The "dominant culture" of Shoreditch is white, and full of pride for its "east end" history and character. However, since 1948, when the first wave of immigrants arrived on the Empress Windrush, there has been a significant growth of African-Caribbean culture. In the past 15 years, the number of African families moving into the Shoreditch's main streets reflects this cultural picture.

It is important to us to ensure that our activities also reflect this mix, which includes difference faiths as well as ethnicities. We know that, to engage people in Shoreditch in anything, but especially interculturally, the most important thing is trust. We also know that working intergenerationally is a great strength, because a huge amount of caring is done (by the young of the old, by the old of the young, by teenagers of younger siblings). So, activities need to be able to encompass these demands. Quality (both in the artists working with the residents and in end product) is also critical, so that the achievement itself and the public attention it then deservedly attracts are also part of the process of bonding communities.

We began with a project called Memory Boxes, on one estate, which consisted of older people working with young people (in pairs, and each half of the pair from a different cultural background) to create a scene in an old munitions box from the past in the life of the older person in the pair. The final exhibition - once on the estate and once in a professional art gallery - was so popular, so much loved and considered to be so useful in demonstrating the community "as one" that the leaders on the estate worked for a year to raise the funds to make a special room in their community buildings a permanent "home" for it.

We produced an Africa Day in 2005 by, for and with African residents in Shoreditch; and similarly, in 2006, an Anatolian day. Both involved around 35 residents in creating/delivering the event and each attracted around 4,000 attendees.

Since 2007, we have been also addressing the more subtle variance in responses to "feeling part of the community" within the MORI 2006 household survey based upon respondents ethnicity, with 67% of black respondents answering either "a great deal/a fair amount" compared to just 39% of white respondents. Reviewing this data by age, the sample size of the community "a great deal or a fair amount" who are over the age of 65 drops to just 34%.

And so we added a specific emphasis on older white people, working on projects with 15- and 40-year-old people from BME backgrounds. This year, our programme finally matured and - we believe - will demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach. We committed more than £100,000 and produced a programme which includes sewing and quilting workshops; "Shoreditch International Village" free, outdoors, accessible and representing Polish, English, African, Anatolian, African Caribbean, Vietnamese communities; "Growing Gardens" - an allotment project on an estate; work with the English National Ballet; Afro Reggae; and four projects built around a 1948-themed street party ("make do and mend", toy making, BBC Radio and an African-Caribbean Dance Hall).

While the formal evaluation process is not yet complete, the post-project focus group work has recorded pride in achievement, lasting friendships, desire to work together again, greater tolerance of each other's backgrounds (especially in relation to the food of different cultures, which is a major issue).

This is not a particularly articulate community with each other, as levels and forms of spoken English - the only common language - vary widely from excellent to none, from street slang to swearing from the frustration of not being able to express oneself. The means of identifying, collecting and measuring social capital (which encompasses the role language has in racial tensions) and the impact our work is having on individuals are all part of our evaluation work in progress.

We are currently undertaking a major evaluation on the impact of this, and there is a MORI survey currently being undertaken.

Local residents.

Our various activities that have a primary focus on interculturality and intergenerality - and can be very specifically identified as such - amount to approximately £80.000. On top of that there are the hidden costs of salaries and overheads of those Shoreditch Trust staff who may help (e.g. the Research & Evaluation Manager, the Festival staff, the in-kind value of using our own restaurant for meetings and food) that are not directly charged back to the programme. On the other hand, any positive results achieved in bringing the different cultures in the community together, of reducing racial tensions and fear, would be considered core to our remit of improving the lives of residents of Shoreditch.

It is also difficult to estimate the value of support (financial and in-kind) from our partners, who range from local churches, halls, schools, shops, arts organisations, voluntary sector organisations and businesses.