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Dutch Delegation Visit

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On 15 June Clapham Park Project welcomed a large Dutch delegation, made up of 35 people. The visit was organised by the Nicis Institute in Amsterdam which facilitates research trips so that information can be exchanged between cities. All of the members of the delegation work with the community in Holland.

The institute chose to visit CPP because of our good reputation in social regeneration, particularly in neighbourhood teamworking and youth empowerment.

We asked two members of the delegation to tell us what they thought of the day.

Gabi Kaffka

What is the purpose of your visit today?
I co-ordinate a neighbourhood of 10,000 people, where there are all kinds of different problems – economic, social and religious. I work with different partners, such as the police, housing corporations, government departments and other social parties, and I’d like to learn from your experiences and best practice.

What in particular have you learnt from your visit to CPP?
It’s good to hear that other countries have the same problems as we do and everyone is fighting the same fight. It’s interesting to hear about the projects you fund and how you support local initiatives by trying to make grass roots projects bigger because they work – I think this is really important.

What do you think you’ll take away from today?
I was really intrigued by your approach to community safety – the safety chain and the way all your partners come together every six weeks to discuss issues and share information.

I was also interested to hear about STREET, the organisation that works with Muslim youth. In fact, two weeks ago I was thinking about introducing a similar model to my area but I thought that nobody would ever support it and now I see that it’s actually working. STREET supports my opinion that this new way of working is effective and I think we are going to implement it too.

Jürgen Klaassen

What kind of job do you do?
I work as an Area Developer in Amsterdam for a social housing institution.

Did you find today useful?
Yes, very useful – especially the different approaches to social regeneration in the UK compared to Holland. For example, the way Clapham Park Project was set up [government funded over 10 years] is quite interesting. We can never copy and paste, but we can think about the good things we can take back to Holland.

I also found it interesting that in the UK is currently focused on what I call the basics –working with the police, on health etc – things that need to be in order before you go any further.

What do you think you’ll take away from today?
Clapham Park’s service delivery approach towards the community really attracted me. I’ve never heard of this before. It’s something you don’t really hear people talking about in Holland, but it’s actually very important.

Heather Chappell

Dutch Delegation Visit On 15 June Clapham Park Project... Read more.. Speaking at the Some Other Way Forward Conference On 9 June I was invited to speak... Read more.. Bringing Real Life Experiences of Young Muslims to University Students Bringing Real Life Experiences... Read more.. Clapham Park Project - What does the future hold? Many of you know that Clapham Park... Read more.. Valuing the Customer We've probably all had a bad customer... Read more.. View All Blogs ... Read more..

Speaking at the Some Other Way Forward Conference

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On 9 June I was invited to speak on a panel at the Some Other Way Forward (SOWF partnership) final legacy conference.

SOWF is a project sponsored and supported by the South Bank and Bankside Cultural Quarter which aims to put young people at the heart of the arts as visitors, creators and advocates.

The panel was chaired by Baroness Estelle Morris MP and included speakers from Southwark Council and the Imperial War Museum. There were about 140 delegates, from art directors and head teachers to young people who have taken part in an arts apprenticeship scheme called ‘Street Genius’.

My contribution to the discussion centred on the key successes of Clapham Park Project’s partnership with SOWF. This partnership has helped to:

Raise the aspirations of young people and families from the NDC area Secure places for three young people from the Clapham Park area on the Street Genius apprenticeship scheme with the National Theatre and Tate Modern Bring arts projects to local community organisations Develop a way of working together which can be used for building new partnerships The conference’s main message was for community organisations to maintain the trusted links they have established, because these links are the key to successful future collaborations.

I felt very proud to have been part of this venture and I hope there will be more joint working in the future.

A few of the projects we ran for SOWF
In 2007 SOWF commissioned CPP to host a large dome, which housed a number of workshops run by arts organisations, in the middle of the Clapham Park Estate. In March 2008 we were also asked to organise trips to the South Bank for local families as part of a research project to increase the number of residents visiting the South Bank.

Roz Thompson

Bringing Real Life Experiences of Young Muslims to University Students

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Bringing Real Life Experiences of Young Muslims to University Students When I was invited to give a lecture on young urban Muslims to students at the University of St Andrews, I said yes straightaway. Not because I’m in the habit of giving talks to academics, but because: I think it’s important for theories in books and articles to be supported by real life experiences Learning more about what life is like for young Muslim men will help more people to understand their current situation There are several community groups and organisations in the UK, one of which is STREET, working hard to engage, inspire and be positive role models to Muslim youth. Their work needs to be acknowledged

The St Andrews students, who are all doing a masters degree in international relations and terrorism, wanted to learn more about Muslims growing up in the inner city.

I structured my lecture to look at three concepts I’ve developed and their effectiveness in drawing young Muslims into extremism:

Intellectualisation - this is when educated Muslim extremists recruit other intellectuals to their cause by putting their emotions to the side and using reasoned and rational arguments.

Bilal Abdulla and Kafeel Ahmed, the doctor and engineer who drove a jeep into the terminal of Glasgow airport in 2007, are both products of intellectualisation.

Social deprivation - this is when some individuals don’t have the same conditions of life as most people. This might be because they don’t have access to the products, services or standards that they need to play the roles, have the relationships and behave in the way expected of them by society.

Richard Reid, the British man who tried to blow up a passenger plane in 2001 with a shoe bomb, was socially deprived. He had been a young offender, spent time in various prisons and converted to Islam while in jail.

Isolation - individuals who are detached from other people and spend a lot of time by themselves can be easy targets for extremism. Terrorists can give these loners a sense of purpose by training and preparing them on specific roles.

Nicky Reilly, a British convert to Islam who has Asperger Syndrome (a type of autism), was groomed over the internet by two Muslim men and persuade to carry out a suicide bombing of a restaurant in Exeter.

I’m pleased to say that the lecture was very well received, and one of the key things that students found useful was hearing about the practical approaches to encouraging Muslim youth away from extremism.

Shaun Danquah

Clapham Park Project - What does the future hold?

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Many of you know that Clapham Park Project (CPP) was awarded funding from 2001 to 2011, so you're probably wondering what will happen in a couple of years time. Will all the community activities disappear? Will Clapham Park be left on its own again?

The answer is no:

CPP has applied to become a charity and expects this to happen before the end of 2009. Becoming a charitable organisation will help us to raise money for our work more easily, once our government funding comes to an end. In the spring, CPP asked residents to complete a questionnaire so we could find out what type of activities the community wanted to keep. Over 500 of you responded and your number one choices were:

Supporting children's education and development outside school (36%) Skills and development training (23%) Social activities for young people (29%) Neighbourhood Wardens (27%) Employment advice (17%)

We've looked at all the results from the questionnaires and are now writing our business plan. This will outline the type of work we plan to continue and how we will achieve it. We'll need to raise money to run local community projects, but we're already working on this. Once we write our Forward Strategy (action plan) for our activities as a charity, we’ll be consulting with residents again because your involvement is an essential part of shaping the future of Clapham Park.

Heather Chappell

Valuing the Customer

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We've probably all had a bad customer service experience at one time or another: grumpy waiters in restaurants, being left on hold for ages when calling a company and not being told why the train you’re on has come to a standstill.

The thing is, we don’t often tell the source of our frustration how we feel about their customer service. We're also much more likely to tell people we know about a negative experience than a positive one.

At Clapham Park Project, our customers are our local residents, community groups and partners, and we provide a service that we hope you’ll always be happy with. But if there’s something you want to discuss with us, or if you have a suggestion that you think can help us improve our service to you, please let us know.

If we know about it, we'll have the chance to do something about it.

At the same time, if you're happy with the work we've done and the service you get, we'd love to know.

Email Heather Chappell or call her on 020 8678 5900.

Heather Chappell

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