

Section E Financial review

At the end of the financial year there was £6,471 in the bank. £3,285 are Brief statement of the non-restricted funds and £3,186 are restricted funds and being held in charity’s policy on reserves reserve. In line with our Reserves Policy, during 2024/25 further reserves are being accumulated to ensure the running costs of the organisation can be met up to one year in advance. This allows us to offer events on a ‘donation only’ basis which removes financial barriers to participation and opens access to all.

Details of any funds materially No deficits in deficit

Further financial review details (Optional information)

You may choose to include additional information, where SEE ANNUAL REPORT relevant about:

Section F Other optional information

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Section G Declaration

The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.

Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees

Signature(s) Full name(s) Dr Alexander Boyd Position (eg Secretary, Chair, Founder & Executive Director etc) Date 4th December 2025

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Intercultural Roots for Public Health Trustees’ Annual Report 1st August 2024 - 31st July 2025 By Dr Jo Scott

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Introduction .................................................................................................................... 3 Areas of Activity: An Overview ...................................................................................... 3 Creative bridges across borders...................................................................................................... 3 Nature connections and ecological public health ........................................................................... 3 Regenerative technologies as change-making tools ...................................................................... 4 Patterns of liberation – resisting marginalisation and strategic underrepresentation .................. 4 Spaces of solidarity and support for artists .................................................................................... 4 Activities and Projects: 24-25 ........................................................................................ 5 EcoGPX Launchpad Coventry and Places by EcoGPX® ................................................................. 5 Extending Nature (XN) ..................................................................................................................... 7 EcoGPX Ltd – providing regenerative support for Intercultural Roots ........................................... 7 Arts Disability Network (ADN) ......................................................................................................... 8 Rhythms of Resistance .................................................................................................................... 9 Addressing Domestic Violence Through Forum Theatre (Year 2) ................................................ 11 Bridging Cultures: Digital Storytelling & Creative Connections for Community Empowerment... 12 Growing Intercultural Roots in Communities (GIRIC) 2025 Programme ...................................... 13 Project Partnerships: EchoEight .................................................................................................... 14 Practitioner Partnerships ............................................................................................................... 15 From delight to despair: the philosophy of art, Lakshmi Thiagarajan – August/September 2024 .............. 15 How to be feral: reclaiming our connection to the natural world, Claire Loussouam – August/September 2024 ....................................................................................................................................................................... 15 Re-wild your body, Claire Loussouam - January, February, March 2025 ........................................................ 15 Embodying the soul of artistry – achieving artistic fulness, Peter Atsu Adaletey – September/October 2024 ....................................................................................................................................................................... 15 24-25 in Numbers and Names .................................................................................... 17 Participant Numbers ...................................................................................................................... 17 Marketing, Communications and Outreach Report by Basma Darouich ...................................... 17 Partnerships and Connections ...................................................................................................... 19 Funders .......................................................................................................................................... 19 Supporting Organisations .............................................................................................................. 19 Practitioners and Consultants ....................................................................................................... 20 CIO Board of Directors (Trustees) ................................................................................................. 20 Donors ............................................................................................................................................ 20 Leadership Team ........................................................................................................................... 20 EcoGPX Limited ............................................................................................................................. 21 Extending Nature (XN) Project....................................................................................................... 21 Advisors ......................................................................................................................................... 21 References ................................................................................................................... 22

Introduction

This has been an exceptionally bountiful and productive year for Intercultural Roots for Public Health (IR) in serving their core communities and pursuing key goals in social justice and ecological public health for all, through creative approaches, regenerative technologies and community arts practices. This written account of IR’s activity across the year 24-25 is designed to be read in conjunction with a visually-led impact report which details the rich and diverse change-making which emerges from IR’s work with and in communities. In this report, an account of the types of activities, level of participation and areas of work is offered, alongside information about the charity’s funding, partnerships and leadership team. To get a fuller and more dynamic picture of what IR’s work achieves in the world, the impact report is an important companion piece to the information offered here.

Areas of Activity: An Overview

The programmes, projects, networks and collaborations which IR runs and supports can be grouped in a range of ways. The grouping below offers a way of understanding how the aims and mission of the charity have been pursued through the primary activities of 2024-2025. As referenced above, the benefits, changes and real-world impacts of this work are expanded on in the impact report.

Creative bridges across borders

IR shapes connections of creative resistance and solidarity across the world, improving awareness and understanding of issues which affect us all while supporting creative practices which joyfully and meaningfully bring diverse communities and nationalities together. Through building these bonds and bridges, we resist divisive and nationalistic perspectives which seek to separate us, instead placing faith in the power of communal and liberatory embodied creativity.

Nature connections and ecological public health

Inspired by the rhythms and patterns of biological systems and ecologies, IR develops projects and programmes which help support the vital nature-connectedness we need to cultivate for our own wellbeing and for the health of the planet.

Regenerative technologies as change-making tools

Setting itself in opposition to the extractive, individualising and divisive tendencies of big tech social media applications, IR is developing new place-based and people-centred technologies, which seek to bring communities together, to nourish local places and to ground us in creative and collaborative practices. Through our new mobile application, Places by EcoGPX®, you can find out more about local histories and

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stories, therapeutically connect to your local green and blue spaces and open a world of experiences and

perspectives that enliven and enrich your experience of where you are.

Patterns of liberation – resisting marginalisation and strategic underrepresentation

IR stands in opposition to racist, transphobic, ableist and xenophobic systems and rhetorics which seek to divide communities. We work to resist these forces, building new creative connections within and between communities and centring the voices of those who are strategically underrepresented in our society.

Spaces of solidarity and support for artists

IR offers training, support, connections and opportunities for artists who work with and in diverse communities in the UK and across the world. Supporting those who do this vital creative work is a core aim and outcome for the charity.

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Activities and Projects: 24-25

EcoGPX Launchpad Coventry and Places by EcoGPX®

Supported by a Creative Launchpad grant from Innovate UK of £100,000, the second half of the EcoGPX project in Coventry took place across August, September and October 2025. During this phase, creative residencies with the communities of Coventry took place in collaboration with Coventry Food Union, Coventry University and Positive Youth Foundation.

As part of these residencies, local artists, practitioners and community leaders led creative activities in allotments, university buildings, community centres and local venues. These activities centred diverse community participation, connections with green and blue spaces in the city and practices of homing and belonging for those newly arrived in Coventry. The activities included crafting, plant-hunting, eco-somatics, singing and musical performance, zine-making, communal cooking and creative explorations of places using the newly developed Places by EcoGPX® mobile application. These creative place-based practices facilitated by local practitioners, often in natural surroundings, represent a development of IR’s popular and successful Human-Nature Connect (H-NC) programme. In this case, the primarily rural locations for H-NC were replaced by urban green and blue spaces, demonstrating how gently facilitated communal activities can also support nature and community connectedness in urban environments.

As part of this second phase of the project, the Places app was developed from concept to working prototype. This place-based piece of technology was co-created with Coventry communities through a period of playful consultation, as part of the first EcoGPX residencies. Following this, Places was developed into a working prototype by EcoGPX Creative Director, Ben Spatz and full stack developer, Peter Awosiyan. The app is designed to connect you to where you are and to other people who live, work in or are visiting that place. It allows contributors to record and ‘place’ videos and scores (an image with text overlay) in a specific location. The media then remains there for others visiting the location to discover, encounter and enjoy. In this way it creates a ‘socially augmented reality’, enriching and enlivening your present experience of a place with perspectives, stories, responses and prompts created by other people in that very place.

Places was used in the third and fourth residencies in Coventry, with co-creator artists and students at Coventry University, and with newly arrived young people in a collaboration with the Positive Youth Foundation. The project evaluation details the effects and benefits that emerged through these two residencies and outlines a vital pathway forward for how and where Places could be beneficially employed in the future. The evaluation reports (Scott 2024) are available to download from the Intercultural Roots website.

As part of the EcoGPX project in Coventry as a whole, nearly 450 people took part as either artists/cocreators, community leaders/stakeholders, or participants. Many of the 30 artist/co-creators who became a core part of the residency activities at the beginning of the project continue to collaborate with IR, contributing to later projects such as Extending Nature and Bridging Cultures. From EcoGPX Launchpad Coventry, Dr Alex Boyd founded EcoGPX Ltd as a charity spin out (see below). The positive impacts of these longer-term partnerships and collaborations are also reflected in the impact report.

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Extending Nature (XN)

In July 2025, Intercultural Roots, in partnership with charity spin out EcoGPX Ltd (see further information below), was awarded a grant of £237,000 from Innovate UK, as part of their Mindset XR programme, which invests in ‘projects which deliver immersive digital mental health therapeutics’. The Extending Nature project was one of only 17 chosen for funding out of 147 submitted applications. Extending Nature (XN) will develop extended reality experiences using immersive sound, video and interactive scores to prompt therapeutic nature connectedness for people experiencing anxiety. These restorative experiences will be offered through the Places by EcoGPX® mobile application, which will be developed to support the new features needed. In contrast to many wellbeing and nature-connectedness applications, Extending Nature is interested in connecting you to nature wherever you are and building reciprocal and sustainable connections between you and your local green and blue spaces. It draws on the rich heritage of eco-embodied practices which is held within IR’s communities and which will be incorporated into the XN experiences through breathwork, grounding, awareness and attunement practices.

This is the largest grant that IR (in collaboration with EcoGPX Ltd) has ever received and represents a step up in terms of the organisation’s ambitions and scope. After a rigorous two-stage application process, including a presentation and interview, Innovate UK were impressed by the innovations this project promises, but also by the values which underpin it and which remain constant through IR’s work; seeking better health and wellbeing for people and places, forging creative connections and resisting all modes of oppression and the barriers which divide communities. Already, the IR/EcoGPX Ltd partnership is forming collaborations with clinicians, NHS trusts, educational institutions, community organisations, visitor experiences and XR labs which will open the benefits of the digitally enabled therapeutic (DET) to a diverse and wide range of peoples and communities.

EcoGPX Ltd – providing regenerative support for Intercultural Roots

EcoGPX Ltd was established by Intercultural Roots founder and CEO, Alex Boyd on 11 October 2024. This charity spin out is the lead partner on the Extending Nature project and offers possibilities for revenue generation through the commercialisation of the Places by EcoGPX® application, which will be offered to a range of organisations, venues and community groups, once it is fully released. EcoGPX Ltd is also opening vital regenerative capacities for Intercultural Roots, in that a percentage of profits from this limited company could support the work that the charity is doing. It is part of Intercultural Roots’ movement towards building a more stable and sustainable future, through increasing earned income and core funding, as well as being less reliant on individual grant and restricted project funding.

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Arts Disability Network (ADN)

The Arts Disability Network (ADN) has grown in numbers, activities and impact since its establishment in June 2024. Funded by grants from the National Lottery Awards for All and the Adobe Community Fund, supported by the London Community Foundation, this new network, created by Intercultural Roots, has been hugely successful in its first year of operation.

As outlined in an evaluation report, published in April 2025 (see Scott 2025) and reflecting on this first year of ADN, the network has established a diverse and responsive programme of activities for members. This includes training in practical elements such as writing funding applications, articulating access needs and starting new creative projects. It also includes workshops focused on somatic practices, wellbeing and energy levels, which are tailored to the needs of the community of disabled and chronically ill artists that ADN supports. The network makes space for creative practice, through regular open and accessible online making sessions. It also opens collaborations and opportunities to connect for members, combating the isolation that many disabled people can experience. ADN recently established a new ‘Artist of the Month’ initiative whereby each month, the work of one member of the community is showcased through the ADN newsletter, online spaces and Instagram account. This actively combats the marginalisation of the work of disabled creatives in mainstream culture, celebrating and making visible the diverse artistic practices of disabled and chronically ill people.

Through the course of 24-25, the Arts Disability Network has grown to 157 members, with new members joining all the time. ADN members bring a range of lived experiences of disability and chronic illness and include practitioners from all areas of the arts. The network has run 25 different events, workshops and collaborative making spaces through the course of the time that this report reflects on, as well as maintaining active communication with members through a communal Basecamp space, where messaging, schedules and resources can be held.

ADN continues to grow and develop as a network, in a responsive and reciprocal way, offering a wide suite of activities and resources for members and creating a space of solidarity and connection. New funding applications will hopefully support the continuation of this important initiative. To find out more about the impacts of ADN on the disabled arts community, make sure you read the evaluation report on the network’s first year. In addition, you can find out more about the impact of ADN and all IR’s work through the impact report which accompanies this reporting on activities.

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Rhythms of Resistance

In October 2024, Intercultural Roots and Puma Camillê Producōes (Brazil) received £75,000 in funding from the International Collaboration Grants, run by the British Council. This programme ‘supports collaborations between UK artists, arts professionals and organisations and their global peers’ and has made possible the “Rhythms of Resistance” project, which explores ‘the many ways in which the performance aesthetics of resistance, offered by Capoeira and Vogue, functions as rhythmic strategies of liberation for Black, LGBTQIAPN+ and other historically oppressed bodies’ (British Council 2024).

Together, IR and Puma Camillê Produções, through the course of this year, have explored embodiment and the body as a site of resistance and strength, and as the key for unlocking ‘transgressive self-authorship’ through the practice of the diasporic embodied practices of Capoeira and Vogue. This kind of bridge-building collaboration across borders and through embodied practice is a particular strength of this organisation. Equally, and as is core to IR’s practices across its programmes, this is a mission-led project, with social justice for oppressed and marginalised communities at the heart of its agenda. The blending of a focus on social justice with the bringing together of diverse communities and a model of participatory creative embodied practices encapsulates many of the strengths of what the organisation is able to achieve.

In terms of project activities, IR founder and CEO – Alex Boyd and Rhythms of Resistance Artistic Director, Andrea Maciel – visited Puma Camillê Producōes in Salvador, Brazil in 2025. During these visits, they observed and engaged with Puma Camillê’s work in situ, gaining insights into her practice and its sociocultural context. The residency in Brazil enabled the Intercultural Roots artists to attend events, accompany activities led by Puma Camillê, and enter into exchanges with local theatre groups, cultural agents, and community networks. Parallel to this, UK practitioners began curating outreach with LGBTQIA+, Afrodiasporic, and vogue communities, aligning with the project’s commitment to inclusion and diversity (RoR narrative report).

Puma Camillê then came to London in July 2025, for a three-day festival and celebration of the project’s practices and values at The Place. As part of this festival - designed as ‘a platform for intercultural dialogue and artistic exchange’ (RoR narrative report) - more than 200 people participated in a range of workshops and events, celebrating queer and diasporic cultures. The first day, themed around ‘embodied queer liminality’, featured burlesque cabaret and fluid tango workshops, offered by Fernanda Mandagará and Manuela Benini respectively. This was presented alongside a further workshop titled ‘A Carnival of Emotions’, facilitated by Almiro Andrade. Taken together, these workshops explored queer embodiments, intimacies and modes of storytelling, offering a range of joyful expressions of resistance and empowerment for queer communities.

The second day of the festival, titled ‘Ancestral Roots and Rhythmic Fusion’, included a Capoeira Angola workshop by Mestra Paulinha and a ‘Capoeira Para TodEs’ Masterclass, led by the Puma Camillê collective. With a focus on the art of Capoeira, which was developed by African peoples in Brazil as an embodied and creative mode of resistance to enslavement, these workshops offered a strong focus on the themes of the project as a whole. With the combining of Capoeira with Vogue in the workshop run by the Puma Camillê collective – a mode of creative expression developed by marginalised queer communities of colour in New

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York – a constellation of rhythms of resistance were practised, enjoyed and shared on this second day, celebrating creative freedom from oppression through embodiment.

The themes and threads of the project continued through into the final day of the festival with a sold-out event for more than 100 participants – the Mandinga do Futuro Mini Kiki Ball. Celebrating the art of voguing and ballroom culture more widely, participants were offered the opportunity to walk the runway in a range of categories, including sharing an act of protest and honouring your cultural roots. This was a transgressive, political and joyful sharing of embodied resistance on the part of communities that are historically and strategically under-represented in mainstream culture and suffer from consistent marginalisation across societies.

As a whole, this project has joyful, creative embodiment at its heart as a mode of resistance. The sharing of Afro-Brazilian cultural traditions in fusion with queer embodiments brought together under-represented communities from the UK and Brazil in a powerful moment of shared embodiment. For more information about the impact of these kinds of projects on those who participate, take a look through the Impact report.

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Addressing Domestic Violence Through Forum Theatre (Year 2)

The two-year project ‘Addressing Domestic Violence through Forum Theatre’, funded by the Peabody Community Fund, concluded in early 2025. The Independent Evaluation Report, written by Claire Burrell (2025) details the activities that were part of this second and concluding year of the project and highlight the great value of this kind of creative work in addressing the oppressions that communities might experience. As Claire’s report outlines, ‘the project has brought together Peabody Housing tenants, local residents, artists and theatre practitioners, meeting as a community around the question; how do we live with violence?’ (2025, p.1)

The project was co-conceived by Dr. Andrea Maciel, Artistic Director and co-creator of IR’s Arts for Health and Social Change programmes, and Dr Alex Boyd, IR's founder and Chief Executive Officer, with workshops facilitated by Dr Maciel, Dr Almiro Andrade and Manuela Benini. At the centre of the workshops are Augusto Boal’s (1992) forum theatre practices which bring together communities to creatively explore ways of responding to situations of oppression through the playing out of a scene or moment, which represents a lived experience, and with all members of the community able to offer alternative responses through participating as what Boal calls ‘spect-actors’.

In the second year, new questions were raised within the workshops, such as ‘How do we find antidotes to living with conflict, living with violence?’ and as Claire’s report details, ‘the facilitators brought attention to how individuals locate themselves in interpersonal realms, how sharing experience and contributing to cocreation are central to becoming community’ (2025, p.5). 13 people participated in the Year 2 workshops from diverse communities, and including people of Nigerian, Brazilian, Italian, British, Ethiopian, Spanish, Armenian and Danish nationalities.

The series of four 2.5-hour sessions included exercises to explore space, collaboratively create installations, engage in cultural exchange and deeply explore interpersonal connections, boundaries and experiences of feeling welcome. The workshops concluded with an informal sharing, where participants created a short performance to represent one of the stories shared in the workshops and explored this through participating as ‘spect-actors’.

A detailed analysis of the workshops and feedback is offered in Claire’s report. The Boal forum theatre work was successful in exploring key themes and questions around belonging to a community and how that community might respond to violence within its midst. The model of closely co-operating with a local housing trust in places local to residents, as well as offering childcare where needed and gently facilitating the creative conversations, makes this important work accessible and inclusive to diverse communities. Forum theatre is a vital, creative tool to explore community co-agencies in the face of challenges, making space for meaningful discussion, expression and, crucially, embodiment, of how such challenges can be addressed. This kind of creative embodied co-listening allows voices and perspectives to be shared safely and for communities to work out potential real-world solutions to problems which seem intractable. As detailed in the reporting, it deeply impacts upon participants and is an established and successful project which has proved its value and now needs further funding to spread these benefits more widely across UK communities.

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Bridging Cultures: Digital Storytelling & Creative Connections for Community Empowerment

The ‘Bridging Cultures: Digital Storytelling and Creative Connections for Community Empowerment’ programme began in April 2025 and comprises a collaboration between Intercultural Roots and MakingCulture (Coburg, Germany). Funded by the Cultural Bridge programme, which ‘supports arts and cultural organisations across the UK and Germany to develop partnerships that explore social arts practice’, Bridging Cultures aims to explore ‘how participatory digital storytelling and community-led arts practices can forge meaningful connections between Coventry (UK) and Coburg (Germany)’ (Cultural Bridge n.d.). Using participatory arts in combination with the Places by EcoGPX® mobile application, AR storytelling was employed in the project to ‘empower marginalised communities, nurture dialogue and sustainability, and reimagine public space’.

The activities involved an exchange of practitioners between Coburg and Coventry in July 2025. Firstly, IR founder and CEO, Dr Alex Boyd, Issias Yohanes and Fatima Reszczynski travelled to Coburg. This visit involved participating in the Coburg ‘Sustainability Days’ through collaborative workshops between Intercultural Roots and the MakingCulture e.V., guided historical tours of the city and region including visiting the past border between East and West Germany and wide ranging discussions reflecting on cultural connections between Coventry and Coburg that included ongoing issues related to migration, racism and genocide as well as celebrations of auto-vehicle design, hospitality including food, drink and hosting and appreciations of peace and reconciliation. Following this, three visitors from the MakingCulture organisation in Coburg, Gerhard Kampe, Peter Langendorf and Liliana Frevel arrived in Coventry on 11[th] July for a reciprocal experience. Here, the programme involved music performances, dance workshops at the University of Coventry and visits to cultural sites in Coventry, such as the Weaver’s House, Transport Museum, Fargo Village and Coventry Cathedral. The focus was on the sharing of diverse cultural connections and stories across the two cities and creatively documenting that process of sharing and collaboration.

The project continues now with hybrid sessions and engagements between the collaborators and will result in multi-media outputs that demonstrate and disseminate the rich experiences, meaning-making and potential for shared positive social change that this kind of exchange can accomplish. Intercultural Roots and MakingCulture are now discussing next steps in building on their newfound partnership and resourcing for future regenerative projects.

This type of project, which is predicated on building bridges between localities and communities is supported by the use of the new ethical and regenerative technologies that IR, in partnership with EcoGPX Ltd, is developing. The Places by EcoGPX® mobile application, which was used in Coburg and Coventry as part of ‘Bridging Cultures’ continues to be a key tool for digital, place-based storytelling across IR’s community projects.

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Growing Intercultural Roots in Communities (GIRIC) 2025 Programme

The Growing Intercultural Roots in Communities (GIRIC) programme has continued to thrive this year. This international network of embodied practitioners, artists, educators, researchers and community leaders has grown to nearly 300 members in 2025, taking the numbers engaging with IR’s networks and programmes (across GIRIC, ADN and the Eco-embodied Network) to nearly 700.

GIRIC offers those who join the network peer to peer support, collaboration and networking opportunities, opportunities to co-develop projects with IR and a set of online resources, all curated through the online platform, Basecamp.

In addition to this, IR also runs themed online sessions to support embodied practitioners. These sessions had previously been supported by funding and were offered for free, but this year, without that funding in place, the programme of activity has been offered at a nominal fee to cover costs (£5 and £3 for GIRIC members). Despite this, the popularity of these sessions has grown, clearly indicating that they are fulfilling a need within the community of freelance and community artists and practitioners that GIRIC supports.

With the first term running from February to June 2026, the GIRIC support programme was themed around the areas of ‘practice’, ‘pedagogy’ and ‘projects’, spanning the areas of creative activity, education and facilitation, as well as practical approaches to funding and supporting creative and community projects. This approach has been extremely successful with 177 participants engaging across the eight sessions, and an average of 22 active participants per session across the programme.

These online sessions are accessible, open spaces for discussion of themes, challenges, practices and ideas relevant to embodied practitioners, researchers and educators. They are lightly facilitated with a co-edited Google document forming the basis for sharing thoughts, ideas and resources, augmenting the discussion as part of the Zoom meeting. So far, the programme has covered areas such as inclusive learning approaches, embodied research, funding and project management, assessment and evaluation and eco-somatic practices. The open, peer to peer model has allowed practitioners to share and discuss their experience and expertise across these areas, creating a community of practice, unified by reciprocal gifting of experience and ideas.

The programme continues to build on this success in Autumn 2025 with sessions addressing ‘performing ecologies’, self-care and resilience, neurodiverse and marginalised learners, as well as freelancing and policy engagement. In an era where arts practitioners and researchers from diverse backgrounds are struggling with cuts to funding and the rising cost of living, the GIRIC programme offers vital practical support and spaces of shared solidarity. The impact of this programme on its participants is expanded upon further in the visually-led impact report.

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Project Partnerships: EchoEight

Project partnerships support creative events and international exchanges of related practices. This year a long-running partnership between the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s (UHM) Department of Theatre and Dance and Intercultural Roots was celebrated through a project partnership which enabled the ‘EchoEight’ intercultural workshops, performances and networking event to take place. Happening at The Place, London, the event opened a space for sharing and exchange of practices between visiting artists from UHM and the Intercultural Roots community.

The programme included workshops focused on eco-somatic practices, exploring energy centres, colours and interconnectedness as well as Taoist ecological breathing. In addition, queer dance practices and intercultural fusions of movement practices such as hiphop, Tongan traditions, Filipino storytelling, martial arts and Black diasporic ballet were offered. The event culminated with the ‘EchoEight’ performance, offered by UHM, which explored interconnectedness through ‘eight rings of reverberation’

As well as the workshops, the event was a space for intercultural networking and exchange between the UHM faculty and dance, movement and embodied practitioners based in and around London. The event created space and time for a diverse exchange of practices and discussion, enriching the work of all involved. Such partnerships are a core part of how roots can grow across geographical locations, cultures and practices into fruitful creative collaborations which offer deep benefits for all participants and unique opportunities for UK-based movement practitioners.

Over the two days of the event, more than 70 practitioners and participants contributed and took part in the activities. The impact report outlines the benefits of intercultural creative project partnerships such as these on participants and local creative ecosystems, which form new and wider branching connections through these opportunities.

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Practitioner Partnerships

Practitioner partnerships remain an important part of the Intercultural Roots ecosystem, allowing artists to open their practices to wider audiences through a partnership model that supports the organising, sharing and practical delivery of workshops and masterclasses. Through this model, practitioners retain full control and ownership of their creative content and facilitation style and get support from Intercultural Roots for the booking and marketing of classes and workshops, in return for a fair revenue share. This approach feeds and supports the ecosystem of co-learning, exchange and intercultural dialogue which is core to the organisation’s mission.

This year, practitioner partnerships have resulted in diverse opportunities for these types of co-learning and exchange opportunities, with nearly 90 individuals participating across the sessions below. Feedback from and the impact of the creative opportunities afforded by the practitioner partnership programme are outlined in the impact report. The summary below outlines the activities offered in each case.

From delight to despair: the philosophy of art, Lakshmi Thiagarajan – August/September 2024 Across 4 weeks in August/September 2024, philosopher and artist, Lakshmi Thiagaran offered online workshops, deeply exploring philosophical perspectives of art - including its essence and purpose and how art can evoke and transform emotions - through activity and discussion. Diverse and cross-cultural perspectives on the topic were shared, enhancing both participant understanding and offering tools for articulating perspectives on and responses to art, as well as their own art-making.

How to be feral: reclaiming our connection to the natural world, Claire Loussouarn – August/September 2024

Two in-person workshops were offered by movement artist, filmmaker, herbalist, and anthropologist Claire Loussouarn in London in August and September 2024. These sessions invited participants to reclaim their connection to the natural world through embodied practices on Hackney Marshes, a location which Claire has explored deeply as part of her eco-somatic practice. The two immersive days of practice were designed to challenge and broaden human perspectives and offer opportunities for deep connections with the more than human world through movement practices drawn from Claire’s book, How to be Feral , which prompts participants to move beyond the constraints of modern human-centred living.

Re-wild your body, Claire Loussouarn - January, February, March 2025 These in-person sessions were followed up by 8 online sessions across January, February and March 2025 which opened Claire’s practices, as detailed in How to be Feral , to a wider, international audience. Attracting 53 participants across 8 sessions, these workshops were both popular and successful in offering participants the tools to ‘rewild’ their bodies, rediscovering natural, intuitive ways of moving. In addition, these ecosomatic practices integrate a deeper awareness of the environment, increasing attunement to the natural world and opening new ways of moving in and being with nature.

Embodying the soul of artistry: achieving artistic fulness, Peter Atsu Adaletey – September /October 2024

Over 4 weeks, across September and October 2024, Peter Atsu Adaletey offered a course exploring ‘embodying the soul of artistry’ and ‘achieving artistic fulness’. This programme of activity offered by Peter, an interdisciplinary teaching artist and performer, supported participants to develop authenticity and

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vulnerability in their creative processes, improve improvisational skills and emotional expression and connect with a supportive community of like-minded artists. The practices shared also supported the integration of mindfulness into the creative process, empowering artists to embrace vulnerability and find their authentic artistic voice.

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24-25 in Numbers and Names

Participant Numbers

908 people participated in activities organised and/or supported by Intercultural Roots this year. 32 artists and practitioners led, facilitated or organised these activities.

In addition, each of the online networks supported by IR offers resources, connections, professional opportunities, training and events:

Total network membership: 789

In total 1729 people participated in and engaged with IR activities, resources and events this year.

Marketing, Communications and Outreach Report by Basma Darouich

Overview

This year, the marketing and communications strategy focused on amplifying Intercultural Roots’ (IR) mission through a multi-channel approach. By leveraging digital storytelling, targeted public relations, and collaborative community outreach, we successfully increased visibility for key projects including EchoEight , Rhythms of Resistance , and EcoGPX . The strategy encompassed social media management (Meta/LinkedIn), email marketing, press distribution, and web development, ensuring that IR’s diverse portfolio of work reached audiences globally.

Digital Engagement and Social Media Growth

Our social media presence has seen consistent growth across Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn, driven by high-quality content creation and collaborative posting strategies.

Project-Specific Campaigns

EchoEight: Intercultural Movement & Research

For the EchoEight collaboration with the University of Hawai'i at Manoa, we executed a comprehensive promotional campaign that combined direct mail, media listings, and press releases.

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Bridging Cultures: Digital Storytelling

Marketing for the Bridging Cultures collaboration with Making Culture e.V. (Germany) focused on public relations and visual storytelling.

Rhythms of Resistance

For Rhythms of Resistance , promotional efforts were designed to engage specific communities interested in embodied resistance and diasporic arts.

EcoGPX and Extending Nature

Marketing for the EcoGPX and Extending Nature projects focused on documenting "on-the-ground" activities to bridge the digital and physical worlds.

Supporting Practitioner Partnerships & GIRIC

We continued to support the Growing Intercultural Roots in Communities (GIRIC) network and the Practitioner Partnership Programme through resource sharing and event promotion.

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○ From Delight to Despair - The Philosophy of Art by Lakshmi Thiagarajan.

Community & Fundraising Initiatives

Partnerships and Connections

Funders

Supporting Organisations

With thanks to:

Practitioners and Consultants

Design Consultation: Al Kennedy

Regenerative Design: Issias Yohanes

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Honorary Legal Council: Harriet Beattie (and Geneva Hoffman) Newable Ltd Business Consultants: David Zerny, Liam Hickey, Daniel Abdelmassih

Accountant (Independent Examination): Pat Davey

Advisors (to CEO): Prof Anita Gonzalez, Bruno Rocha, Dr Ian Kenvyn, Clare Kenvyn

Trustees (Intercultural Roots for Traditional Embodied Arts): Dr Alex Boyd, Dr Andrea Maciel, Dr Alvaro Hernandez, Martin Sax, Prof (Te Ahukaramū) Charles Royal

CIO Board of Directors (Trustees)

Dr Deepa Mahadevan Dr Dylan Bolles Professor Lynette Hunter Dr Kevin O’Connor Maryam Seif Saeidi Peter Atsu Adaletey Peter-Rockford Ututau Espiritu Regina Maria Gutierrez Bermudez Dr Savita Rani Dr Alex Boyd (until 11 Dec 2024)

Donors

A big thank you to all our generous donors this year. If you would like to support the continuation of the important work you see represented in this report, you can do this at: https://www.interculturalroots.org/make-a-donation

Leadership Team

Founder and Chief Executive Officer: Dr Alex Boyd

Chief Operations Officer: Wendy van der Haagen-Boyd Artistic Director: Dr Andrea Maciel

Creative Director EcoGPX®: Dr Ben Spatz

Quality Monitoring and Evaluation Director: Dr Jo Scott

Community Liaison Manager EcoGPX®: Maryam Safe

PR, Digital Marketing, Promotion and Social Engagement Specialist: Basma Darouich

Full Stack Software Developer EcoGPX®: Peter Awosiyan

Arts Disability Network Programmes Manager: Myra Stuart

Arts Disability Network Project Outreach and Disability Support Coordinator: Nu McAdam (until September 2025)

Arts Disabilities Network Project Community Comms Coordinator: Meg Fozzard

Access worker for Meg Fozzard: Joel Le Clercq

Extending Nature (XN) Project

Alex Boyd – Project Director

Ben Spatz – Creative Director EcoGPX

Jo Scott – Senior XR Research Lead

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Wendy van der Haagen-Boyd – Finance Director Meg Fozzard – XR Specialist & Disability Access Advisor

Joel Le Clercq – Access Support Worker Emmanuelle Henry-Cottrell – EDI & Diversity Access Worker Basma Darouich – CCO/PR, Marketing & Promotion Specialist Maryam Safe – Regenerative and Holistic Design Lead Derek Lawrence - Digital Reality Capture Specialist Al Kennedy – Ecological Design Lead Peter Awosiyan – Full Stack Developer (Aidcore Technologies Ltd) Will Crawford – Sound and Music Lead (Quietnote Ltd)

Advisors

Daniel Abdelmassih – Innovate UK Business Growth Advisor Will Abramson – Trustee, Youth Media Group Harriet Beattie – Legal Counsel, Visa Legal via LawWorks Joe Churchill — Trustee, Primary Films Lois Liao – Trustee, Intercultural Roots Andrea Maciel – Trustee, Intercultural Roots

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References

British Council (2024). International Collaboration Grants.

https://arts.britishcouncil.org/projects/international-collaboration-grants

Boyd, A., Spatz, B., Scott, J. (2025). EcoGPX®: a Digital Tool Rooted in People and Place. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15882525

Burrell, C. (2025). Addressing Domestic Violence Through Forum Theatre: a two-year project delivered by Intercultural Roots and funded by the Peabody Community Fund with support from the London Community Foundation. Year Two: Final Report. Available at: https://www.interculturalroots.org/project/boal-forumtheatre

Cultural Bridge (n.d.). Bridging Cultures: Digital Storytelling and Creative Connections for Community Empowerment. https://www.cultural-bridge.info/projects/2025-2026/bridging-cultures

Scott, J. (2024). EcoGPX Coventry Launchpad: Project Evaluation. Full Report and Visual Report. Available at https://www.interculturalroots.org/project/ecogpx

Scott, J. (2025). Arts Disability Network 2024-2025 Evaluation Reports. Available at: https://www.interculturalroots.org/project/arts-disability-network

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CC Charity Name
Intercultural Roots for P		 Charity Name
Intercultural Roots for P
1
ublic Health
1
ublic Health
1
ublic Health		 No (if any)
179885		 CC16a
Receipts and payments accounts
For the period from Period start date
01/08/2024		 To 31/08/2025
Period end date
Section A Receipts and payments
A1 Receipts Unrestricted funds
to the nearest £
2 606
5 270
5 319

9 311
1 141
£ 23 646		 Restricted funds
to the nearest £
99 627
20 000
8 876
22 380
15 000
14 871
854 24
37 500
4 500
223 608		 Endowment funds
to the nearest £		 Total funds
to the nearest £
2 606
5 270
5 319
99 627
9 311
20 000
8 876
22 380
15 000
14 871
854
37 500
4 500
1 141
247 254

-
247 254
1 050
4 082
245
24 591
18 653
49 940
11 500
16 164
19 909
3 751
8 876
37 400
14 520
854
829
2 060
1 057
675
161
346
15
780		 Last year
to the nearest £
Ticket Sales for Events/Online Events 2 606 2 606 -
Donations 5 270 5 270 -
HMRC Gift Aid 5 319 5 319 -
Contract - Innovate UK - Launchpad Coventry &
Warwickshire		 99 627 99 627 -
Infrastructure Support Services 9 311 9 311
Contract - LCF/Adobe Community Fund - 'Arts
DisabilityNetwork'		 20 000 20 000
Crowdfunding- TBG Women & Girl Match Fund 8 876 8 876
Crowdfunding- TBG Xmas Challenge 2024 22 380 22 380 -
Pledges - TBG Xmas Challenge 2024 15 000 15 000
Crowdfunding- TBG Arts for Impact 2025 14 871 14 871
Crowdfunding- TBG Green Match Fund 2025 854 24 854
Contract - British Council International Grants -
Rhythms of Resistance		 37 500 37 500
Contract - Cultural Bridge 4 500 4 500
Software Subscribtions 1 141 - 1 141
Sub total £ 23 646 223 608 247 254 -
A2 Asset and investment sales, etc.
Total receipts
A3 Payments		 - - -
-		 -
£ 23 646 223 608 - 247 254 -
Website Maintenance 1 050 1 050 -
Software Subscriptions 4 082 4 082
Hardware 245 245
Infrastructure Support 24 591 24 591 -
Project Delivery - National Lottery Fund - 'Arts
DisabilityNetwork'		 18 653
Project Delivery - Innovate UK - Launchpad
Covetry& Warwickshire		 49 940 -
Project Delivery - London Community
Fund//PeabodyTrust - Boal Forum Theatre		 11 500 -
Project Delivery - LCF/Adobe Community Fund -
'Arts DisabilityNetwork'
 16 164 -
~~Project Delivery - BC-ICG - Rhythms of~~
Resistance		 19 909
Project Delivery- Cultural Bridge 3 751 -
Project Delivery - TBG Women & Girls Match
Fund		 8 876 -
Project Delivery- TBG Xmas Challenge 2024 37 400
Project Delivery- TBG Arts for Impact 2025 14 520
Project Delivery- TBG Green Match Fund 2025 854
Project Delivery- IUK 'ExtendingNature' 829
HMRC Tax/NI/ENI 2 060 2 060
Artist/Practitioner Fees 1 057 1 057
Venue Hire(non-project related) 675 675
Online Adverts 161 161
Expenses(non-project related) 346 346
Bank Charges 15 15
Insurance
~~XX R1 accounts (SS)~~		 780 780
Contract - Puma Camille Produces - BC RoR 18 750 18 750
Cashflow Loan Repayment & Interest 51 562 51 562
**Sub total ** 35 061 252 710 - 287 771 -
A4 Asset and investment purchases, etc.
Total payments
Net of receipts/(payments)
A5 Transfers between funds
A6 Cash funds last year end
Cash funds this year end
- - - - -
35 061
- 11 415
965
13 735 05		 252 710
- 29 102
- 965
33 252 70
- 287 771 -
- 11 415 - 29 102 - - 40 517 -
965 - 965 - - -
13 735 05 33 252 70 - 46 987 75 -
3 285 48 3 185 50 - 6 470 98 -
Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period
Categories
Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all
the trustees
B1 Cash funds
B5 Liabilities
B3 Investment assets
B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use
B2 Other monetary assets
XX R2 accounts (SS)		 Details Unrestricted funds
to nearest £		 Restricted funds
to nearest £
3 185
-
-
3 185
OK
Restricted funds
to nearest £
-
-
-
-
-
-
Cost (optional)
-
-
-
-
-
Cost (optional)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Amount due
(optional)
-
-
-
-
der Boyd
Name		 Endowment funds
to nearest £
Cash in the Bank 3 285 3 185 -
- - -
- - -
Details
(agree balances with		 £ 3 285 3 185 -
OK OK
Unrestricted funds
to nearest £		 Endowment funds
to nearest £
- - -
- - -
- - -
- - -
- - -
- - -
Details Fund to which asset
belongs		 Current value
(optional)
- -
- -
- -
- -
- -
Details Fund to which asset
belongs		 Current value
(optional)
- -
- -
- -
- -
- -
- -
- -
- -
- -
Details Fund to which
liability relates		 When due (optional)
-
-
-
-
Print
Date of approval
2 Dr Alexan der Boyd 26th Aug2025

CCXX R2 accounts (SS)

Independent examiner's report on the accounts Section A Independent Examiner s Report Report to the truste mèmbers of Inlercullural Roots far Public Health On accounts for tha year ended 31° July 2025 Charlty no (if any) 1179885 Sel oul on pages Respectlve The charity's Iruslees are responsible ￿ the preparation of the accounts. re8ponslbilities of The tharity's trustees consider that an audit is not required for this year trustees and examln•r under section 144 of the Charities Act 2011 (the Charities Act) and that an independent examinats.on is needed. It is my responsibility to.. examine the aCc￿nIS under section 145 of the Chanlies Act, to follow the procedures laid down in the general Directions given by the Charity CommisS￿n (under Section 14515llbl of the Charities Act, and lo stale whether particular matters have wme to my attention. Basls of Independent My examination was carried out in accordance with general Directions giv8n •xaminer's slatemont by the Charity Commission. An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the tharity and a comparison of the accounts presented with Ihose records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or dlsclosures in the accounts. and seeking explanations from the trustees concerrbing any suth matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence thal would be required in an audit, and cOnsequen￿Y no opinffi is given as lo whether the accounts pres8nt a 'tru6 and fair. view and the report is limited to those matters set out in the statement below. Independent In Connection with my examination, no matter has come to my attention examIno￿$ statement lother than that disclosed below") 1. which gives me reasonable cause to believe that in, any material ￿spect, the requirements.. to keep accounling records in accordance wilh section 130 of tho Charities Act: and to p￿pare accounts whith accord Nmlh the accounting records and comply with the accounting requirements of the Charities Act have not been met. or 2. to which. in my opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. . F¥ease delete the words in ffte brackets rfthey do not apply. Signed: Date: Namo: Pal Davey Relevant professlonal quallflcation{s) or body (If any): IER March 2012

Address: She￿￿ Bam, Chesters Lane High Bentham LA2 7AN Sèction B Disclosure Only complele if the examiner nee(Is io high1￿ht material problems. IER March 2012