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Inside Thames Life: What would it take to stay here?

Mondays at Thames Life tend to be about the big introspective questions. Of course, we do the usual “how was the weekend” conversation but we often create the space for reflecting on our place in the community. I’ll blame it on our CEO, Matt.

Recently, Matt asked me how I feel as a local resident about the development happening around me. I paused for a few moments and just bluntly stated that I didn’t feel like it really mattered. Housing units being doubled felt like a definitive plan that I wouldn’t be able to influence. Sure, I could dance around polite conversations at consultations but the truth is that I feel like my voice doesn’t really matter. Profits speak louder and the interests of investors would most certainly take priority over my desire for a medium to low-density town.

I have lived in Barking Riverside for 5 years now, having now had two young children. As a family we’re deciding on the long-term. So, what would it take for us to want to stay here? To celebrate a recent milestone birthday, I headed to Kenya and came across a number of British expats and a few wants kept coming up: affordability, and an abundance of space. I want to feel inspired by where I live. For it to be a reflection of my values and be a positive thread in the upbringing of my children. For it to be financially attainable, allowing me the flexibility to afford more time for the things that really matter. I want a feeling of community without my space feeling overcrowded. To be able to go for walks and get lost in nature but have the familiar face at the local for a quick chat. A slower more thoughtful pace of life. Everyone wants the ability to enjoy life uninterrupted.

In my present context, if my voice did matter, I would say those things. I would humanise the masterplan and ask those who live elsewhere, but work in Barking, why they live in other parts of London, and what keeps them there? Is it the Victorian style housing, or the trendy bakeries. Is it the parks or nature reserves in walking distance. That ‘village green’ suburban feel. During the pandemic, Zoom offered us a window into each other’s homes and some of us transported ourselves to virtual beaches, but I always remembered those who were proud of the background they called home.

It’s not rocket science. Residents don’t want to live in boxes all their lives, well at least I don’t. I want a home.

Zainab Jalloh

Communications Officer

CEO Blog: Surrounded by idiots

The gist of a recent best-selling book by Thomas Erikson (Surrounded by Idiots) is that most of us at some point or another throw our hands up in the air in frustration at the behaviour and actions of others and wonder if we are in fact surrounded by idiots.

We look in amazement and disbelief when someone says something we don’t recognize. How could they possibly think that? We form groups that reinforce our views and put us further out of touch with other groups, who are not like us. The idiots over there, who occasionally stare back, at the idiots over there.

Thomas Erikson got a bit of stick for the title. It’s not very nice to call people idiots. But for me, I think what he is saying is that we are all idiots because we end up talking and judging more than we listen. We take perceptual short cuts; we go on automatic pilot; we tune people out. It’s hard not to really.

The book puts forward four personality types: red, yellow, green, and blue spanning people who are extrovert, active, implementers (red, yellow) to those who are more introverted, passive and reserved (blue, green) and likewise those who are task and issue oriented (red, blue) and those who are more relation-oriented (green, yellow). Most people have a combination of two colours that predominate.

With every personality type there are positive and negative features – it’s a blessing and a curse, as Detective Monk would say on Netflix.

I am familiar with other exercises like this – Myers Briggs, Belbin etc., and I recommend anyone to exercise a degree of skepticism. These things are not an exact science but if it helps us get a different perspective that is more productive for self and others, I’d say go with it.

My idiot rating.

I did this exercise with others, leaving out the bit about surrounded by idiots and all the theory but as a blind exercise and it was surprising how, from a wide choice of adjectives, the same words cropped up multiple times, when people were asked to choose for each other. I had bits of all the colours, red was most common – ‘strong willed’ came up a lot, as did ‘analytical’ (blue), but plenty of dashes of green and yellow.

I am happy to be seen as strong willed, I’ll take that. As I explained to one senior stakeholder earlier this year, when I felt like things might be getting a bit too directive, I don’t want to be in anyone’s pocket. Maybe that came across as a bit aggressive? On balance I’m ok with it but it’s not for everyone. You can see the potential for clashes.

An idiotic voluntary sector.

I’m in a sector that tends to value the more caring, passive, relation-oriented side of things (green, yellow). I’m sure of it. That’s why the voluntary sector gets pushed around and lacks the respect, reward and recognition gifted to other sectors. It hardly ever stands up for itself. It wouldn’t know how to. That’s the downside to being caring and sharing. Sometimes it is not a mistake to take kindness for weakness.

That’s probably a partial truth. I’m an idiot after all, with red tendencies (independent, pushy, hard). When I feel I need to be. A more respectful, supportive, pleasant (green) approach might do wonders. I can sometimes do that too, allegedly.

Useful Idiots.

Lenin coined the term ‘useful idiot’. It has been taken to mean someone who is being used. A naïve fool, susceptible to manipulation, who is propagandizing for a cause without fully comprehending the cause’s goals. When I see the voluntary sector talking about collaboration, trust, and partnership uncritically I sometimes get that vibe. It’s like these words are spells that make all the bad things (tokenism, placation) go away just because someone in authority says them often enough.

Ladder of participation.

Sherry Arnstein showed how people get suckered into thinking they are participating and sharing power when mostly they are not – she called it a ladder of participation. Next time you are in a meeting or at an event that purports to be about engagement – consider what rung of the ladder you and others are on. The lower rungs are for useful idiots.

Cash rules everything around me.

Councils in London feel like they’re in a death spiral right now. Those who avoid section 114 bankruptcy notices are reeling. The minutes of cabinet monthly papers see threats everywhere and the cuts go ever deeper. Elsewhere if you follow the money, land value is a gift that keeps giving. The borough’s population will near double within a generation or two. If you can build housing units, admittedly of variable quality, safety, and price, then that’s where the financial opportunity is, that’s the ticket to escape austerity and public services rationing. Council policy is increasingly built around asset maximisation – sweating what you have for money. What no one will tell you publicly is that there is a trade-off between profit and social need – guess which side is winning?

Residents driving change.

It’s crazy that we live in a city that has so much money and yet people In Barking and Dagenham live in poverty. They die early. That is what poverty means ultimately. A lot of that money is bound up in property – who gets to build it and who can afford it. It’s crazy. For those who suffer we appear to be surrounded by idiots. Listening to the apologists for regeneration, residents are to blame, they lack aspiration. The alternative would be that the council and developers bear more than a little responsibility. The councils and developers might also blame central government, the framing of accountability ripples out, keep going and central government might point to a global market. You intervene then hot money exits your economy.

What would it take for the Thames Life vision to be true – ‘a diverse and vibrant community where residents are driving change’? There are different perceptions. I’m making the case that long term sustainable change is only possible when residents and their community groups lead it and set the agenda from the start. That would be partnership. That would be aspirational. To do that we will need to double down and be stronger willed. Is that realistic? Does anything important or worthwhile start from making an accommodation with someone else’s view of what is possible or appropriate? With our thoughts we make the world.

By Matt Scott

CEO

Sources:

Arnstein, S (1969) Ladder of Citizen Participation. Journal of the American Planning Association, Vol. 35, No. 4, July 1969, pp. 216-224.

Colenutt, B (2020) The Property Lobby. Bristol: Polity

Erikson, T (2014) Surrounded By Idiots. London: Penguin

Trust for London (2024) London’s Poverty Index: Barking & Dagenham indicator rankings:

Infant mortality – worse compared to all London Boroughs
Premature mortality – worse compared to all London Boroughs
Qualifications at 19 – worse compared to all London Boroughs

Allies & Morrison – Barking & Dagenham character study:

“The pressure for housing within London and the shift of development eastward has positioned the Borough of Barking & Dagenham for growth. Located in east London, and with a population of 210,000, the borough has scope to increase the number of homes by 70% over the next 15 years”.

Inside Thames Life: Miruna’s work experience

My name is Miruna, and I am a Year 10 student that obtained the delightful opportunity to complete my compulsory work experience spanning over a week with Thames Life.

I would define Thames Life as a charity that prioritises the community; from arranging various community events, to publishing articles by and for the residents of Barking Riverside, and many more projects. This charity strives to bring locals together to widen their connections with their neighbours and to, simultaneously, work towards an improved experience of their local community.

MONDAY:

My first day at Thames Life began with an introduction to the majority of the team, specifically Zainab (Communication and Outreach Officer), Lucy (Health Outreach Officer), and Jamie (Deputy CEO). I discovered various intriguing facts about their roles. Following meeting some team members, I had an opportunity to get an insight into the process behind “The River View” community newspaper, and what stages it goes through before ending up at my, and 6,000 other homes, in Barking Riversidem, Thames View and Scrattons Farm. Learning about the process of managing the newspaper helped me realise and get a grasp of the importance of partner relationships in, not just Thames Life, but rather in any workplace.

To finish the day off, Vish (the new Young Action Group leader) and I collaborated on planning the YAG session for the day; I was encouraged to contribute my ideas to build up the session, and later even to lead a portion of it by myself. From this experience, where my perspectives and opinions were taken into consideration and where I was challenged to be more independent, it was made clear to me that Thames Life is, in fact, a charity that is generally committed to collaborating with the youth; it is not just an unsupported claim made to gain them good publicity, it is a responsibility all the team members evidently hold to a high standard.

TUESDAY:

A highlight of my day was attending the Resident Planning Forum at 6pm, which is an event where locals can meet together to discuss issues in the borough, and formulate plans and contribute ideas to fix them.

This week specifically, attendees were enlightened about the lengthy history Barking & Dagenham holds as a borough, and how the place has many historical ties to various historical figures. Coming together with other residents, as a resident myself, it was really reassuring to see others sharing my frustration and the same will to make a change.

WEDNESDAY:

I got the opportunity to formally meet Matt, the CEO of Thames Life, who gave me an insight into what the charity strives to do and the impact they wish to have on the community. Matt introduced me to the concept of “people power”, a term used to describe when people in a community come together and join forces to work together and take control of situations in their area, at times becoming more powerful than organisations. This is relevant to this borough as, with the numerous amounts of new homes being constructed in Barking Riverside, and the disappointing lack of community spaces, Thames Life aim to bring residents together to combat these social issues with their various community events, which help people meet each other and are a productive way for residents to voice their concerns about their area and formulate solutions. Thames Life acknowledges there is a lack of people power in Barking & Dagenham, hence why they constantly work towards giving the community a voice against bigger organisations.

I also joined the Green-Up Group along with Vish for their weekly session, where we did litter picking in Thames View for approximately two hours, followed by an artist-lead art therapy session for the remaining hour, a relaxing addition to end the session.

THURSDAY:

Thursday marked the day of the highly anticipated, grand event, the “Free African and Caribbean Health and Wellbeing Event” led by Lucy.

With the packed schedule and short amount of time we had to get everything set up, I recognised the distinction of time management and adequate event planning to make preparing events more straightforward and less stressful.

At 2pm, the event commenced, with many organisations joining to provide various services, such as The Source offering food, Project Embrace offering hair care advice for afro hair, and local GP Dr John offering healthcare advice and free check-ups. The energy in the venue at the Barking Learning Centre was extremely pleasant, with hundreds of people in attendance, enjoying the various stalls, and meeting new people. The feedback for the event was overwhelmingly positive, with many stating in feedback forums how informative the session was, (specifically due to the GPs on site) how much time was cut off to see a GP, and how the atmosphere with music and food really completed the event.

FRIDAY:

Ade and I made our way to Barking Riverside, where we had a walk with Matt and two London Met students scheduled in the area. Through our walk, we encountered and passed through many areas facing rapid development and gentrification.

We had a really thoughtful discussion about the community and the development of Barking Riverside was had, we came to the conclusion that the construction plan is quite flawed due to the lack of emphasis on providing residents outlets for self-expression and safe spaces. Ultimately, with a rising population, but a lack of community spaces for people to come together, it could only cause more harm than good: for example, there could be an increased crime rate and more gang activity, as young people will have nowhere to discuss their issues, and therefore result to crime to express their frustrations. We saw a community space in our local area, Everyone’s Warehouse, which provided a multitude of tools for self-expression, including a designated clothing design space, a podcast room, a communal kitchen, and so much more. Unfortunately, as many may know, the Warehouse was taken away from the community, disregarding the £9 million investment to get the place up and running, and the outrage and protests the residents had when it was announced the Warehouse was being shut down. As someone who used to use the Warehouse prior to its closure, I remember how upsetting the whole debacle was, as I myself witnessed how that place brought people together, how it made many feel safe and comfortable, and how it is now going to be replaced for even more housing.

This educational conversation we had with the London Met students was very informative, and a lovely last activity to finish off my placement.

I would especially like to thank Thames Life, for giving me this special opportunity to have my placement at their charity: in the span of just one week, I had learnt so much and faced so many new experiences. Working at Thames Life was a pleasant break from my ordinary school routine, just as much as it was work experience; working with the community and helping the community was very enjoyable overall. I am beyond grateful to all the team, for supervising me and guiding me throughout my journey at their charity.

-Miruna S

Deputy CEO blog: Time for a change

After spending the past 6+ years with Thames Life I am moving on to exciting new opportunities at the end of March. I’ve helped develop the organisation from its humble beginnings as ‘Thames Ward Community Project’ to its position as an influential Community Development Trust, helping to support residents and local groups do some amazing work over the years, and I will be forever grateful for the opportunities I have gained along the way.

Looking back there are several aspects of my work with Thames Life that I am particularly proud of:

Establishing the Young Citizen Action Group (YCAG) at Riverside School who have won countless campaigns and awards for their work improving their local community (more EL1 buses to help with congestion, more bins near their school and securing keys to Barking Food Forest, to name a few).
Activating Barking Food Forest, offering the community the space and opportunity to come together with each other and get involved with nature and food growing.
Supporting residents to run The RiverView newspaper in partnership with Barking Riverside Limited, helping residents connect and share information, experiences and stories and remain informed of events and developments locally.
Playing a leading role in sport for development work in the borough via the Barking Sports 4 Change (BS4C) coalition, working with other amazing local organisations to improve the health and physical activity of residents.
Empowering grassroots organisations and residents with projects to help their community thrive following Thames Life’s ethos that meaningful and sustainable change must be led by residents.

It is important to me to leave the community in a better place than I found it, and I believe the examples above highlight how I have done just that. It has been wonderful to meet and work with so many different local people (including Thames Life staff and trustees), each with their own talents and passions, diverse in so many ways and yet united by their desire to help improve their community. Something special is taking place in Thames View and Barking Riverside beyond the colossal housing development taking place and it is inspiring to see the journey residents and community groups are on.

Jamie Kesten

Deputy CEO

Comms Blog: Back from Mat Leave

Hello everyone, Zainab here, back from maternity leave! It’s been an incredible year, bringing new life into the world, and watching the growth of my family-led small business, Wander Wild Forest School. I’ve had a fun and often stressful time learning what it means to have a newborn and toddler, and the basics of running a small business including the fun that is account management. It’s been an intense learning experience but also rewarding for not only my personal life but my career trajectory too. As I reflect, the following points really rung true:

Conversations can grow into real impact.

Wander Wild Forest School started as an idea over dinner with my husband. Fast forward, being awarded a grant of £1,000 from the Barking Riverside Limited (BRL) Community Fund in March 2023, and then £10,000 from London Borough of Barking and Dagenham (LBBD)’s Neighbourhood Fund (NCIL) in August 2023, we’ve been able to gather over 500 families and get them excited about being outdoors! Our sessions have included outdoor cooking, bug hunting, whittling, planting, sawing and more. We also end with a time of singing or our special mini kamishibai theatre! The families absolutely love the time we spend together!

Community work is all about relationships.

2023 was filled with beautiful moments meeting people in the community and some really hard moments. The main thing I learned in both scenarios is to recognise everyone’s humanity. It’s so easy in community work to think outcomes first but it’s important to pursue sincere connections as they go a longer way to making lasting change. Real connections have continued to open doors and I’m grateful to all the people who have been a helping hand.

Comms is all about nailing your story.

If there’s one thing, I would love to master this year it’s nailing the art of storytelling! If you’re reading this blog, you are already connected to Thames Life in some way. You hopefully know that we’re all about building people power and not in an arbitrary way, but we’ve heard people talk about what’s important to them; access to health care, warm and cosy spaces and we think their voices should shape where they live. Period. Hopefully, I can tell our story better, so we get the recognition that changes things.

Inside Thames Life: My Placement

Hello, my name is Adebimpe Rosiji, and I am a final-year student at London Metropolitan University, studying BSc Leadership in Communities. In the beginning, I was very skeptical about this course. I thought it would not benefit me; however, it turns out that this course has a wide range of skills and practices that are crucial in my everyday life. I would have never thought I would adapt my management and leadership skills. Not only that, but this course gives an understanding of making a betterment within your community. I think I made the right decision to pick Leadership in Communities because it empowers individuals to actively shape and improve their local environments. It fosters collaboration, inclusivity, and sustainable solutions, addressing diverse needs within a community. I never took an interest in what was happening within my community, but taking this course has given me the motivation to take an interest in my community and research anything that needs improving.

When I found Thames Life, I was amazed by how the organization supported the community and residents of Thames View and Barking Riverside. Although I am not a local resident, it is still part of my borough, and I was so fascinated by how their system works, literally amplifying the voice of the people. I decided to take on a placement at Thames Life because I knew this would enhance my knowledge and understanding of community development. I would love to encourage other interested students in community development to come to Thames Life and learn about the impact it can have. It’s a great way to improve the community and also unlock new skills every day and learn something new.

Deputy CEO Blog: An Update On The Barking Food Forest

Back in March of this year, I wrote a blog about the Barking Food Forest (BFF) in which I looked back on my time spent on the project since its inception at the end of 2019 and forward to the plans for the development and activation of the space. Since that time significant progress has been made, which I’m excited to share.

Firstly, in July our friends at Wander Wild Forest School were successful in a bid to the LBBD NCIL fund for £10,000. This funding has enabled them to help further activate Barking Food Forest by engaging local children aged 5 and under and their families in a year of Saturday morning sessions learning about the different seasons, local animals and plants. As part of these sessions they participate in a range of activities including whittling, outdoor cooking, tent building, bug hunting, mud kitchen, wild play, nature art and circle time theatre and songs! We’re so pleased for them and have already seen the incredible benefit to local children and families of the work they are doing each week.

Secondly, in August the Green Team from Groundwork London returned (following their earlier work building planters and tree boxes) to help residents install a central pathway through the site, making it more accessible for all and setting the stage for further development plans to be enacted. It was great to have members of the community come along and join the team in digging, laying gravel and topping it off with wood chip donated by local tree surgeon, Kings Cuts Tree Services.

Thirdly, following the unfortunate closure of the Every One Every Day Warehouse on Thames Road, Thames Life were extremely fortunate to receive a significant number of trees and other gardening equipment on behalf of Barking Food Forest and the local community. In total we received 22 trees and 13 shrubs along with a water tank and irrigation system to keep them going in the dryer months. We also received picnic tables, scaffolding tables and even an outdoor table tennis table to make the space more welcoming and practical for workshops and events as well as a 10-bike cycle rack to make it easier for residents to travel actively to the site. Finally, we received a significant number of tools and equipment to assist in the maintenance of the space including a hedge trimmer, manual lawnmower, petrol strimmer, wheelbarrows, a shed, bins for compost and waste and a significant number of trowels, shovels and gloves. Our heartfelt thanks go to Every One Every Day and the panel who approved our bid and to Barking Riverside Ltd and their contractor JCS Poster Site Construction for helping us transport all the donated items to their new home. With all the trees now in place the plans for an urban food forest in the heart of Barking Riverside are really starting to take shape!

We are currently finalising our planning application for the site which we hope to submit before Christmas. This will include a proposal for a facilities structure capable of harvesting rainwater and solar energy and including secure tool storage, accessible toilet and baby change facilities, workshop spaces, a polytunnel for year-round growing and a pavilion for socialising and performances.

By Jamie Kesten

Deputy CEO

GP Drop-ins: That’s A Wrap…For Now!

It has been fantastic working with Thames Life and collaboratively being able to come up with these pop up clinics over multiple locations between Thames View and Riverside and as a result we have been able to do something different and very new. Specifically having our fantastic community groups and community leaders as well as having statutory services from the local council, the North East London Foundation Trust, BHRUT (Barking, Havering, Redbridge University Trust) and their teams to create a one stop clinic. This has helped us to develop and understand the needs of the local residents but also, more importantly, develop a local team to support the local residents through the clinics. It has been helpful to develop this on a monthly basis as we now have such a good understanding of the community, which we would have never been able to get to before.

It also fosters a great relationship with all our community teams and services as we end up supporting residents in a collaborative way at the point of contact rather than waiting for further appointments for a review, which is fantastic. This ‘on the spot multi-disciplinary approach’ has really given our residents a lot of support and as a result we have been able to track their progress as they come to the clinics.

I don’t believe we would have been able to achieve this without the intelligence and unique ability of Thames Life and certainly the organisation of the clinics have been down to Thames Life which received feedback from both local residents and community groups and has been able to create these clinics in such a way that works for not only the clinicians and services but also, most importantly, for our residents.

Overall my experience has been fantastic! We managed to create something very new and different that encompasses the acute medical needs as well as holistic needs of local people. This holistic approach has been great in supporting residents with their long-term needs and will be supported after the clinics. My staff and myself have found the clinics a very different way of doing things and found a lot of joy in working with the community and local residents through Thames Life. We’ve had a sense of fulfilment that we probably would have never had doing it in the traditional clinic setting.

I feel this approach has been revolutionary for Barking & Dagenham and Thames Life with the practice and our other partners. We have developed a model of care that many other parts of the borough want to recreate but also other boroughs across London and nationally who have felt our joint approach is a fantastic way to address the health inequalities in our system as well as making sure the ‘hard to reach’ in our communities are really supported in their care.

As a result, we have won the Collaborative Project Of The Year award from the Royal College Of General Practitioners North East London Faculty Recognition Awards. It is great to see that our hard work and real grassroots collaboration has been recognised and awarded.

Thank you to my staff at Aurora Medcare, our key partners and funders; Thames Life, LBBD & BRL, all the community groups and residents who have supported and attended the clinics. Without you, we wouldn’t have gotten to where we have! Watch this space for upcoming themed clinics.

By Dr. Jagan John

Local GP at Aurora Medcare

CEO Blog: It’s a Thames Life

Thames Life is a charity working across the borough, though our focus is mostly on Thames View and Barking Riverside – hence the name. We started as a new Lottery funded project in 2017 based in Riverside School before becoming an independent charity in 2020, with resident trustees as our bosses.

Thames View and Riverside can feel like a bit of an island. If you’ve ever experienced the congestion of the A13 you’ll know exactly why. Our charitable purpose is about ensuring there are public benefits to urban regeneration and nowhere has more need of it than Thames View and Barking Riverside. It is both the site of major housing development, with the population set to quadruple in the space of a few years and some of the highest rates of deprivation in London and the country.

Our approach is simple – we believe in resident-led change. Regeneration will only work when residents lead it. Lead not follow. Talking to residents many believe they can’t change anything, that the council and developers will do what they want regardless. There’s no denying that there’s a lot of hype and a corresponding sense of fatalism and frustration. But there has to be something more to life than that – there’s a magic when residents and local groups take control and when partnership becomes real.

When we first started we formed a Young Citizens Action Group, where pupils of Riverside School persuaded Transport for London to invest £1,000,000 into local buses. The same young people won the keys for a community garden (Barking Food Forest) having successfully negotiated with Barking Riverside Ltd, our partner, to hand over keys to the site, where local people can now grow their own food and help with the cultivation and upkeep of the site.

More recently we’ve been working closely with the NHS delivering GP pop-ups in local community spaces ensuring residents can see a doctor whilst also engaging with a range of community services and activities. Waiting times being what they are this has been very popular. We’ve done similar events out of Barking Learning Centre for homeless residents.

Our community and green spaces are under pressure and never more needed than coming out of a pandemic and cost of living crisis. We have been campaigning for the reopening of the Ripple Nature Reserve, closed since 2018 and much loved by residents. Likewise threatened loss of the maker space known as the warehouse on 47 Thames Road has galvanised action by local people and funders, asking the council to reconsider their commercial and community priorities. If we don’t have places to meet and be together the regeneration will make people more isolated, so we want free maker and community spaces as a basic right.

We do a lot of sports activities, training, workshops, forums, social events that are open to all – see our website and our free newspaper – the RiverView. We’d love to hear from you if you have any ideas for projects and priorities or time to give.

Deputy CEO Blog: What is community work and why is it important?

Working for a Community Development Trust like Thames Life it is important that my colleagues and I are clear on what community work is and why it is important. Indeed, to be as effective and impactful as we can be it is necessary for all those in the area we work to be clear on this too – residents, community groups, health partners, council and developer alike! It feels like there is still plenty of work to be done to reach a point where all involved appreciate what community work is, who is best placed to do it, and why it is crucial to a healthy and sustainable community.

As a team we were reminded of this in a recent task we all were set internally to answer these questions for ourselves and then share with the team. Interestingly many of us in the team do not come from a purely community work background and so we bring lots of different approaches and viewpoints to the table.

For me community work is about supporting residents and community groups by:

Meeting, listening and forming trusting relationships over an extended period;
Creating opportunities for them to come together with each other, develop relationships, support each other, learn new skills and explore new ideas and projects;
Shifting attitudes to and aspirations around power among residents, the voluntary and community sector and wider partners (like health partners, council and developer) to a point where all recognise the power that the community possesses, and support residents and community groups to play a leading role in shaping their neighbourhood and the decisions made about it.

I first joined Thames Life as a Community Organiser back in 2017 when we first launched as Thames Ward Community Project, operating out of Riverside School as our host organisation. I had spent some time before this volunteering at another community development trust in North London (shout out to The Selby Trust) where I had worked closely with staff there and gained some basic community organiser training (and later went on to gain further community organising qualifications from another Community Development Trust in South London – shout out High Trees). However, I felt I had limited experience in community work coming into the role outside of my 10+ years coaching basketball in my hometown of Milton Keynes. Up until that time I had been in academia both as a student and a postdoctoral researcher studying urban diversity. I enjoyed my time in research but for a long time had a nagging feeling that it just wasn’t quite the right fit for me for two main reasons.

Firstly, I began to feel like research was always starting in the wrong place. I was always researching either what I (or more often a more senior researcher) wanted to research and when I would be out meeting people in the community, getting to know them, conducting participant observation, interviews or focus groups I would realise that what I was asking about was not necessarily the most pressing or important issue for those I was speaking to.

Secondly, I felt like research always ended in the wrong place. By this I mean that the outputs or results of my work were often destined for reports, journal articles or books which the people I had spoken to would never read and would ultimately leave me feeling a lack of real connection to or impact on the lives of the people I had met and come to care about. I wasn’t as motivated as others by the desire to get my work published because it didn’t feel like a substantive end goal for me.

In shifting away from academia I wanted to find a way to feel like I was making more of a difference (cliche I know) and community work, specifically community organising, spoke to me at that moment. I had enjoyed meeting residents, young people, community groups and social businesses as part of my research and it was at this more local level that I felt I could make more of a positive impact and gain more job satisfaction. By its nature community organising starts in the right place for me because it begins with listening to the community and understanding what they care about, why they care about it and what change they want to see. Having established that understanding of ‘the world as it should be’ in the minds of local people and groups it is all about helping them to achieve that change by building capacity and relationships. In my experience local people and community groups are best placed to identify the priorities for their neighbourhoods and often best placed to identify and deliver the solutions too, or at least can add significant value when supported to work in meaningful partnership with wider stakeholders.

In short, the future I am working towards for residents and community groups locally is one where they all recognise themselves, and are recognised by other decision-makers locally, as leaders with the potential to positively shape the future of their community. That feels important to me and it is what drives me to do the work that I do.