FolkDeep has been named the winner of the StartUp For Good Award at the Northern Ireland regional final of the UK StartUp Awards, marking a major milestone in the organisation’s journey.
The award recognises startups that are creating meaningful social impact, and for FolkDeep, this recognition feels deeply personal. From the very beginning, FolkDeep has been built around the belief that community stories, cultural traditions, lived experiences, and creative voices deserve to be seen, heard, preserved, and shared.
The UK StartUp Awards judges described FolkDeep as “a compelling StartUp For Good applicant that uses storytelling, arts, and digital archiving to preserve and share community voices.” This recognition reflects the heart of FolkDeep’s work: creating accessible cultural learning opportunities through storytelling, participatory arts, dance, workshops, community engagement, and digital archiving.
FolkDeep’s work has grown through projects and workshops across Belfast and Delhi, particularly through its flagship project, Radha Sutra: Stories Across Borders. The project explores cultural exchange through folklore, folk art, oral histories, dance, memory, and everyday traditions. It aims to make intercultural learning more inclusive, especially for children, young people, women, and communities that may not always have access to formal cultural spaces.
This achievement would not have been possible without the people who trusted FolkDeep at an early stage. Every participant who attended a workshop, every community partner who opened a door, every artist who shared their knowledge, every supporter who encouraged the work, and every organisation that believed in the vision has played a role in this moment.
A particularly emotional part of the award was seeing Soha Graham Anderson, one of FolkDeep CIC’s board directors, receive the award on behalf of FolkDeep.
Soha, together with the wider Windsor Hub Belfast community, has been one of the strongest forces behind FolkDeep’s early development. Many of FolkDeep’s first community workshops, experiments, conversations, and ideas were made possible through their support, encouragement, care, and trust. Seeing Soha hold the award felt like a full-circle moment and a reminder that community-led work is never built alone.
For FolkDeep, this award is not simply a celebration of what has already been achieved. It is also a sign of what is possible next. The organisation is continuing to develop its cultural programmes, community partnerships, workshops, digital storytelling work, and long-term vision for a community-owned archive of living traditions.
The journey now moves forward to the national final of the UK StartUp Awards at Ideas Fest this September.
This moment belongs to everyone who has supported FolkDeep, shared its work, participated in its programmes, and believed that community stories matter.
Thank you, truly.
This is only the beginning.