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Waltham Forest (Phase 1 - Completed)

The following Well London activities took place in the The Drive & Attlee Terrace target area.

Themed Projects

Be Creative, Be Well

Waltham Forest Arts in Education: 35 dance workshops for children and young people.
Street dance workshops at Sugar Plum Tree Nursery and Sunbeam After School Club.
Draw-Out' mobile drawing project.

I enjoyed every session and I hope anywhere they go people will enjoy the service as I did. The piece I have made is very special. Before I used my anger to create an art, but now I use the skills and ability that I never thought I had. Give it a try and see, how it makes you feel. I have really enjoyed it, and I have liked expressing myself. Art has been very meaningful.
Project Participant

Eatwell

Community Feasts were delivered in October 2009 and July 2010.

Soon as we got home my boys got their aprons on and got cooking tea! They loved the Clay Oven and cooking the breads in the wood fire and it inspired them.
Community Feast Participant

DIY Happiness

Eight DIY Happiness sessions. Dare to Dream ideas that were developed included:

Women's pampering sessions.
Camping trip and equipment.
Bike Project.
Parents support group for autistic children.

Mental Wellbeing impact assessment (MWIA)

One sentence will go here for most areas.

Changing Minds

A number of Mental health awareness sessions took place in the local area.

Healthy Spaces

Gardening and arts projects at the Forest YMCA
Trinity & Hancocke House open space improvements

Activate London

Boxing sessions at the Waltham Forest YMCA
Smoothie Bike at the re-launch of the YMCA
Half Term sessions for young people at St Mary's school
Football sessions at the Local High schools
Athletic training at the Track and Pool with Eton Manor Athletic club
Football and Mentoring Programme in partnership with Walthamstow Church

Heart of the Community Projects

Training communities

This project provided training for the following Well London groups:

WLDT members
Well London Activators
MWIA facilitators
Young Ambassador

Training Communities also offered Personal support packages (PSPs). Examples of training people chose included the following:

BTEC teacher training.
Composting.
Asian Sewing.
ITEC Diploma diet and nutrition.
Super foods in the garden.
First aid training including paediatrics.

Youth.com

Documentary project.
Football provision.

Participant Data

Total participants; 730

613 people reported an increase in healthier eating.
616 people reported increased access to affordable healthy food.
585 people reported an increase in levels of physical activity.
589 people reported that they felt more or much more positive.

Waltham Forest

"Community participation is low and anti-social behaviour is high. The estates have no obvious cohesive identities of their own." This was how the Well London project brief described Waltham Forest's super output area (LSOA) in January last year, just before work began in the borough.

"The major health barrier people spoke about was community cohesion," recalls Faye Adams-Eaton from the University of East London, who, along with local visual artist Sally Labern, coordinated Well London's activities in Waltham Forest. "People were afraid to come together, and there was a lack of knowledge about what was going on in the borough."

Addressing that lack of community identity has been their main priority in the months since. "We've taken a big focus around capacity building and working with local residents to join them up," says Ms Adams-Eaton. "What we have achieved, which is more important than anything, are lasting relationships, and giving that community a face and a voice so that during these slightly chaotic times they can really communicate with local service providers that's the strongest element we can leave in place."

The creative arts have been well represented as part of a holistic approach to delivery. Well London participants built a clay oven - itself a work of art - which has been wheeled around to various events within the borough. The drawing shed, a mobile art studio developed by Ms Labern and her colleague Bobby Lloyd, has also been a great success. These projects have provided both a focus for the community and a neutral space within which new friendships and connections have been forged.

"We observed on the estate that groups of kids would pool in certain areas and not talk to one another," says Ms Labern. "Through this [Well London] they have started working together and talking to one another."

"Residents have made new friends just by getting involved and doing stuff," agrees volunteer Michelle Blackman, "It's helped a lot of people, I think."

Ms Blackman and others are now on course to help many more. She is behind the formation of a local health and wellbeing advice service called Ask Freda, which has been built on the back of the community strengthening work that Well London and its delivery partners have done in Waltham Forest. This is the project's immediate legacy, and the local primary care trust (PCT) has offered its support

"Well London has brought this community together and the residents are very keen to carry on the work that has been started," says Karen Bernard, public health strategist at Waltham Forest’s primary care trust (PCT). "I think there is momentum to keep it going the residents are very enthusiastic about the work Well London has started."

"[It] has had a great impact on the residents in this community," Ms Bernard adds. "Well London has established community cohesiveness, provided information and knowledge on opportunities available and has built the residents' confidence and skills. March 2011

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