Our beneficiaries include children, young people and their families (6-14 years) - they are empowered, enabled and supported through a range of activities and programmes at the adventure playground. Here they access free play, free food, organised visits; holiday activities; sports, wellbeing, learning, training and creative opportunities. We have transformed the lives of many children and young people, some stay on to help other young people to develop and thrive. We have an integrated SEN service, benefitting many children and families in our community.
The Platform Cafe is a community kitchen and event space, celebrating the diverse food cultures of Loughborough Junction. We offer homemade, healthy lunches and a welcoming space to feel at home. We deliver a programme of community outreach and door knocking, volunteer placements and training opportunities for young people, some now work at the Cafe and have enhanced their life and career opportunities. We also have our ongoing free meals programme for those most in need which benefits100s of people each year.
The Loughborough Farm is supported by 100s of volunteers each year. Through volunteer growing sessions, gardening, DIY training, monthly market and workshops we support beneficiaries emotional, mental and physical wellbeing. Together they have created a warm and inclusive space, open to all in our community. There is also an informal social prescribing service, signposting some of the most vulnerable, hard to engage beneficiaries to our other projects and much needed local services.
The Arts and Craft programme is a skills based initiative, teaching people how to transform old garments into new ones; how to sew whilst socialising with others from the community. This programme is great for beneficiaries health and mental wellbeing.
We are local people who want to make a difference in our community; we engage, collaborate, share, involve, support and we work hard together to make our community a great place to live and work.
Loughborough Junction Action Group (LJAG) is a social action group which came into existence in 2008, established and run by local people. We respond to locally identified need and provide services which redress the growing inequalities in our long-neglected inner London community. We have successfully secured and transformed abandoned local assets into inclusive community spaces from which we provide services the community needs and wants, supported by 1000+ volunteers. They include a community cafe, an adventure playground and community carm with an informal social prescribing service. We also run an arts and craft service. Our goal is to make Loughborough Junction a great place to live and work.
Our programmes are well used by the community, including single parent families; the elderly; people with long-term health conditions, mental ill-health or addiction issues; those suffering from domestic abuse; some with No Recourse to Public Funds; and asylum seekers. Feedback is routinely gathered from each of our projects and used to ensure co-ordinated services which continue to evolve in line with need.
The Café and Farm work together to operate as a community hub. The farm grows garden plants and produce for our community cafe, and our local community which we sell at a monthly market stall and/or distribute on local housing estates. In this way we connect with more vulnerable people and families in the community and connect them to our services including digital inclusion, craft and wellbeing workshops, and WYWH which connects our more vulnerable volunteers to health professionals. The Cafe offers fresh healthy meals, paid as well as free to those who need it most in our community.
Our adventure playground is run by a devoted team from the local community, they work tirelessly to keep this community playground open. It is an open access adventure playground with loads of activities for everyone. Essentially play is led by the children, but we have a wide range of activities including art, cookery, plenty of sports, table tennis, table football, a myriad of board and table games, PS3’s. We also have regular discussion sessions to talk about real events and news that affect the kids in this area. The playground is open on Saturdays and during school holidays. But we also have integrated after-school play sessions and other SEND sessions throughout the year.
Our arts and crafts programme is run by local residents, upcycling and recycling is central to activities. Local residents can learn how to sew, repair old garments, and develop their creative skills.
We are passionate about our community, our people, our children and we want to make a difference to the lives of everyone who lives and works here.
