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Posts Tagged ‘Newham’

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 »

Going it alone – producing your own content

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

One approach to countering the largely negative perceptions of poor communities in the mainstream media is to go it alone, and start producing the content yourself. New and cheaper technologies are making this easier to do, and it fits well with our belief that those who experience an issue understand it best. We have been keen to encourage the people we work with, particularly young people to tell their own stories.

(more…)

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Posted in Attitudes | 1 Comment »

Londoners unite to tackle poverty

Monday, November 23rd, 2009

Next Tuesday 1st December a coalition of anti poverty charities and organisations from around London, including Community Links, will meet to share successes and look ahead to next year. Stephen Timms MP for East Ham will open the event, but after that we’ll be hearing almost exclusively from activists and charities working locally around London, including from Community Links co-founder and local councillor Kevin Jenkins.

The event, being held in Stratford, is being organised by the European Anti Poverty Network London branch. The EU have declared 2010 the European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion (nothing like a snappy title), and this meeting is to allow London charities to start deciding what they can do throughout next year.

As well as Community Links, organisations participating will include the Migrants Resource Centre, End Child Poverty London, ATD Fourth World,  Leonard Cheshire Disability, City Parochial Foundation, and more. There will also be an exhibition of the charities’ work open to the public all day.

For more information, or to reserve a place, download the programme and booking form here

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Posted in Informal Economy, News, Voices from the Ground Up | 2 Comments »

Urban Regeneration: building local communities

Tuesday, January 20th, 2009

London 2012 Olympic StadiumYesterday Parliament’s All Party Urban Development Group published a report on regeneration; specifically the impact that physical regeneration can have on local employment.  (Thanks to Kevin Harris whose Neighbourhoods blog alerted me to this publication).

Last autumn we at Community Links put together our own analysis of the physical regeneration taking place around us in the London Borough of Newham, home to the new 2012 London Olympics site. Our Social Change booklet on Regeneration is available for free download (or email me for  a printed copy). Much of what we considered is reflected in this weeks APUDG report. They also list in the bibliography a report we produced jointly with new economics foundation (nef) about the Olympic development entitled Fools Gold.

The current economic climate means that the large scale physical redevelopments currently underway in east London are unlikely to be repeated. This makes it all the more important to ensure that local people are able to benefit fully from the community regeneration legacy with long-term, sustainable jobs providing quality training and good prospects.

Our regeneration report suggested that Section 106 agreements could be better used. Section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 allows an agreement between developers and planning authority to deliver specified community benefit. Our view is that S106 should be used to ensure the benefit to communities both in infrastructural developments but also in ongoing revenue support of community activity. 

The new report this week from APUDG concurs that S106 could be helpful in providing local people with jobs and that it is important to ensure these jobs are sustainable after physical regeneration is complete.

Regeneration is about so much more than shiny new buildings, now more than ever it is vital that we seize this a once in a lifetime opportunity to get it right for the communities of east London.

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Posted in Community Engagement, Regeneration, Research | 2 Comments »

Congratulations Kevin

Monday, December 1st, 2008

Community Links Co-Founder and Senior Advisor, Kevin Jenkins has been named as the overall winner of the national Beacon Fellowship Awards 2008. He also won the ‘Community Builder‘ award, for his contribution and work with children and young people of Newham over the last 30 years.

Kevin is just one of six recipients of the 2008 Beacon Prize and joins the ranks of previous Beacon winners such as Sir Bob Geldof and Jamie Oliver who have been recognised for their charitable work through what has become known as the ‘Nobel Prize of the charity world’. Kevin received his award at a Prize Ceremony on 18th November, held at the end of day two of our very own Chain Reaction event on London’s South Bank. This really is a fantastic achievement for Kevin – there is stiff competition for this well deserved prize!

 Photo: Rebecca Marshall www.rebecca.marshall.com

View Video of Kevin Jenkins at Beacon Website

Read the Beacon Fellowship Press Release

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Posted in Inspiration, Leadership | 1 Comment »

London Olympics 2012: community engagement

Friday, September 19th, 2008

Graffiti Art Canning TownThere is genuine excitement and expectancy amongst many local people in east London about the coming Games; in part driven by sporting success of of team GB in the Beijing Olympics and Paralympics.

Now that the Olympic Flag has been handed over by the Chinese to the new host city London the focus tuns sharply towards 2012.

In 2007/08 we were ran a series of local events commissioned by the London Borough of Newham’s Community Participation Unit, so we could understand from local residents how the London Olympics 2012 might inspire them to become more active in their local community.

We have compiled all the views and feedback we collected at the eight events into one downloadable report “Inspired By the Olympics”. This report shares the views and opinions that local residents hold about the Olympics, so that the responsible bodies and agencies across the five London Olympic boroughs and other parts of the UK, can hear the voices of local people and take action to deliver a better Olympics, and more importantly to leave behind a valuable legacy for local residents and businesses in the area.

We found that local residents were excited and felt proud and inspired by the coming Games. ‘I am looking forward to the Olympics: I feel it is a positive and uplifting move for the borough.’ They wanted to be involved in the Games themselves, by attending the sport events, as well as volunteering. ‘I wish that everyone will get involved, especially the youngsters.’ Many local residents wanted to take advantage of future employment, training and business opportunities. People felt that better jobs, and better paid jobs, along with good childcare were key priorities. They wanted to volunteer in their local communities to enable other people to get involved. They also wished for improvements in council services, including safer local parks, cleaner streets and neighbourhoods, more policing, less crime amongst young people.

We asked children of all ages to contribute to the consultation. Here are a few…

I wish…

‘I could run or swim in the Olympics 2012.’

‘My wish is to attend at least one event’.

 ‘The Olympics bring fun and improvements to our community.‘

‘I wish to do the relay and become the winner, and get the medals and the money for the poor people.’

‘I am four now and I will be nine when the Olympics starts, how can I be involved?’

 Download the report: Inspired by the Olympics.

 

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Posted in Communication, Community Engagement, Inspiration, Regeneration, Research | 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 »

Tackling child poverty in Newham

Wednesday, August 6th, 2008

Birthday Cake Picture The London Borough of Newham Overview & Scrutiny Commission on tackling child poverty recently launched their final report. We at linksUK were commissioned to provide further evidence by interviewing local families living in poverty. 

We presented the findings as case studies. The image here is from a poignant diary entry of one young person, aged nine, imagining what her birthday cake might look like.

 

Notable findings from the case studies show that:

All of the families struggle to pay for the basics including food and energy bills; some are living through periods of absolute poverty, for example, not having enough to eat.

All of the families interviewed have multiple, complex and interconnected issues each of which impacts on their immediate and future circumstances, contributing to a life lived in poverty. Poverty is not a simple issue. Some of the participants are working but remain in poverty; and some are working outside of the mainstream for cash-in-hand to provide for their families. (see our work on the informal economy) 

Housing is an important issue for participants, who reported poor quality, cramped and damp accomodation, as well as  poor service from the housing department. These issues are affecting residents health, employment and ability to move into work. (see linksUK’s ‘Housing Benefit in 2008’ evidence paper No.11)

All of the case studies point towards inconsistent and at times poor experiences of dealing with local and national statutory support services. (see linksUK’s report ‘Interact: benefits, tax credits and moving into work’)

Participants had good ideas and solutions about how to improve their own situation and local services. (see: linksUK’s Everyday Innovators programme)

All the people described in these case studies are likely to continue to live in poverty for years to come. 

Later this year we will be publishing our own report on child poverty, as part of our forthcoming ‘Social Change Pamphlets’ series, subscribe to regular updates to be kept in touch.

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Posted in Child Poverty | 5 Comments »