I have had lots of great meeting with the Crest Academy team who are really taken action seriously. Students standing up and taking charge of their own neighbourhoods is a really important way for them to develop their leadership skills and their sense of ownership for the streets in their community.
At Crest Academy we have been preparing for two actions. Firstly, I have been working with Paolina and Laura, staff at Crest Academy to host a ‘Make Time for Tea’ event. We agreed it would be themed around the amazing diversity of the Neasden community in Brent.
We are going to have lots of different tables representing the different world cultures, offer people tea and food, and then theme each table around a key question to ensure lively conversation. Students will host each table so they get a chance to develop their skills of facilitation and leadership. And, perhaps most excitingly for me, we are going to have a London Citizens table to get people talking about how we make change in the community. It will be a chance to promote the hard work of students and local institutions trying to make a difference in Brent and hopefully we can use it to promote more involved from local residents.
It’s going to be a great community afternoon where we invite parents, local residents, police officers and the local councillors. Our aim is to build relationships in the community and promote respect as well as raising money for cancer. We have agreed on April 17th for the big action and now the students, who will be hosting the community members, need to start getting organised with their invitations.
The other action we are planning is through the Youth Forum group in the Crest Girls Academy. It’s been lots of careful planning to organise our Crest Academy ‘Litter Pick’ in Neasden. The date is set for March 6th so now the students are getting prepared by organising the students (we are aiming for 45), mapping our route, getting the equipment – the bin bags, the litter-pickers and the protective gloves, and I’m going to provide the North London Citizens t-shirts and leaflets- can’t wait!
North London Citizens 