There's been lots happening on the estate. Here is your October update for free activities at Loraine Estate and news about the community budgeting project.

Loraine ‘In Colour’ Community Gardening sessions

You will have seen that the vegetable beds have now been built. Residents are invited to join the community gardening sessions as part of the ‘Loraine In Colour’ project.

No experience is needed – everyone is welcome!

• Friday 30 October 10.00am – 2.00pm
• Friday 6 November 10.00am – 2.00pm
• Saturday 7 November 10.00am – 2.00pm
• Friday 13 November 10.00am – 2.00pm
• Saturday 21 November 10.00am – 2.00pm

Please wear sturdy shoes and suitable outdoor clothing. Children must be accompanied by an adult. You’ll be helping the team tend to the forgotten areas of the estate and do some planting.

For more information, contact the Housing Community Gardening team at hcgt@islington.gov.uk.

Coming soon – you can apply for a vegetable garden. Please email lorainegardeners@proton.me before 21 November.

A launch event will be at 2.00pm on 21 November at the community centre with activities for all ages, following the gardening.

Play area and community shed

We're sorry about the delay and want to acknowledge any frustrations you might have about this. A play area and community shed will still be built, but it will not be finished until next year.

We are working across the council and with councillors to come up with better designs for the play area that will be high quality, great value for money and reflect what residents want. Later this year, you will be invited to get involved in choosing exactly what the play area will look like.

Please do get in touch if you have any questions or concerns about this.

Women’s exercise classes

Women and girls have been improving their fitness and trying something new with Zumba on Fridays at the community centre.

You’ll be glad to know – Zumba classes are continuing! These classes are completely free and right on your doorstep so if you’re looking for an Autumn reset – this is for you. The next classes will be:

• Friday 9 October, 6.00pm – 7.00pm
• Friday 16 October, 6.00pm – 7.00pm
• Friday 23 October, 6.00pm – 7.00pm
• Friday 30 October, 6.00pm – 7.00pm

Please note – there will NOT be a class on Friday 2 October.

A big thank you to Mayra for organises these activities! She is also organising free yoga classes for women if you prefer a different pace. Dates coming soon.

Loraine Learning Hub

The BSL course is now complete and was enjoyed by all attendees. One person said “The sessions have been so much fun. We’ve learnt so much, and we’ve made new friends in the community.”

Robert is organising a few more classes that anyone can join. Dates coming soon.

David and India are also organising more free events for people to learn and share new skills, including cooking!

Read about the Lifesaving skills event that happened in August.

Over the Fence

David and Mustafa have been busy organising over the fence activities – where you can get to know your neighbours over a cup of tea. There’ll be more dates coming soon.

Read about a past Over the Fence event.

Read about the past Over the Fence event – doing portraits.

Cultural celebration events

This year, there’s been two cultural events to celebrate Nowruz and Eid. These parties were for everyone to come together and share culture. It was amazing to see over 160 people attending both events! Congratulations to Zabi and Ubah for organising them – with help from Mustafa and many more!

There will another celebration event next year.

Read about the Eid celebration.

Bloom and Create

Mustafa has been organising creative workshops with the help of local artist, Sarah Lundblad. These workshops are for all ages – and are a great free activity for children. There will be more workshops in the school holidays.

Read what Bloom and Create means to Mustafa.

Games nights

As the nights get colder, what better way to spend time connecting with your neighbours playing games at the community centre.

Games nights will be starting in November – dates coming soon.

Seasonal fruit and veg boxes

India is organising free fruit and veg boxes so that everyone has access to seasonal fruit and vegetables. More details coming soon.

Wellbeing café: Mondays at 10.00am – 12.00pm

Residents have set up a Monday morning wellbeing café at the community centre. Come along for a cuppa, some biscuits, a chat and good company. Bring a friend or neighbour with you – especially someone who might enjoy getting out for a little while.

Check our more information about the wellbeing café.

Join the Facebook group

Your neighbours organising these free events have now created a Facebook page!

Follow the page to get the latest news of what’s happening on the estate.

Apply for Make It Happen funding – deadline Monday 12 October, 10.00am

Islington Giving has a small grants programme called ‘Make it Happen’. Residents and small local community organisations can apply for up to £500 to organise a one-off event or short-term project for your community this winter or in Spring.

Visit their website for inspiration, guidelines and the application form.

Email sarah.page@islingtongiving.org.uk if you have any questions, would like help with your application or if you have an idea but are unsure if the funding programme is right for you and would like to discuss further.

Do you know a neighbour who would enjoy these events? Please share this email with them or get them to sign up by emailing engagement@islington.gov.uk.

If you have ideas or questions about some of these events – contact us and we’d be happy to put you in touch with the event organisers.

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.

• What: Your Solutions event
• When: Saturday 20 September, 1-4pm
• Where: Loraine Estate Community centre

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.