England’s Lane Residence
Back in 2018, we worked with residents on the England’s Lane hostel, a temporary accommodation hostel for homeless families in Camden.
As of March 2018, it had 136 children living there. Residents of the hostel faced many difficulties, including: bringing up children in cramped temporary accommodation, not having a say in how services are run, and difficulty in providing healthy meals to children.
Here’s the work we did with England’s Lane residents.
England’s Lane Community Manifesto
The North Camden Zone worked with England’s Lane residents to produce recommendations for change called “If we work together, we can change this place”.
This outlined a resident-led vision for the accommodation in 10 years time, and practical steps to achieve that vision.
England’s Lane Hack
We then organised the England’s Lane Hack, where residents and professionals came together to come up with ideas to tackle the challenges residents faced.
Voice of England’s Lane
In June 2018, the Voice of England’s Lane was set up. This is a group of 10 residents who represented the voices of residents living in England’s Lane to the local authority. The group was awarded funding by Camden Giving, and organised: an Eid party, a picnic trip to Primrose Hill, and a beach trip to Margate attended by over 100 England’s Lane residents.
Wash and Connect
Wash and Connect matched residents with local community volunteers who would do one load of washing per week for them. This tackled the big challenge for residents of the cost of laundry, as well as how time-consuming it was.
