East and Southeast Asian heritage month

For the whole of September we celebrate East and South East Asian heritage, culture and history.

Apply for the East and South East Asian Heritage Month grant

East and Southeast Asian (ESEA) Heritage Month is a time to honour, celebrate and reflect on the rich and diverse cultures, histories and contributions of East and Southeast Asian communities across the UK.

Lewisham is home to many residents from East and Southeast Asian backgrounds. This September, we will be marking ESEA Heritage Month once again by supporting local events and activities dedicated to East and South East Asian heritage, culture, history and everything in between. It is a chance to celebrate, acknowledge and learn about the incredible ways in which our communities have helped shape the UK.

East and Southeast Asian (ESEA) Heritage Month grants

With 2025 marking the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, we especially want to highlight the length and strength of our histories, reflecting on how communities evolve with time.
We are offering small grants of up to £2000 to support people living or working in Lewisham to create their own local activities or events during ESEA Heritage Month in September around the theme of resilience.

What types of event are eligible for funding?

a community event such as a meal with a cultural activity
intergenerational event bringing older and younger people from the community together
storytelling event or talk
exhibition with photographs or oral history contributions, cultural activity such as music, arts or crafts
gardening activity
podcast, social media event or campaign
film screenings or theatre performances
organise a street party and encourage people to come together as a community.

Applications close at 11.59pm on Sunday 3 August 2025.

Application Criteria

Please read the following criteria before submitting your application:

applicants must demonstrate lived experience of being part of, or working closely with, East and Southeast Asian communities
activities must celebrate, explore or raise awareness of ESEA heritage, identity or community experience
members of ESEA communities should be involved in the planning and/or delivery of the project.

Please note: We can fund organisations as well as individuals, however if you are making an application as an individual you must be endorsed by a constituted organisation. This could be a housing association, residents association, voluntary sector organisation, faith organisation, food bank or local school. All we require is you provide the details of your endorsing organisation. We will follow up with this organisation to confirm your relationship and organise payment of funds.

Funded organisations must ensure that:

1. A bank account is in operation into which payment can be made. We cannot pay into individual bank accounts; if your group does not have an official bank account you will need to ask an organisation to hold the money for you (contact us if you need help with this).

2. All legal and insurance liabilities associated with the project are fulfilled

3. Appropriate safeguarding measures are implemented such as DBS checks

4. All projects are completed between 1-30 September 2025.

5. A completed monitoring form with appropriate information is provided at the end of the project. This will include a one page narrative report on your event or activities along with pictures and quotes from attendees and any data collected on number of attendees, feedback etc. The deadline for completed monitoring forms will be Friday 31 October 2025.

If you have any concerns or questions about the above requirements or anything else related to this application form, please email cultural.events@lewisham.gov.uk

If you are hosting a street party then you will also need to apply for a road closure by going to the Council's website.

All funded projects will be requested to send information about their projects along with any pictures (with any necessary permissions) prior to the event so that our communications team can support with promoting your event as widely as possible.

We will not be able to consider late applications.

ESEA Heritage Month Grant Timeline

programme launch: Friday 11 July
deadline for applications: 11.59pm on Sunday 3 August
assessment panel meets: Week commencing Monday 4 August
successful applicants informed: Friday 8 August
events take place: Between Monday 1 and Tuesday 30 September
monitoring forms due: Friday 31 October

Published on: 14/07/2025