community

Finding Home in Barking Riverside: Richard’s Journey Through High-Density Living

When Richard and his family moved to De Pass Gardens in Barking Riverside in 2013, the future seemed bright. The newly developed area promised affordable rents, modern homes, and a vision of green spaces and community living. With his family, Richard embraced the idea of a fresh start in this neighbourhood.

At first, life in Barking Riverside delivered on its promises. The family enjoyed a healthier lifestyle with green spaces, cycling paths, and some amenities just a short walk away. Richard recalls the excitement of living in a modern, spacious home with an extra bedroom, coupled with the allure of a skyline view. Friends who visited would often comment on how fortunate they were to have found such a gem in East London.

But as the years passed, the cracks began to show. What was once an idyllic lifestyle slowly became burdened by the realities of high-density living. Traffic congestion grew with the regeneration projects, turning simple school drop-offs into 40-minute journeys. Richard found himself waking earlier and leaving the house hours before work just to avoid the traffic. Fines for using restricted roads added to the strain, and eventually, he had to cut down his office days, working from home more frequently to cope with the mounting stress, and also thereafter deciding to home-educate his children.

The rapid growth in population only worsened matters. Overcrowding became the norm, parking spaces felt scarce, and essential services like GPs and schools struggled to keep up. While plans for better infrastructure are in motion, it is still a waiting game for residents like Richard, who worry about the long-term impact on their families.

Yet, amidst the challenges, Richard has found solace in the sense of community that has blossomed in Barking Riverside. He plays an active role in neighbourhood initiatives, from tackling maintenance issues to keeping residents informed about local developments. “It’s the people here that keep us going,” he admits, highlighting the power of collective effort in navigating life in a high-density area.

Looking ahead, Richard hopes for faster progress in bringing essential services closer to home. His ideas, like weekly health clinics at local schools and more immediate access to GP hubs, reflect the urgent needs of the community. As he puts it, “We moved here for a better future – it’s time we saw that vision come to life.”

Through the highs and lows, Richard’s story is a reminder of the importance of thoughtful urban planning and the resilience of communities. Together, residents and developers have the chance to build not just houses, but a thriving, sustainable neighbourhood in Barking Riverside.

Inside Thames Life: Championing change, together

In all the roles I’ve had in my professional career, my time at Thames Life has been the most profound, this is all down to the fact that the work revolves solely around people and championing the rights of one another. I have always been interested in people and their experiences, but I never imagined myself as a community worker, after all, as they say no one does it for the money.

Thanks to the residents and fellow workforces of Barking and Dagenham, I’ve had two years of passionate enrichment. I’ve heard hundreds of stories and been deeply touched by the love and kindness of those I have worked with. I’ve been amazed by the resilience and compassion people have for each other, despite living in such a deprived and unfair society and been met with absolute enthusiasm and passion for positive change by the youngest of minds.

It isn’t easy living here. We long for provision! We as people of this borough are pleading for just enough to ensure our community survives because we know with just a few changes, we will thrive. Fresh faces and maverick ideas with genuine hearts will bring us forward and advance the borough into the ever-changing future. It really is time for better standards, better ethics and love.

Thank you to my family, friends and colleagues and most of all thank you to all the residents who have trusted and supported me throughout my time in this role. I’m not going far so you can bet you’ll see me around in and amongst the fabric of our wonderful community.

There are so many incredibly hard-working people in the voluntary sector but the problem is we work far too hard. It’s time to start working smart, as they say if you want to go far, go together.

Lucy Lee

Health Outreach Officer

Inside Thames Life: Barking Riverside and Thames View Community Plan

Thames Life is pleased to present a report which has been collaboratively produced with Dr. Pablo Sendra’s team at the UCL School of Bartlett. The report is a community plan which was crafted in a series of workshops with residents from Thames View and Barking Riverside. The report details findings in which residents were placed at the center of co-designing how social infrastructure should be constructed in Barking Riverside to meet demand. The densification of Barking Riverside, planning application for additional homes rising to 20,000 and the additional 5000 homes in Thames Road, according to the views of a significant sample size of residents, requires the creation of further social infrastructure.

Social infrastructure reigns in on a variety of different elements that enable the practical participation of local people in organised or disorganised spaces of activity. Put simply, if residents want to meet informally to socialise, express or interact with each other based on cultural values, or for the purposes of human, face to face interaction, these spaces must be ‘planned for’ to allow these interactions the physical space to take place. In complementary fashion, social spaces which are more formal such as nurseries, play parks, health facilities (which allow for social prescribing and activities), locations for sports, youth centers, arts, culture and performance spaces and lastly, community centers. Green, and blue spaces also operate to serve resident need for ecology, as community allotments. Creekmouth open space, the Barking Food Forest, Ripple Nature Reserve, Ripple Greenway and Footpath 47 begin to serve as crucial spaces in the natural environment for the needs of local people.

The report, diligently produced by UCL in collaboration with residents engaged with through Thames Life contains the granular details of opening the wider picture in the midst of London developments promoted by the GLA such as opportunities areas, and resident views correlated with the Local and London Plans. The audit of pre-existing social infrastructure highlights what is missing, and what needs to be done to make up for the shortfall.

Thames Life embarked on this venture with UCL while the Every One Every Day Warehouse was still open, with the original intention to keep it open with this community plan. As we discovered – this was not possible. The community plan changed shape and became what is published today. We Thank UCL and the Bartlett School of Planning and the Just Space network in considering our small patch of London, and the future of residents living here.

Vishal Narayan, Community Organiser and Regeneration Officer.

To read the report, click on the link: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10193733/

Meet Marion, Our Green Up Community Organiser

Having the opportunity to work for Thames Life, is a complete change of career. My background is in nursing. Over the last couple of years I have become more involved with organising events in the community. I am a Church Warden for St Patrick’s Church and co-leader of a volunteer litter picking group called Roding Rubbish. I became Chair of the Ripple Effect Resident Group in November last year and I try to make each meeting interesting with guest speakers from all kinds of backgrounds.

I will take what I learn from working with Thames Life to improve my skills as a Community Organiser.

Through the Green-Up initiative I am keen to motivate people to have an interest in the environment and a sense of pride in keeping their area clean for people and wildlife. Motivating people to join in these activities is good for their Wellbeing and promotes gentle exercise. Therefore I am making connections to have the expertise of a yoga instructor to help promote gentle exercises anyone can do. Group activities can stimulate conversations, which leads to friendships. For some residents this might be the only time they have contact with other people so it is extremely important to them.

If you would like more information on the activities in the communit contact marion@thames-life.org.uk

Marion Hull

Green Up Community Organiser

Inside Thames Life: Healthcare done differently

If you’d told me I would be the community lead designing and organising an award-winning project with NHS clinical director/GP Dr Jagan John, GP Dr Nadia Saeed and the LBBD’s head of universal services Zoinul Abidin, that would change how healthcare is delivered in the borough, I would have laughed you right out of my workshop.

It was never in my plan to be a community worker, I am the owner of a small business Houseofloulee.co.uk creating African print clothing & gifts for all. This allowed me to spend time in my local community, attending meetings like Friends of The Ripple Nature Reserve, engaging in talks with local stakeholders to ensure its re-opened. However, I felt drawn towards creating a large positive impact on society, so when offered the opportunity to join Thames Life as their Health Outreach Officer it felt like the universe was taunting me.

A year and a half later, 13 Drop-in Clinics delivered, and it was the winner of the Royal Collage of GP’s Northeast London Faculty Recognition Award for best Collaborative Project of The Year 2023. Working with the most community passionate people I’ve ever connected with (every community group, NHS and council worker who has unconditionally supported us on this journey) and championed the whole way by Thame Life CEO Matt Scott. Thanks Matt.

The Drop-in-Clinics were a straight-up pop-up, for health checks and seeing a doctor, however after our first clinic it was clear we were missing the trick! 40% of attendees didn’t need to see a doctor but weren’t having any luck anywhere else with other needs, I immediately knew what I had to do. There were already community groups working to support the health and social needs in our community and if we brought the council services on board, we might just have something!

Now, not only are you able to see a doctor without an appointment in a local hub, you also can relax, enjoy yummy food, play board games, socialise with other residents, children can play comfortably, whilst accessing multiple services such as a free hand or shoulder massage, housing and financial advice, mental health support and free local activities, basically a health & wellbeing bonanza. Word on the clinics success got around which resulted in sponsorship from Barking Riverside Limited, with our larger council funded clinics focused on the African & Caribbean community, children & families, rough sleepers & asylum seekers and Diabetes patients.

The next Drop-in Clinic:

26th July – Thames View Playing Fields– 12-5pm (Open to all)

Lucy Lee

Health Outreach Officer

Celebrating Women’s Achievements at BD Women’s Empowerment Awards

On 25th March, Barking and Dagenham Council hosted its ninth Women’s Empowerment Awards ceremony, showcasing and celebrating the exceptional achievements of women and girls across the borough.

Congratulations to all the winners and our very own Lucy Lee, who was the runner-up of the “Health and Well-being Champion of the Year” award for her work improving access to medical care through GP drop-in clinics.

Lucy shared, “It was an emotional evening, full of women who had achieved success after overcoming great adversity.”

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

Everyone’s Warehouse is now Nobody’s Warehouse

Recent resident campaigns, protests, and cries to save a much-treasured community space has unfortunately not resulted in protecting any social infrastructure. The dire consequences of the closure of Everyone’s Warehouse and Participatory City Foundation’s reduction of operations in Barking and Dagenham, has just started to be felt. There was no opportunity to keep the space open, and the Friends of the Warehouse group was not successful in securing a meaningful handover to a resident group for community purposes. Assets from the Warehouse have been redistributed to residents and other voluntary sector organisations. Residents are still able to get involved with activities at the Barking Food Forest, The Whitehouse, Thames Life and in with small pockets of groups across Barking and Dagenham.

The Warehouse was the UK’s largest maker space. It was not as busy as was to be hoped. Located in the quiet Thames Road across the street from Barking’s very own designated Ripple Nature Reserve. Participatory City offered access to a community kitchen, garden, pottery oven, co-working space, and woodworking area. It had a usable event space for members, free to use. Groups that would frequent the space were gardeners, young people, makers, community cooks and community groups. Bringing these groups into one space now poses a great improbability.

Resident engagement in participatory spaces now appears to be at a minimum in the borough. Third spaces free at the point of access with potential to create community spirit and integration is now scarce. The cost-of-living crisis presents a real case for social isolation and communities coming together for a positive and common cause is now at risk. Recent announcements have been made in LBBD from developers about the potential of more new homes. The question then needs to be asked- where do people socialise when they move into their new homes? Who are the groups most affected from lack of community space?

I am concerned about the scale of housing development in the borough, and hope quite sincerely, that residents, community groups and voluntary sector organisations do not suffer the consequences of the lack of community spaces.

Vishal Narayan

Health Strategy Officer

Thames Life awarded £5K from Mayor’s Community Resilience Fund

We have great news! Thames Life has been awarded a grant of £5K under round two of the Mayor’s Community Resilience Fund. The Community Resilience Fund is part of ongoing work to ensure London remains resilient and prepared for future challenges.

We join a network of 22 community organisations partnering with their respective emergency planning teams to delivery emergency preparedness strategies as unique and diverse as the needs of each of the participating London boroughs.

The funding supports community organisations to work together with their local authority emergency planning teams to best prepare for emergencies in their London boroughs.

Thames Life as a member of BD Collective accepted to act as an interim convenor with the scope of establishing a Community Resilience Network. The project, the BD Community Resilience Network, is an extension of our work with the British Red Cross and will focus on enabling better connections, accountability and trust between social sector organisations, existing networks and statutory responders to improve the resilience of Barking and Dagenham in the face of emergencies.

The development of a tailored Community Resilience Network as part of BD Collective will allow for the development of a transparent and accountable network that will provide a link between the newly established Barking and Dagenham BRF and the broader voluntary and community sector in Barking and Dagenham.

The Community Resilience Network will work with other members of BD Collective and their existing networks to develop an understanding of existing capabilities and needs within the sector and together with the BRF develop plans to secure increased preparedness and understanding of risks. This will include: Increased community preparedness for emergencies, through joint planning, improved relationships between VCS and statutory agencies, and improved communications channels for responding to emergencies.

Currently, BD Collective includes the following networks: FOOD NETWORK, YOUTH NETWORK, FAITH LEADERS NETWORK, SPORTS NETWORK, BD WOMEN’S NETWORK, LOCALITIES, B&D CREATIVE INCLUSIVE WORKSHOPS FOR YOUTHS, EARLY HELP COLLECTIVE, MIGRANT NETWORK, NEIGHBOURS NETWORK.

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.

Tag: community