News & Updates From All Of Us
[Note: Our instagram may have more current news, pics, and videos]
December 2024
A round up to cover the last months of this year:
Caroline & Irina have continued working on refinements to the Willesden Immigrants Trail and have been invited to give talks about it. Through the talks and meetings we have uncovered more stories; this trail may continue to grow! We are so pleased that it has been so well received and now we are seeking funding to expand it to include more local communities to be able to tell their immigrant stories too. We are working towards linking the word ‘immigrant’ to positive stories.
Irina is progressing well with her MA in Heritage Management. Her focus is on cemeteries has a heritage resource and in parallel she serves as a tour guide for two local significant cemeteries: Willesden Jewish Cemetery and Kensal Green Cemetery.
Rachel has been using her creative talents with the Kiln Theatre and Sport at the Heart as part of the Kilburn High Road Project and Christine’s well-being walks & creativity project in the heart of Wembley is full steam ahead.
The project celebrates the unique history of Barham Park and the community library (click here for more info) This is an amazing quote from one of the participants on Christine’s walks:
'The walk takes you back to your inner self….coming to terms with the journey of where we started and where we are at now. New friends, environment, connections. [We are] broadening our horizons, making links with our senses and becoming more aware and more conscious ' Dharampal Kaur
Deborah has been reviewing the website and we have made a few tweaks that hopefully make it easier to explore and understand what we do - and most importantly WHY we are doing it. One answer we have come up with is that SharedCity is here: “To bring people of all backgrounds together to explore shared humanity and the specific heritage stories that brought us to this place.” But this is something we need to keep thinking about!
Lastly - over the last year Caroline has been working on ‘Local Peace Talks’ - a community project that dovetails beautifully with SharedCity values. The idea has been to organise neighbourhood talks, walks and workshops that celebrate shared humanity and plant seeds of hope for the future. Click here for more information.
September 2024
Excited to be back after the summer with our lovely ongoing creative workshops (art, writing and more - book here) and the continuation of exciting heritage projects - including putting the finishing touches to the Willesden Immigrants Trail (it’s all here!) and working with the community on breathing ideas for new life into the chapels at Paddington Old Cemetery. Follow Christine here to find out more about the workshops she is running at Barham Park over the coming months. We are putting together more funding to expand the concept of the Immigrants Trail to include more communities and their stories - watch this space (and do let us know if your community has stories - perhaps we can make a project together).
July 2024
The Willesden Immigrants trail can be previewed here. Before long it will be available on the map-based Citytrotter app (download here). There are 30 local places highlighted with short histories, and introductions to fascinating local characters who originated in Russia, Europe and further East. We are excited to hear what you think.
June 2024
Does everyone feel the crunch in June as community projects need to be wound up by the strange deadline of the ‘school holidays’ in July. Surely not everything stops then? But the deadlines are certainly upon us and the reality of being a small enterprise kicks in with reminders to sort out all manner of admin, project work - plus the realisation that our website isn’t up to date and certain (ahem) payments aren’t either (blush). But we are learning and growing every day! It’s swings and roundabouts. We are REALLY enjoying the project work and working with our lovely local community.
May 2024
The clock is ticking and Caroline is nerdily finishing the research for the Willesden Immigrants’ Trail (watch the stories build up here). Alongside the developing trail, Rachel is starting work on a new short film to tell the the amazing story of old Jewish Willesden. Rachel is also continuing to offer mindful drawing classes in Roundwood Park and Caroline has started a heritage role as community consultant to the Chapels project at Paddington Old Cemetery. Christine is, as ever, busy delivering wellness across London, Deborah is rehearsing for her new play, Irina is frantically finishing her final project for her MA in Heritage Management.
March 2024
We were so happy to receive funding from Brent for our well-being workshops in Wembley, and we can’t wait to get going. Christine is leading on this and will be running free workshops throughout the year at Barham Library. The drawing workshops in South Kilburn at the OK club are coming to a close - we’ve posted pics on Instagram of the wonderful Rose Window we created with our lively new gang of local artists.
February 2024
Lunchtime drawing workshops with a heritage theme are rolled out for vulnerable local people - we are oversubscribed! Over 30 people attended our first Willesden Jewish Immigrants Tour on a cold wintery day - it was a fascinating and interactive afternoon. We are doing some more research and developing the app with City Trotter - watch this space for more news.
January 2024
Our film of South Kilburn is shown at a wonderful community event at Kiln Cinema, attended by over 60 local people. You can view it too here. Talks by local Councillor Mohammed Butt and the producer Ivor David were very well received. If you missed it, it will be screened again as part of the Bass Line Festival in Spring 2024.
November 2023
The research part of developing a new public trail to celebrate twentieth century immigration to Willesden starts with our first of a series of workshop, led by us - and a group enthusiastic teenagers at Brondesbury Park Synagogue. The project is funded by the Mayor of London.
September 2023
Our Lottery funded local history project with the wonderful ESOL centre in South Kilburn (Global Skills Academy) has begun. We are working on a five week programme with students from Sudan, Brazil, Spain, Algeria & Japan.
July 2023 - This month has been a busy (and fun) one with organising the community open day event at St Andrew’s Church in Kingsbury and planning our family heritage workshops for the OK club in Kilburn.
May 2023 - Delighted to have been awarded a grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund to run a series of heritage workshops in Kilburn. The first summer holiday workshops start at the end of July, exploring local history and our own intriguing family histories and using film, sound and low-tech maps to inspire our creativity. Book onto our workshops here.
Feb 2023 - We are excited to announce that we have been awarded a grant from the London Mayor’s office! The grant, from the Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm will help us develop our Willesden Immigrants Trail project. It will be complete by March 2024. The project includes inter-generational workshops with the local community and building a trail to celebrate the contributions of migrants to Willesden over the last one hundred years. We will be working closely with Brondesbury Park Synagogue and Brent Museum & Archives. More information about the funding programme here.
December 2023 - We are delighted to announce that we have been appointed as part of the project team for the Rekindling project at St Andrews Church in Kingsbury, bringing local heritage to local people. This initial stage of the project is supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund and will run to July 2023. More information about the project here.
September 2022 - We were lucky enough to be awarded funding to lead ‘Enchanted Forest’ walks. These are guided history and well-being tours in parks in Brent, including Roundwood Park and Barham Park. The walks are free and have been funded by the Sport England Together Fund and supported by London Sport. People of all abilities are invited to join the walks on a weekly basis up to Spring 2023. Find more information here.
2021-2022 - We delivered BrentHeritage, a £5,000 project for BeingBrent, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund comprising free tours and downloadable trails around the London Borough of Brent. The project is hosted on an external website here. Please click through to explore more. You will find free online talks and free trail downloads as our legacy to the local community.
For 2022 - We are developing a series of tours to make a walk in the park more fun for people of all ages. Our new walks will combine stories, arts, meditation and mindful movement to create a journey connecting health, well-being & nature. More information here.
For 2023 - We are working with local community groups on The World Comes To Kilburn, a local heritage project focusing on the history of Kilburn High Road, through the eyes of immigrants who have made it the multicultural and vibrant place it is today. There will be tours, trails and workshops - and the project will provide opportunities for participants to learn new skills, share stories about local history, and build a community chest of knowledge.
Contact us by email now if you are a community group or school interested in getting involved or click here if you are an individual living in Kilburn and would like to participate & learn new skills.