The first 3 years – do we value them enough ?

They say the first 5 years are the most important in a child’s life as they lay the foundation that shapes their future health, happiness, growth, development and learning achievement at school, in the family and community. But what about the first 3?

According to national charity What About The Children? the emotional needs of children under three years old are the most fundamental.

Apart from providing information to parents, professionals and politicians, What About The Children? campaigns for employers and financial institutions, government and the health service to institute or improve policies and practices that give practical support to families with young children. They also campaign for tax and child benefit systems that would enable parents to have a realistic choice to be the main carers for their children during the first three years.

I wholeheartedly support this. Key is the importance of choice, allowing parents to meet the needs of their children, first and foremost, whilst still being able to put food on the table and pay bills. As a parent of a child under 3, I fully realise the importance of having the choice on how our child develops in these early years. Our child absolutely thrives in our particular set-up, which we have created because we don’t have family around. She is with either parent p/t (I note the importance of the time she spends with her dad), in group play/sees family and friends (her second family) regularly, and with our child minder who has older children that adore her (and she them) for a couple of days a week. She is a happy, well balanced child.

If you can afford to go, What About The Children? conferences have been recommended by a fellow parent so I thought I’d share.

Stuff for free

This and next month Healthy Planet is Running a Christmas gift swap service to save unwanted but useful goods going to waste. Take along your unwanted gifts and go back later in the month to take your pick of the donated goods. All free and fun!

Go to www.healthyplanet.org/projects/stuff-for-free.aspx

Canada’s Smallest Rental

We just came across this blog post on tinyhouseblog.com reporting on Canada’s Smallest Rental Micro-lofts and Housing Affordability.

What a great use of space and a fab solution to having a place to call your own. No room to swing a cat mind you. You’d also have to be incredibly tidy to live there! =)

We’re working with Loftsdesign.se on some UK space making solutions and a social project training young people. Watch this space!

Solutions for living in small spaces

We’re working on a UK furniture project with Swedish company Loftdesign.se and I recently came across some  detailed research by the Design Council CABE entitled ‘Decent homes need decent spaces‘. They have published some other very useful reports on helping local communities shape places and spaces that meet their needs (they also provide grants).

In comparison to Sweden, where the Loftdesign.se company was established and has succeeded, the UK is almost 700% more densely populated and more so in our cities. This is reflected in the amount of living space families have at home. With new (and smaller) homes being built to meed the needs of the UK’s fast growing population, we are meeting a problem of a lack of space within homes.

For us and loftdesign.se, this highlights how important it is to re-address how the space in homes is being utilised.

The research shows that many residents of the UK South East do not believe that the space provided in their homes is sufficient for basic everyday activities. The survey of 2,488 households living in accommodation developed since 2002 (based on the postcodes created) in London and within approximately one-hour’s commute of London, focused on the functional aspects of the space in the dwelling, examining a range of normal daily activities.

Interestingly, 36% of respondents said they have had to make lifestyle choices because of the lack of space in their home (for example not having a pet or not having a bicycle). The most extensive dissatisfaction expressed was in response to questions regarding space in the kitchen and there being sufficient space for small children to play safely in the kitchen when it is being used (an important issue of parental care and child safety). The other main area of dissatisfaction across all subgroups referred to furniture. There was general agreement that there is not enough space for all the furniture and decorative objects that the residents would like to have. Similarly, there was agreement that the space in the dwelling was insufficient to allow residents a choice of the furniture layout. Lack of privacy, particularly for children, was a concern in several Groups, most noticeably in Group B (fully occupied). There was dissatisfaction with the total storage space available in the home, although sufficient storage space is less important than enough rooms, size of rooms or airiness.

These results are for a property mix where only 10% of the respondents were fully occupying their dwelling, and 90% had a spare bed space or bedroom. The survey results found that people in homes that were fully occupied were less than satisfied with their space. We think that it is safe to assume that properties closer to the city centre of London will show an even lesser dissatisfaction with their space.

An interesting read!

Recycled Tunes mashing up rubbish and sweet sounds

Free City has initiated a new project to promote recycling to young people through music and social media.
It is a project with great potential and its good fun. Young people are building instruments, creating sounds and music of recycled materials. We are building an open sound bank to be shared and a user-generated radio promoting recycling.

We are so pleased to see so many talented young people joining in and the support we are starting to get.
Watch this space: www.recycledtunes.org

We want to get involved in a community growing scheme in E3

Hi all!,

What I’d really, really love to get involved in is a local community growing/allotment scheme. We don’t have a garden and I remember my Nanna grew absolutely everything. I grew up knowing where food came from and how it looked before being wrapped in plastic and put on supermarket shelves. I’d really like that for my daughter if possible!

Does anyone know about any local collectives in Bow? If not, any interest in finding some land and growing stuff together? Perhaps via Landshare We all lead busy lives so maintaining a plot on our own is completely out of the question for some, but together it would be fun and good for the soul!

I found this one in Hackney – growingcommunities.org, but I’d like something closer if possible.

Heba Nursery and Creche is a success and into it’s second term!

Finally, after a lot of hard work our nursery and creche is up, running and a resounding success!

Driven by my desperate need for flexible and affordable childcare, I approached the Heba Women’s Project in Brick Lane on the recommendation of Hannah McHalick, Founder of Oh Baby London, who used the creche several years ago when starting up her own business. Unfortunately when I approached them they had lost their funding due to government cuts and it had closed. But, the building was still there and full of nursery equipment, which gave me an idea.  Why not start-up our own, without having to rely on funding at all? Was there a way of running a nursery that would be affordable and flexible, which I desperately needed but still have excellent childcare? After a lot of research, the answer was yes!

After a lot of hard work by Heba Coordinator Anne Wilding, we started a co-op not-for-profit scheme on the 8th of March 2011. This co-op creche is slightly different from the ones that exist already, in that it doesn’t rely on parents having to take turns to work in the nursery, but on the skill set of the parents and the generosity of our members. So far we have had parents volunteering to do the following for us:

- I’m doing the marketing, promoting and parent liaison (of course, heh heh) and we’re now full!

- one parent is building our website

- another parent is taking proffessional photos

- another is creating our flyer

- another has bought some toys

Admittedly, we’ve had one teething problem when a member of staff was suddenly off sick, but we’re trying to get around that with a rota system of parents on call to work in the creche  if needed.

So, it’s early days but parents and children absolutely love it. And what a blessing it is for me. I’m actually at home writing this while Siri is no doubt splashing her new friends with the water play tub! Bliss )

Watch this space for updates.

P.s. Oh, and if you know any local parents who might need the creche, please forward them the flyer above. Due to demand the creche will soon be open on some afternoons as well which means on some days it will be open 9.30am-3.30pm!

Organic Wick – working together to make organic food affordable

A new orgainic co-op scheme has started in our area. It’s a non-profit organisation started by members of the community. Get your hands dirty and your fruit and veggies at cost price, or simply shop and pay a very reasonable retail price if you don’t have the time.

I love it and am excited about the idea and prospect of becoming involved. We haven’t sampled the delights of Organic Wick Yet, so we need to do a taste test, but they definitely receive the Free-City stamp of approval for making it happen, sustainability, the lurve and community spirit!

I’ll let you know what we think when we have our first munch!

Lagos, Megacity of the world

“More than 50 per cent of the world’s population now live in cities, and that figure is expected to rise to over 70 per cent by 2050” according to the BBC, which took a look this April at how some inhabitants currently cope in Lagos, one of the world’s fastest-growing megacities in the world .

Not without controversy, the BBC documentary ‘Welcome to Lagos‘ took a heartwarming view at the personal lives of some of the city’s poorest people. But as you can see from the comments at the end of the blog, it focusses on a stereotypical view of an African and as one reader wrote “what to expect from Lagos, Nigeria and Africa as a whole”.

Just as interesting is how this megacity plans to cope with its ever increasing inhabitants and the plans Lagos has for its future. As another reader points out, Eko Atlantic for example, is a new Lagos city development that is being built on land that is being reclaimed from the Atlantic Ocean. It plans to house 250,000 residents, with commuter volume expected to exceed 150,000 people daily.

How will this development help a city bursting at the seams? It the solution sustainable and will it offer any benefit to it’s existing population like Mr Chubbey above?

How do other megacities plan to cope with their ever increasing population?