Creative arts charity celebrates 5th birthday at The Scoop

The charity's founders cut a celebratory cake with Hollywood actress Eileen Essell and Munira Mirza, the Mayor of London's director of arts, culture and creative industries policy.

Participants from two of Create's projects performed dance pieces inspired by the More London area. In recent weeks Create has brought together local children with young adults with learning disabilities from Bermondsey's Bede House community centre. The Moving Images project has provided photography and dance for young carers in Westminster.

Last week Create offered two days of free open workshops in Indian dance and swing dance for local residents at The Scoop amphitheatre.

Create has run more than 1,840 workshops for more than 13,200 participants since 2003. The charity has always worked to break down barriers, be these barriers to opportunity or dividing lines between different sections of society.

"Since founding Create in 2003, we have always believed in the potential of the creative arts to help transform lives by giving people who are disadvantaged or vulnerable the opportunity to be creative and develop life skills," explain co-founders Nicky Goulder and Samantha Lodge.

"We are also passionate about empowering our participants to contribute to a fairer, safer, more tolerant, more caring society. Through the continued excellence of our artists, volunteers and participants, and thanks to the generosity of all our funders over the years, we believe that Create has consistently achieved these aims through its cornerstones of access, innovation, excellence and passion.

"We are immensely proud of all the many thousands of participants who our projects have reached including inner city schoolchildren, young people who have been excluded from school, juvenile and young offenders, women in prison, children in hospitals and hospices, young carers, homeless adults, children and adults with special needs, refugees, asylum seekers and older people. We are looking forward to the next five years!"

The More Creative project is supported by a range of local organisations including Haddon Hall Baptist Church, More London Development Ltd, Newcomen Collett Foundation, The Employees' Charitable Trust of Terra Firma Capital Partners Ltd, United St Saviour's Charity, HBOS Foundation, St Olave & Bermondsey United Charities.