Loraine Estate: Decide how to spend £70,000 to improve your health and wellbeing

Share Loraine Estate: Decide how to spend £70,000 to improve your health and wellbeing on Facebook Share Loraine Estate: Decide how to spend £70,000 to improve your health and wellbeing on Twitter Share Loraine Estate: Decide how to spend £70,000 to improve your health and wellbeing on Linkedin Email Loraine Estate: Decide how to spend £70,000 to improve your health and wellbeing link

About the Loraine Estate Project

Residents on Loraine Estate have the power to decide how to spend £70,000 on improving health and wellbeing across the estate.

Residents have come up with ideas about how to spend the money with their neighbours. On 6 December 2025, you voted for the ideas you want to see funded.

This is supported and funded by your ward councillors – Cllr Claire Zammit, Cllr Jason Jackson and Cllr Diarmaid Ward – who are keen to put decision making power in your hands.

Thank you for voting! The results are...

A total of 11 projects were voted through. Huge congratulations to all the residents who submitted ideas and presented them at voting day. It took real courage, a lot of work, and devotion for doing something for your community and your neighbours, so thank you on behalf of everyone.

Successful projects

To develop the communal spaces on the estate:

  1. Loraine Estate ‘In Colour’. Revive and repopulate forgotten corners of the Loraine Estate with targeted planting of flowers and shrubs. A community vegetable garden with semi-raised beds, with a dedicated area for children's gardening.

  1. Play areas for children. Two of the private gardens redeveloped to include small play equipment and natural play ideas.

  1. Loraine fun shed and picnic table. A community activity shed, which has games, toys, board games, exercise equipment, and books inside for all residents to enjoy. There would be a picnic table next to it.

To develop community activities for residents:

  1. Cultural celebration events. This celebration of Eid and Nowruz would be open to everyone who lives on Loraine Estate to celebrate and share culture, and make it feel like home.

  1. Loraine Learning Hub. Six monthly sessions for upskilling residents of all ages. Topics will include: first aid for adults and young people; cooking sessions by a local chef with seasonal and affordable ingredients; and British Sign Language (BSL) taster sessions.

  1. Bingo nights. Monthly bingo nights for everyone on the estate to come together for fun, play games and have some refreshments.

  1. Seasonal produce drop. Fruit and vegetables dropped once a month for 6 months at the community centre from a farm for residents to pick up for free. This will give everyone access to fresh, seasonal produce.

  1. Over the Fence. Six monthly sessions in the community centre for older people to gather and connect with each other over simple and enjoyable activities. Activities will include film screenings, storytelling, guest speakers, and theatre sessions.

  1. Women-only exercise classes. Weekly women-only free exercise or fitness classes at Loraine Estate Community Centre. An instructor will lead and run different classes, depending on what people want – aerobics, yoga, Zumba.

  1. Seasonal Community meals. Organise four events across the year where all neighbours are invited to have a community meal together. People bring their own cooking, connect over food and share culture. The community meals will happen at Loraine Estate Community Centre.

  1. Bloom and Create. A community art and nature project, with free creative workshops in painting, clay pottery, and nature-inspired art.

Get involved in January 2026


Please look out for information next year about when these projects will start, and how to get involved.

To get involved, ask us any questions, or share ideas, email us at engagement@islington.gov.uk or phone/text 07811 043 478, Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm.

About the Loraine Estate Project

Residents on Loraine Estate have the power to decide how to spend £70,000 on improving health and wellbeing across the estate.

Residents have come up with ideas about how to spend the money with their neighbours. On 6 December 2025, you voted for the ideas you want to see funded.

This is supported and funded by your ward councillors – Cllr Claire Zammit, Cllr Jason Jackson and Cllr Diarmaid Ward – who are keen to put decision making power in your hands.

Thank you for voting! The results are...

A total of 11 projects were voted through. Huge congratulations to all the residents who submitted ideas and presented them at voting day. It took real courage, a lot of work, and devotion for doing something for your community and your neighbours, so thank you on behalf of everyone.

Successful projects

To develop the communal spaces on the estate:

  1. Loraine Estate ‘In Colour’. Revive and repopulate forgotten corners of the Loraine Estate with targeted planting of flowers and shrubs. A community vegetable garden with semi-raised beds, with a dedicated area for children's gardening.

  1. Play areas for children. Two of the private gardens redeveloped to include small play equipment and natural play ideas.

  1. Loraine fun shed and picnic table. A community activity shed, which has games, toys, board games, exercise equipment, and books inside for all residents to enjoy. There would be a picnic table next to it.

To develop community activities for residents:

  1. Cultural celebration events. This celebration of Eid and Nowruz would be open to everyone who lives on Loraine Estate to celebrate and share culture, and make it feel like home.

  1. Loraine Learning Hub. Six monthly sessions for upskilling residents of all ages. Topics will include: first aid for adults and young people; cooking sessions by a local chef with seasonal and affordable ingredients; and British Sign Language (BSL) taster sessions.

  1. Bingo nights. Monthly bingo nights for everyone on the estate to come together for fun, play games and have some refreshments.

  1. Seasonal produce drop. Fruit and vegetables dropped once a month for 6 months at the community centre from a farm for residents to pick up for free. This will give everyone access to fresh, seasonal produce.

  1. Over the Fence. Six monthly sessions in the community centre for older people to gather and connect with each other over simple and enjoyable activities. Activities will include film screenings, storytelling, guest speakers, and theatre sessions.

  1. Women-only exercise classes. Weekly women-only free exercise or fitness classes at Loraine Estate Community Centre. An instructor will lead and run different classes, depending on what people want – aerobics, yoga, Zumba.

  1. Seasonal Community meals. Organise four events across the year where all neighbours are invited to have a community meal together. People bring their own cooking, connect over food and share culture. The community meals will happen at Loraine Estate Community Centre.

  1. Bloom and Create. A community art and nature project, with free creative workshops in painting, clay pottery, and nature-inspired art.

Get involved in January 2026


Please look out for information next year about when these projects will start, and how to get involved.

To get involved, ask us any questions, or share ideas, email us at engagement@islington.gov.uk or phone/text 07811 043 478, Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm.

  • Get more involved in running the Loraine Estate project

    Share Get more involved in running the Loraine Estate project on Facebook Share Get more involved in running the Loraine Estate project on Twitter Share Get more involved in running the Loraine Estate project on Linkedin Email Get more involved in running the Loraine Estate project link

    Why are we looking to involve residents in the running of the project?

    We are looking for residents across Loraine Estate to get more involved and help with the running of this project because:

    • Residents like you understand best what your community wants and needs around health and wellbeing
    • We want you to have a say in how this project takes shape so that the projects works as well as it can for you and your neighbours
    • It’s a really great way to use and develop your skills, and get to know your community better!
    • We can make bigger and better change happen when we all work together!


    Who can get more involved?

    Anyone on the Estate who is 18+ can get involved. We would like to make sure we work with a group of residents that represents the diversity on Loraine Estate. We’d like the group to be made up of:

    • Long-standing residents and newcomers (and those in between)
    • At least one person from each block on the Estate

    And we especially encourage you to take part if you are:

    • A young person
    • A parent of a young person
    • An older person
    • Living with health issues or are disabled
    • Identify as an ethnic minority or person of colour

    What could getting more involved and helping with the running of the project look like?

    This is flexible and can work around you in terms of time commitment – you can choose what you’re most interested in and what feels manageable for you. We’ll work together to shape these roles, but a rough guide is:

    1. If you don’t have as much time to give, you can help spread awareness about the project, encourage people to come to events and help out on the day at some of the in-person events we’ll hold over the next few months.
    2. If you have some more time to give, you can also have conversations with your neighbours about their health and wellbeing concerns and priorities, and support with the planning of some of the engagement events happening over the summer.
    3. If you want to give lots of time, you could organise your own engagement events, and could support residents to write and develop their proposals before voting day. You could also give some feedback to the team to help us learn and improve the project.


    What is the time commitment I am expected to give?

    You can choose how much time you feel able to give at each stage of the project. If your situation changes and you can offer more or less time as the project goes on, that’s no problem so long as you let the project team know.

    However, to make sure you feel well informed and supported to contribute meaningfully to your role, we do ask that as a minimum, you:

    • Attend 2 x core training sessions
    • Attend the meetings that are relevant to the role you choose

    Where possible, all meetings will be held at the Loraine Estate community centre.


    What’s in it for me?

    By getting more involved and helping with the running of the project, you will:

    • Have lots of opportunities to get to know your neighboursbetter, understand what they care about and start building stronger connections in your local community
    • Have an opportunity to use your voice to champion your community and its priorities
    • Use your skills and experience to bring this project to life
    • Be able to come to bespoke training to develop your knowledge and skills round community organising, facilitation skills, communicating about health and wellbeing and more! We’ll shape the training program depending on what you’d like to learn most.
    • Be able to request references from the project team

    What support is offered?

    • We will be offering free and bespoke trainings to Loraine Estate residents on key skills relevant to the project and your interests.
    • Everyone who gets involved and meets the minimum commitment requirement (above) will be rewarded with a thank you voucher (shops TBC).
    • Refreshments will always be provided at volunteer meetings and events.
    • We will cover costs of interpreters, should any volunteer need these to take part.
    • We will do our best to meet any other access, support or childcare needs you have (please do speak with any of our team about this).


    How do I sign up to get more involved in the project?

    Please reach out to engagement@islington.gov.uk if you’d like to sign up, or if you have any questions about it! You can also call Sid on 07811 043 478.


  • What's important to Loraine Estate's health and wellbeing?

    Share What's important to Loraine Estate's health and wellbeing? on Facebook Share What's important to Loraine Estate's health and wellbeing? on Twitter Share What's important to Loraine Estate's health and wellbeing? on Linkedin Email What's important to Loraine Estate's health and wellbeing? link

    Loraine Estate residents!

    Over the last few months, we've spoken together about what's important to you and your health and wellbeing. The 'Your Priorities' event in July helped us to come together and agree the community's priorities for its health and wellbeing. This will help guide and inspire what the money for this project can be spent on.

    We’ve heard that you want:

    1. Green space on your estate everyone can use
    2. Opportunities to be active
    3. Opportunities to come together
    4. Better spaces for children to play outside
    5. More activities for children to take part in


    We've also heard that other things are important to you, including feeling safe, and making sure everyone can access public spaces and activities. It's important that any ideas submitted for the funding consider how everyone can be included.

    Get creative! We encourage you to think outside the box. What events, activities or physical infrastructure projects will help achieve your priorities?

    We'll be sharing a proposal handbook which will include more information about what the money can be spent on, how to submit your proposal, and any other support you might need.

    You can work on your proposals at our next event:
    • What: Your Solutions event
    • When: Saturday 20 September, 1-4pm
    • Where: Loraine Estate Community centre


Page last updated: 16 Dec 2025, 12:46 PM