Community Spotlight – Magic Me

Susan Langford MBE is Director of Magic Me, an innovative arts organisation that brings together under 18s and over 55s in Tower Hamlets. Susan tells us how the organisation carries out vital work to reduce loneliness, increase social cohesion and spread joy across the generations, and why the need for this work is growing year on year.

What does your charity do?
Magic Me is an intergenerational arts organisation which has pioneered and delivered community arts projects bringing together under 18s and over 55s in Tower Hamlets since 1989. We decrease loneliness, increase social cohesion and spread joy across the generations. Our arts programmes in care homes for older people across London and Essex, offer exciting, engaging creative sensory activities for residents, training for staff and improved quality of life for people living with dementia and other conditions.

What are the challenges your service users face, and how does your organisation help users overcome them?
Our service users – affected by the cost of living crisis on top of the general poverty levels of our home borough – are in danger of social isolation and loneliness, and all the disconnection from civic society that those conditions bring. Our activities – which take place in community centres, schools, libraries, sheltered housing units and many more familiar locations – offer ways in to rebuilding social connection for older and younger members of the community, through a range of creative activities. By meeting and making together, participants of very different ages and often of different cultures, races and experiences, grow new relationships and fresh understanding.

Our model focuses on what people can do, not what they can’t. As one older participant in a project linking secondary school students with older neighbours said:“Everyone in this room’s got at least one big talent, and we’re all here to find out what that is.”

Younger and older people grow new skills, fresh confidence and become active citizens in their own communities.

Good governance is very important to our longevity, and we have been involved with ELBA’s BoardBuilders programme to help find new trustees for Magic Me. Corporate volunteers from partners introduced by ELBA have supported and participated actively in intergenerational arts projects.

Do you have an inspirational story/moment about your work that you would like to share?

A story told at our 30th Birthday Party in 2019:

“Hello, I’m Tony. I’m 55 and I recently moved into Coopers Court. I was born in Mile End Hospital and I’ve lived in Tower Hamlets for most of my life.

I moved in and within a couple of weeks someone told me that we were going to be working with Magic Me and I was hoping it was going to help me make friends and it has.

It was great to be in a fun environment, the atmosphere was a happy atmosphere and it just makes you feel good and lightens your mood. When we started working with the children they were very quiet and then by the end of it they were really enthusiastic and came to life.

Taking part in the project has made me more optimistic about the future and because of this project I have reconnected with my own son who is now 29 years old. Working with Magic Me means the dark clouds get blown away and you can take on more challenges.”

What kind of support are you in need of right now and how might volunteering fit into that?
We are always looking for inventive ways to diversify our income stream – from canny applications to the right Trust or Foundation to generous individual donations via our Big Give Christmas Fundraising Campaign. We will be looking for about 20 volunteers to work with us during 2025, mostly in support of our Spark programme in care homes.

What do you consider to be the main challenges on the horizon for Magic Me as you look ahead to the future?
Researchers predict that 1 in 2 of children born today will live into their 90s. Our work challenges how society thinks about ageing, imagining different future ways of growing older and building communities for all ages.

The UK’s population is getting older and sicker and more diverse – and times are tough for charities at the moment. There’s more demand and scope for our services, but we have to work harder to find the money to support them. However, we’ve been here for 35 years, and our imaginations have never failed us yet.

We look forward to working with ELBA and many local partners and intergenerational groups of residents in Tower Hamlets for many years to come yet!

Related
Contact Us

Send us an email and we'll get back to you, asap.

Not readable? Change text. captcha txt

Start typing and press Enter to search