Community Partner Highlight: Nourishment

How do we engage young people with health in ways that feel creative, meaningful and rooted in community?

Nourishment is a Black British, Gen Z-led community organisation and cultural marketing agency that connects underrepresented audiences with arts and culture. Through its annual Giving Black campaign, Nourishment is showing how health engagement can look different when it is shaped around the interests, spaces and experiences of young people.

Giving Black combines music, fashion, nightlife, food, discussion and social events to raise awareness of sickle cell and encourage more young, diverse people to give blood. This year’s campaign includes a social event at Second Home and a group blood drive at Brixton Donor Centre, with a goal of recruiting 50 donors and raising funds for the Sickle Cell Society.

What stands out about Nourishment’s approach is the way it brings health conversations into spaces that already feel familiar and appealing to young people. Rather than relying on traditional routes, the campaign uses culture and creativity to make participation feel social, engaging and easy to connect with.

Nourishment’s approach is a great example of how engagement and involvement can be done differently. By using culture, creativity and the spaces young people already connect with, Giving Black creates new routes for people to learn, connect and take action. It is a reminder that reaching different audiences — particularly younger people — may require us to think beyond more traditional methods and create opportunities that feel authentic, accessible and are shaped around the communities we hope to involve.