About OUR HEARTBEATS

Our HeartBeats is a Community Interest Company (C.I.C.) dedicated to empowering young people through DJing, music, and performance. Our mission is simple:

To champion creativity, identity, and opportunity for young people from refugee backgrounds and underrepresented communities.

We encourage emerging creatives (18–25) to express themselves, develop confidence, and gain practical skills through hands-on workshops, collaboration, and real-world performance experience.

We believe music builds community. And we’re here to help the next generation shape it.

OUR STORY

Our HeartBeats began in June 2024 co-created with Counterpoints Arts with a shared idea: to create an entry point into DJing for young people from refugee, asylum-seeking, and displaced backgrounds — not as a one-off project, but as something that could grow.

Our first public moment came during Refugee Week 2024, with a fundraiser and showcase at The Jago in Dalston. Graduates from early DJ workshops performed their first sets in front of a live audience, blending sounds that represented “home” to them — global influences meeting London’s club culture. That night wasn’t just a gig; it was proof that the programme could work.

Later that summer, Our HeartBeats took part in a Southbank Centre outdoor programme, bringing together emerging refugee DJs and established artists in a free, public setting. These early events set the tone for what Our HeartBeats would become: community-led, collaborative, and rooted in care, creativity, and visibility.

Growing the Programme (2025)

In 2025, Our HeartBeats entered a new phase. Building on the momentum of the first year, the programme developed into a more structured curriculum combining:

  • DJ skills and performance training

  • broadcasting and radio experience

  • collaboration, wellbeing, and confidence-building

  • live performance opportunities

Throughout the year, participants performed and contributed across major cultural platforms, including:

  • Southbank Centre (Unity in Motion residency, four nights)

  • Glastonbury Festival (Backstage & West Holts stage, alongside volunteering on site)

  • Roundhouse (Refugee Week performance)

  • Crossroads Music Festival

  • The Conduit, marking the beginning of an ongoing relationship and later our first performances as a CIC.

Alongside live events, Our HeartBeats developed a strong presence in radio and broadcasting, delivering:

  • Freedom Frequencies on Worldwide FM (Refugee Week)

  • a Sister Midnight FM takeover

  • a Voices Radio takeover linked to festival promotion

  • a live broadcast from We Out Here Festival

These opportunities allowed participants to be treated not just as learners, but as artists — trusted, visible, and respected within professional cultural spaces.

Becoming a CIC

By late 2025, it became clear that Our HeartBeats was no longer just a project. To protect the work, the community, and its future, Our HeartBeats formally became a COMMUNITY INTEREST COMPANY (CIC).
This shift marked an important step: from delivery to sustainability. From short-term opportunities to long-term pathways. 
Today, Our HeartBeats is building towards its next chapter — developing programmes that support beginners, nurture emerging artists, and create paid opportunities for advanced DJs, while maintaining the values that shaped it from the start. 
As we approach two years of activity in 2026, Our HeartBeats continues to grow as a platform, a programme, and a community — driven by the belief that music can open doors, build confidence, and create belonging.