Saturday Apr 14th saw over 50 children and young people from Waltham Forest and Hackney come together to celebrate the work of Salaam Peace in both boroughs. In light of recent tragic events  it was felt important to show that people, especially our younger generation can and will work together.

Nicola Baboneau kindly attended as part of her role with the Hackney Safer Neighbourhood Board and presented the medals to the star performers. Salaam Peace have a number of similar events focusing on issues related to knife and gun crime. You can find out more about Salaam Peace at www.salaampeace.org

Residents who have a passion for improving the communities they live in are being sought to sit on a panel that has direct influence on how housing services provided by the Council are run and delivered.The role, in the Resident Liaison Group (RLG), means you will get to make a real impact on council housing, estates and neighbourhoods by monitoring, evaluating, idea-sharing, and looking critically at what the Council is doing or proposing to do on all services affecting tenants and leaseholders.
As part of this group, which is the highest level of resident involvement, you will look at the performance and policies of housing services and work directly with the Housing Director and the Cabinet Member for Housing Services to influence change and help drive improvements.
The current panel is made up of residents from neighbourhood and resident forums, and the Council is seeking to appoint another seven people - six tenants and one leaseholder - to provide ideas and opinions about housing services.

Cabinet Member for Housing, Councillor Clayeon McKenzie said:

'We’re looking for creative, curious and critically-minded Council tenants and leaseholders who care about their estates and neighbourhoods to join this key resident-led group in order to help make real impact on how we run the housing services.'

More information can be found here: https://bit.ly/2LAZTLZ

Active resident Irene Lewington recently turned 90 years of age and she celebrated by doing a jump for St Joseph's Hospice. Irene believes that the hospice is the best place that you can rest when you're ill. Some of Irene's friends have received fantastic care at St Joseph's. 

Irene is Hackney born and bred and is supporting a Hackney charity as a way of giving back to the community. 

St Joseph’s Hospice opened in Hackney in 1905, and since then has been caring for and supporting people affected by serious illness in eight London boroughs.
They work to improve the quality of life of more than 2,100 patients with life-limiting conditions each year, helping them live life to the full, to the very last. 
To find out more about the hospice visit https://www.stjh.org.uk/ ​

On Saturday 30th June 2018 from 3pm to 9pm the Friends of Woodberry Down invite you to join them at the The Redmond Community Centre for 6 hours of non-stop karaoke, music and singing to raise funds for their Over 50s Panto trip. The event will be free entry. To find out more please email friendsofwoodberrydown@gmail.com

A new Internet Café with free wifi and biscuits will be starting at Trowbridge Senior Citizens Club - every Thursday from 10th May 10am - 1pm. If you don't want the internet you're welcome to join people for a chat anyway. Printing 10p a sheet, Tea and Coffee 50p a cup. For more information please call Trowbridge Silver Surfers 07544 592 666.

Hackney Council's Community Grants scheme is open for applications. Small grants of between £1,000 and £5,000 are available for projects which contribute to the programme's priorities and equality objective. The second round of small grants are now open and will close at 12 noon 14 May for projects beginning on or after 1 September 2018. Find out more about the small grants programme here.

Residents from the Frampton Park Estate, E9, joined Council staff on 10 March to plant the first set of new trees as part of a green estate initiative.
 
This is part of the Frampton Park Greening project to plant a new tree for every building on the Estate.  As there are 32 Buildings the aim is to eventually plant 32 Trees.  Working with Hackney Grounds Maintenance and RP - 25 possible locations were identified and residents on the Estate were invited to help choose a tree or plant one of the first four trees. The remaining 7 locations will be decided at a later date.

The project also includes the planting of wildflower meadow on the turf areas of the Estate on Well  Street, Chatham Place and Frampton Park Road - to bring flowers throughout the year.

Joe Lewis, the Frampton Park TRA Secretary said 'This project has been a year in the planning, so getting the 25 trees planted across the estate feels like a massive achievement for us as a group.'
 
The project is funded from the Mobile Mast Budget which is a budget administered by LBH Resident Participation Team to help develop community cohesion and facilitate improvements on the estate.