Community Champions
Supporting residents in Regents Park and Ampthill estates to lead change
The Regents Park Estate is the largest in Camden and faces social and health inequalities which are further compounded by extensive disruptions caused by the HS2 and Euston construction works in the area.
The Community Champions programme is a hyper-local, participant-led engagement programme through which young people from the Regents Park Estate work alongside adult residents to address critical issues through social action and co-produced system change, in collaboration with a strong local network of community organisations, local authorities, and businesses.
Our Community Champions carry out local consultations, devise their own programmes to lead change, create strong local networks, co-produce improved services, and deliver activities which improve the environment, increase cohesion, and bring the community together.
The programme has recently been expanded into the neighbouring Ampthill Estate in Somers Town.
This gives a behind the scenes look into how young people at FYA produced a film to raise awareness about female safety. It gives insight into how they came up with ideas and what they wanted to achieve. It also highlights great team work and collaboration.
“My highlight has definitely been the photography project... It was a really cool getting to use the old cameras but also as way for us to explore our estate and areas we avoid if we feel less safe, and try to think about how can we make them feel safer in future...I feel listened to about my experiences and experiences of my friends...I have made friends and look forward to attending every week.”
“Being a guardian is a new experience and while it can sometimes be tiring it is evidently fun and achieving. In my opinion I believe the young guardians have accomplished many feats involving managing and volunteering in events and improving our area, making it more safe. I feel the young guardians are a fantastic group, helping to develop the happiness and safety area for the better.”
“There isn't another programme like Young Guardians I don’t think. We get to create events, make films, do photography, get training – there's loads we get to do! We have learnt a lot but more importantly we see the difference it makes for our friends, our neighbours and the community. I am really excited by the work around community safety and getting to hopefully work with the police more closely and even train them in our workshop!”
“I have really liked not only thinking about safety now, but what does it look like once HS2 and Euston work is finished. I liked the Lendlease workshops and feeling like our insight was valued and will be included in future design, especially thinking about families accessing support close by and cheap food options being included as often these expensive improvement projects mean those who live there can’t actually afford to spend time there.”
“We have become a really strong team and a group of friends – it doesn’t matter the age, I also might not have met them before but now we are close friends. I think that is important as some of what we do isn't always fun, it can be quite serious when we are talking about safety but we make it fun because we get on.”
“I have enjoyed being part of the Guardians and part of a project that really looks at links between safety and health and wellbeing. I have gained so much confidence that I have spoken publicly about our work and I wouldn’t have done that before.”
“I have become more empathetic and I can understand people in situations where I would not usually find myself in...I have learnt to communicate with the community and help them.”
In partnership with Camden Detached Project, we supported a group of young people who call themselves ‘Young Guardians’ to run a local campaign aimed at improving community safety in and around the Regents Park Estate.
The group were trained in contextual safeguarding, Street Doctors’ first aid and public speaking. The group created two films to help people to understand concepts of contextual safeguarding. Their animated films portray two scenarios of an imagined violent incident involving young people and show how bystanders can make a real difference. The group wanted to create a workshop alongside their films to train residents and local professionals in how they could become active bystanders in such a situation.
As part of this, the Young Guardians helped organise a social event for 200 residents. They printed a large map of the estate (a tool they wanted for their training sessions), and asked attendees to place stickers to identify where they felt safe, and unsafe. They also spoke with residents about the issues they had faced and shared the contact details of where residents could seek further support. Residents were also asked to share their thoughts about young people and community safety and explore both their own anxieties about feeling intimidated by young people, as well as considering the impact on young people who don’t feel they are able to spend time outside in their own area. These discussions were incredibly informative for the development of their active bystander workshop and the types of services residents need to be aware of when incidents occur that make them feel unsafe.
The group put together a training packages which includes awareness of what contextual safeguarding is and how to be an active bystander, including what to do if someone is hurt with a weapon, how to approach young people who may be in unsafe situations or where to go to seek further support. They practiced different styles of facilitation and trialled the use of interactive and participatory games and activities. They piloted their workshop with staff from local community organisations, shops and council and, after some minor amendments, promoted their training offer. To date, the Young Guardians have trained over 90 professionals and community members, ranging from local residents to shopkeepers, teachers, council estate caretakers, youth workers, social workers, community workers and police and community safety teams.
Camden Council promoted the safety campaign on posters on bus stops throughout the borough.
Watch a short film the Young Guardians created as part of their contextual safeguarding training offer
The Young Urban designers project was a partnership with Camden Council Planning team, Sustrans and FYA. Young people worked with FYA and Sustrans teams to develop meaningful design ideas and solutions for the Regent's Park Area: Safe and Healthy Streets project. The project started with the group undertaking their own walk about of the estate observing issues and challenges and reflecting on their own experiences. They then took a trip to Brixton to see some best practice examples of urban planning and design interventions. The Young people then designed two pop up activities to engage their peers living in the area to increase the amount of youth voices and ideas included in the research, testing their theories relating to what could engage young people in planning and area improvements in fun and participatory ways. The first pop up event was a treasure hunt around the estate with ways for young people to feedback their thoughts or ideas for solutions in different areas, as well as interactive and playful challenges at each stop, incentivised with a voucher and chocolate prizes. Their second event was a fun pop up in the Cumberland Market Park with a magician, arts and crafts and free food and ways to give design ideas such as designing colourful crossings, street furniture or voting through sport on areas of interest. They engaged 62 young people and children across the two pop ups!
Their design phase utilised this research and made their ideas come to life by creating visual representations of their improvements on Minecraft alongside engineers from Sustrans and Camden Council. At the end of the programme, young people presented the initial research and responses to decision-makers, council officers, engineers and urban planners. Their work has been included in the overall report for Healthy and Safe Streets in the Regent’s Park estate and it is hoped some of the research will be acted upon but also a chance for some of the young people to hopefully come together again as part of that action. A full report from Camden Council on the joint project can be found here: CAMDEN YOUNG URBAN DESIGNERS PROGRAMME Regent’s Park Area : Safe and Healthy Streets Report by Sustrans
Young volunteers worked alongside local residents in Regent’s Park Estate in organising 32 community kitchens over the year, facilitating community socials and serving over 12,500 free meals in total. FYA delivered this project in partnership with Camden Detached Youth Team, Old Diorama Arts Centre, The Euston Partnership and Surma Centre.
Our volunteers served free hot meals and provided entertainment, arts and crafts workshops, games and a safe, warm space for people of all ages and backgrounds to have fun together. The Kitchen became a small community of its own, with families providing peer support to each other and accessing services who held pop up stalls. Local councillors met with residents and held impromptu drop ins. It was a fantastic demonstration of how our community can work together to look after each other. We also replicated the model in Somers Town, working with local councillors, Somers Town Youth Centre, Somers Town Big Local and Somers Town Community Association. We supported the teams to understand the model and adapt it to the local needs, and supporting initial delivery. There are now two community kitchens in Somers Town, serving over 600 people per week between them.
The final Community Kitchen in Regent’s Park Estate was a Community Kitchen Iftar on 27th March. Over 375 guests from different backgrounds joined together in the spirit of community and joined those observing Ramadan as they broke fast to share a meal together. To celebrate Ramadan, young people gave presentations to help our community understand what Ramadan is and why it is important to them. The food was donated by local restaurants.
Watch a short film of our Community Iftar;
Project in Numbers
Community Champions in Numbers
*based on 2023-24 annual report
6
main programmes were organised by the Champions
12,500+
free meals were served across 32 community kitchens
28
young people participated as Community Champions
90
professionals have been trained by young guardians in contextual safeguarding