Bringing a Vision to Life: Supporting The Ernest Foundation's Community Health Events
Earlier this year, Rebel Led had the pleasure of working alongside The Ernest Foundation to deliver a series of three community events in Peckham — each one celebrating culture, building connection, and putting community health and wellbeing at its heart.
The Ernest Foundation's Vision
The Ernest Foundation is a community organisation dedicated to improving quality of life, raising health awareness, and breaking down the stigma that so often surrounds difficult health conversations. Founded with a mission to support people living with and affected by serious health conditions, the Foundation has long understood that health is not just a medical matter — it's social, cultural, and deeply tied to whether people feel seen, supported, and connected.
Ernest Nkrumah, who leads the Foundation, brings real heart to this work. His vision for these events was simple but powerful: to bring Peckham's many communities together, to make space for honest conversations about health, and to remind people that whatever our background, we share more than divides us.
A Special Mention: Jane Lebbie
No account of these events would be complete without recognising Jane Lebbie. A volunteer with The Ernest Foundation, Jane is a ball of positivity and energy who carried so much of the load behind the scenes. Her warmth, commitment, and sheer get-it-done spirit were felt across all three events. Every community initiative needs a Jane — and the Foundation is lucky to have her.
How We Helped
Rebel Led came on board as the community engagement partner across all three events, leading on creative facilitation, participant outreach, activity design, and evaluation. Here's how each event came together.
Event One — Wellbeing as a Strategy: Surviving and Thriving in Peckham
16 January 2026 · Peckham Library
The series opened with a workshop exploring wellbeing as a foundation for thriving — both personally and in business. Held in the community room at Peckham Library, with Healthwatch Southwark offering blood pressure checks on the side, the session brought together residents and local business owners for an honest conversation about health.
Dr Goh of the Lister Clinic delivered a compelling presentation making the case for why wellbeing matters — including the striking figure that ill health costs employers an estimated £85 billion a year — and explored how supportive work environments, good working conditions, and attention to physical, mental, and social health can change outcomes. What followed was a genuinely robust discussion, with passionate community health leaders putting tough questions to the panel — questions Dr Goh handled with skill and openness.
Rebel Led facilitated the session, designed the interactive elements, and supported the discussion that made the afternoon so lively. It set the tone for the series: health, taken seriously, in community.
Event Two:Winter Warming Culture Day
31 January 2026 · Peckham Levels
The second event turned up the celebration. At Peckham Levels, Winter Warming Culture Day brought residents together for an afternoon of participatory art, live performance, food, and connection.
Rebel Led designed and facilitated two large-scale community artworks. "This Time Next Year, Rodney" — a nod to Peckham's most famous TV export — invited people to fill a giant Peckham silhouette with their hopes for the area's future. A second piece asked the simple question: "What is Peckham culture to you?" The responses were honest, moving, and revealing — touching on diversity, unity, belonging, LGBTQ+ inclusion, and a real appetite for better access to community health.
Steel pan from Tony UrbanSmash, a live kora player, and dancers filled the space with energy, while community leaders and councillors joined residents in conversation. We were also joined by Aymara Social Enterprise, who support Peckham's Latin American and minority ethnic communities — including around mental health and wellbeing. They threw themselves into the activities, shared the work they do, and brought a real dose of Latin energy and fun to the day. It was community engagement at its most joyful — people from every background creating something together.
Event Two:Winter Warming Culture Day
Event Three — Peckham's Multicultural Plates
17 March 2026 · SET Social
The series reached its peak with Peckham's Multicultural Plates — a community feast celebrating culture through food, music, dress, craft, and storytelling, with health woven throughout.
The response was remarkable: 144 registrations and a warm, packed room at SET Social. Live drumming and dance from Gran Familia WARMIS UK CIC, arts and craft led by Awesta Charitable Organisation, Jurgen's Letters of Love workshop, food sharing, and a health check station all featured. But the standout — emerging organically as the heart of the evening — was a panel discussion that created a rare, safe space for candid community conversation on health topics often kept silent, including FGM and menopause.
The feedback spoke volumes: 94% of respondents said they felt welcome and included, and 90% said they'd attend another event like it. Rebel Led led on community engagement and produced the full monitoring and evaluation report, capturing both the numbers and the voices that made the night so special.
"Great event overall. People very nice. Great networking. Panel talk was excellent. Great to hear what people are doing in Southwark." — Participant.
Special thanks to the team at SET Social. We look forward to working with you again in the near future.
It was a pleasure to help bring Ernest's vision to life across these three events — and an even bigger pleasure to watch the community come together to tackle health inequalities on their own terms. From a wellbeing workshop, to a culture day, to a multicultural feast, each event proved the same thing: that when people are given space to connect, celebrate, and speak honestly, communities don't just survive — they thrive.
Thank you to The Ernest Foundation, to Jane, to every performer and partner, and most of all to the residents of Peckham who showed up, shared, and made these events what they were.
Breaking barriers. Building belonging.