4 LOCAL HEROES
brixtonblog.com
December/January 2016
CoPop embraces natural beauty by Lucy Hook
Local business sellers on the Tree Shepherd stall at Lambeth Country Show
Free training to launch and grow your own business Back2Business, a project supported by Lambeth council, still has places on its training courses. The aim is to help local residents who are in long-term unemployment, have been made redundant or are facing financial instability to gain the
Chrissy Makhlouf selling her pottery
confidence, business skills and support they need to launch their own business. The project is being delivered by Brixtonbased start-up specialists Brand Amplifier and Tree Shepherd who run business training programmes. Residents from two priority groups are eligible – the rising 50s (in their late 40s and over) and breadwinners (lone parents with dependent-age children). Each group will learn the skills, confidence and knowledge required to take a start-up business to the stage of being business ready. Eight weekly workshops will run from January through to March 2016. ■■ For more information please call Lydia Gardner on 020 3697 1540 or email Lydia@treeshepherd.org.uk.
A long-time Brixton resident is one of 10 people from Lambeth who have set up their own trading co-operative in Pop Brixton. CoPop, which opened on 9 December, has been set up by a collective who bring a diverse range of products and services to the shop. From clothing and jewellery to beauty products and interiors, the range at CoPop is inspired by the rich cultural heritage of Brixton and its founding members. Patricia Whyte, who has lived here for almost 30 years, is creating and selling her own range of handmade
natural beauty products in the shop. The range – Whyte Bells – fuses Caribbean and African ingredients and was partly named after Patricia’s late mother – whose surname was Bells. Patricia began making the products for herself before turning her skills into a business, and continues to make everything at home – though she is hoping to get a dedicated unit for production. The CoPop co-operative grew out of a Lambeth social entrepreneur project, Tree Shepherd, which helps people from long-term unemployed and other marginalised backgrounds create local enterprises.
Patricia Whyte with her handmade beauty products
Local artist Margaret Lynn Atkinson has self published a colouring book for adults. Atkinson, who has lived in Brixton for 33 years, said she was inspired to create Creative Journey Through Art – Adult Colouring Book after going through a period of depression and anxiety
following a series of muggings. Drawing pictures and colouring them in gave her great comfort. Atkinson then took up an evening course at Chelsea College of Art & Design. Atkinson said she hoped “the drawings will help the stressed and vulnerable to unwind and to become creative with the empty pages also provided for their drawings.” Determined to publish, she used Amazon’s Createspace to get into print herself herself and her book is now available at http://bit.ly/CJTA-ACB.
Everyone fits in at Mosaic
‘When you live in Lambeth you learn to fight’ by Tamora Langley A young woman who had brought up her sisters sang, I’ll Be Your Refuge to the crowded room, while people nodded, called out “Yes, sister!” or stood up to dance along. This was Brixton’s first ever “Kinship Carers Awards”, hosted by the Family Rights Group. It was a night to celebrate the incredible efforts of local siblings, grannies and aunts, who bring up children they are related to who cannot live safely with their parents. Some have taken on responsibility for younger family members following the death of parents, or because parents have health problems, learning difficulties or addictions. Elaine, who organised the awards dinner with certificates for carers and presents for kids, explained: “When my grandson was born, the midwife told me not to buy too many baby clothes because we probably wouldn’t be allowed to keep him. But when you live in Lambeth you learn to fight. “Thanks to the Family Rights Group I found a solicitor and got a special guardianship order for my grandson. My grandson will stay with our family now. Brought up with an aunt, a grandma and a grandpa – he will have a sense of self, a sense of his
KEEP CALM AND COLOUR
identity. But it’s still tough. I could have lost my home without support and advice from the Family Rights Group.” Lambeth has the second highest rate of children in ‘kinship care’ in the country. The Family Rights Group says that half of all kinship carers have to give up work because of the demands of caring for extra children. The group is campaigning for exemptions to the government’s welfare reforms for kinship carers, including the limiting of child tax credit to two children. Many carers end up looking after more than two children, through circumstances entirely out of their control. ■■ To help the Family Rights Group campaign for fair treatment for kinship carers, or to find out about support and advice, visit frg.org.uk
Helping others is what Brixton’s Mosaic Clubhouse does all year round. An award-winning charity providing supportive mental health services to Lambeth and surrounding boroughs in a light and airy building on Effra Road, it has been funded by Lambeth council and NHS Lambeth for 21 years. The clubhouse model is about rehabilitation, with staff and attendees (members) working together to run the facility. Mosaic is deliberately understaffed which creates the space for members to identify their skills and talents, with staff acting as talent scouts to help individuals achieve their personal recovery goals.
Mosaic business outcomes coordinator Lena Malkin says: “Members work on reception, run the café, maintain the gardens and support admin and finance activities. “They participate in all our work, decision-making and governance.” Mosaic’s information hub is a relatively new service for residents who need support and advice with their own or others’ mental health. It offers rapid information, signposting and onward referral to other organisations specialising in benefits and housing advice, physical wellbeing and stopping smoking, alongside access to local mental health services. ■■ Just drop in or call 020 7924 9657.
Mosaic CEO Maresa Ness with club member Marcia Powell