Community Links

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Posts Tagged ‘Canning Town’

Giving Canning Town a LIFT

Monday, July 5th, 2010

LIFT Canning Town Just around the corner from our headquarters building in Canning Town an intriguing new structure has been taking shape behind the hoardings over the last few weeks. Here in east London amid the Olympics building work and other huge regeneration projects we are used to seeing things change. The new building on the site of former council housing is actually a mobile performance venue – basically a big tent  – and provides a temporary home to the London International Festival of Theatre.

For a few weeks this empty patch of ground will be transformed into a venue for a diverse range of drama as well as a full programme of eclectic events stretching from boxing to haircuts by children!

As part of the fun Community Links will be taking over the space for a full day next Monday 12th July.  We will be presenting a Family Fun day with a programme of activity and taster sessions including a chance to get professional advice and help filling in forms; Keep Fit; Pensioners Bingo; Salsa Dance workshop; after-school craft activities for local children and ending up with music and street dance performances from young people in the Youth Zone until 9:00pm

It’s great to have unused bits of urban land put to community use and bringing drama to areas outside the west end of London is to be celebrated. Come and join us at our family fun day next week – or come sooner and take in a show. Highlights this week include free performances of  “She from the Sea” by Zawe Ashton from the Clean Break Company – a theatre company using theatre for personal and political change, working with women whose lives have been affected by the criminal justice system. The programme outlines the performance :

Pearl, Masha and Edlin are trying to move on.  A simple life by the sea is all they need to forget their pasts.  But when a mysterious visitor is washed up, she brings with her a dark history that threatens their new way of life. A decision must be made.   Let her stay or make her swim?

Hooked?  … I might see you there….   7.30pm, 8 July 2010 or 2.30pm & 7.30pm, 9 July 2010. Loads of other interesting and exciting things are happening and it is a great opportunity to experience something new in an unusual setting.

Have a look at the full programme and do drop-in on Monday 12th to join in the  Community Links family fun day.

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Posted in Communication, Innovation, Inspiration, Regeneration | No Comments »

Blog Action Day: Poverty

Wednesday, October 15th, 2008

CanaryWharf: the view from Canning TownToday we are taking part in Blog Action Day to add our voice to the global conversation taking place about poverty.

Much has been written about the ills of poverty, so no need to repeat it all here. Check out: linksUK’s own research publications and Evidence Papers.

It’s also worth having a look at the following: Poverty in the UK, International Poverty, The Campaign to End Child Poverty,  and the JRF’s End Child Poverty site.

At Community Links one of our four strategic aims is to reduce poverty, something we’ve been working at for the last 31 years.

We witness real hardship in our local communities. For example we have a cupboard full of dried and canned food to help out people who turn up on our doorstep penniless and hungry. One local woman told me “I haven’t eaten over the weekend as I ran out of money and had to feed the kids first.”

This is totally unacceptable. We are the fourth largest economy in the world and yet have a growing disparity between rich and poor. This is made strikingly clear for all those who visit our headquarters in Canning Town (one of the poorest neighbourhoods in the country) as the skyscrapers of Canary Wharf loom visibly a mile or two down the road.

Next week we will be issuing a new publication detailing our research and practical work on child poverty – with recommendations to help those most affected locally – let us know if you would like a copy.

So today there are three things you can do:

  1. Join the conversation by leaving a comment here about your experiences of poverty.
  2. Check out Blog Action Day and see what others are talking about around the world.
  3. Have your own conversation about poverty with your family, friends and colleagues, and do it today.

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Posted in Child Poverty, Welfare | No Comments »

The geography of life expectancy

Thursday, September 4th, 2008

I was reminded recently of the London Health Observatory statistic that for every tube stop on the Jubilee line going east, from Westminster to Canning Town, life expectancy decreases by one year.

A more shocking report from the World Health Organisation last week claimed that life expectancy in two different neighbourhoods of Glasgow (a 10 minute drive from each other) vary by as much as 28 years.

The main factor for this huge disparity is poverty. Staggeringly the gap between the rich and the poor has continued to grow over the last 10 years under a Labour government.

Poverty has a life time impact on the children and young people who grow up experienceing it.  Child poverty in the UK is unacceptable. We are the fourth largest economy in the world, a powerhouse for the world’s financial markets, a rich and prosperous country, and yet:

  • 3.9 million children are living below the poverty line in Britain 
  • 1 in 4 children in London live in poverty 
  • 54% of children in the London borough of Newham, where we work, live in poverty

We recently published some research into poverty in our area  commissioned by the local authority and in October linksUK’s ‘Social Change Series’ will focus on child poverty- so watch this blog… or subscribe to get regular updates by email.

 

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Posted in Child Poverty | No Comments »