About JAHA
A heritage and arts organisation with a lasting public purpose.
JAHA – James Alexander Heritage Arts CIC protects the historical record and activates it through film, archive practice, learning and public participation.
Our mission
Recover overlooked stories. Connect generations. Protect community histories.
JAHA exists to preserve, research and share Black British and Caribbean heritage, using archives, film, oral history, education and creative practice to ensure that community histories are protected, understood and carried forward.
We turn evidence and memory into thoughtful routes for people to encounter, interpret and contribute to the historical record.
Why JAHA exists
Important community histories need care, context and routes into public life.
Stories of housing, migration, service, home and belonging are often dispersed across family collections, personal testimony and institutional records. JAHA was created to connect those sources and ensure their meaning is not lost.
As a Community Interest Company, JAHA can develop individual films, archive programmes, learning resources and public events while building one coherent and enduring body of cultural memory.
The legacy at our heart
James Alexander
JAHA is rooted in the pioneering work of James Alexander, founder and director of Trinity Housing Association, which he established in 1969 with a clear mission: to help people facing housing discrimination in Britain find secure homes.
Through Trinity, James helped thousands of people secure housing, including single mothers, Caribbean migrants, Irish families and working-class communities who were too often excluded from decent and stable accommodation.
As a Black Caribbean man establishing and leading a housing organisation in Britain at that time, James was working at the intersection of migration, race, housing and community long before many of those histories were widely recognised or recorded. His work was practical, purposeful and rooted in a simple belief: everyone should have the opportunity to make a home.
His story opens a much wider conversation about Black British and Caribbean history, migration, discrimination, belonging, social change and the communities that helped shape modern Britain.
The Homemaker began our film journey into that history. My Father, The Homemakerexpands the story through documentary, archive research and testimony, while JAHA provides the organisational home through which James Alexander's legacy, and the wider histories connected to it, can be preserved, researched, interpreted and shared.
Explore In Search of My Father’s Blue Plaque
Explore the Projects- 01James Alexander
- 02Trinity Housing Association
- 03The Homemaker
- 04My Father, The Homemaker
- 05Archive and Heritage
- 06JAHA
What we do
Five connected programme strands.
Film makes stories visible. Archives preserve evidence. Education builds knowledge. Community work enables participation. Legacy activity ensures the work endures.
Leadership
Stewardship across vision, operations and cultural strategy.
JAHA is guided by Joanna Alexander, Chair and Founder Director; Debra Houston, Director of Operations; and Mia Morris OBE FRSA, Director of Cultural Strategy. Together they support responsible growth, delivery, partnership and public value.
Meet Our DirectorsWho we work with