The Estate We're In: ‘We must show our children a world beyond Angell Town’s boundaries’ with My London project

The Standard’s project is giving a grant to a single mother whose field trip plan will expand horizons
Broadening horizons: Kamika Nathan, right, with Marie Ennis. They take young people from Angell Town on field trips
Matt Writtle

When Hillary Clinton launched her US presidential campaign this summer in New York with the memorable phrase “talent is everywhere but opportunity is not”, she could have been talking about Angell Town in Brixton.

Only 15 minutes from the West End, this estate of 4,000 people has scant community facilities and scores of residents who hardly ever venture off the estate.

For one resident, Kamika Nathan, 36, widening the horizons of the children of Angell Town has become a passionate preoccupation.

“Our children are in and out of each other’s houses, they have this love of community, but some of them hardly ever leave the estate and have never even seen the Thames,” she said.

Kamika’s simple but effective solution — called My London — is an attempt to broaden the horizons of Angell Town residents by arranging field trips to London’s great tourist and cultural attractions.

This single mother of five had the idea a few years ago when she took her children to the Science Museum and noticed a huge demand from other young people on the estate to trail along.

My London

About the group: Founded by single mother of five Kamika Nathan, My London will take residents of all ages on field trips into London to show what the capital has to offer beyond the boundaries of the Angell Town estate.

Grant: £5,000

What they will deliver: at least one excursion a month attended by up to 30 residents, including: a boat trip down the Thames, skating at the Natural History Museum, golf at Alexandra Palace, a visit to Clink Prison, and a tour of Buckingham Palace. They will also hold post-trip discussions on the estate.

“I would hear, ‘where you going?’, ‘can I come?’ all the time.”

Together with her friend Marie Ennis, 38, a single mother of two, she began to take groups of young people from the estate on occasional field trips into London.

They focused mainly on free activities or special “two-for-one” deals, but they dreamed about establishing a regular My London programme that could also incorporate fee-paying venues — if only they could raise the cash.

Now, thanks to a £5,000 grant from the Evening Standard’s pilot programme to address social challenges on Angell Town, My London will have sufficient funds to operate on the estate for at least one year.

It is one of an array of grants to support community-led projects on the estate and it will be paid out of a £250,000 pot of funds that has been made available over two years by Citi banking group, Lambeth council and the Evening Standard Dispossessed Fund.

Our Estate Project

We’re backing Angell Town residents and groups trying to transform the estate.

What other grants have we approved?

  • £18,796 to install a 3G Astroturf pitch.
  • £11,500 to Football Beyond Borders and Lambeth Tigers for football training.
  • £17,341 to Dwaynamics for boxing training and job readiness.
  • £15,000 to Block Workout to install outdoor gym bars and do fitness sessions.
  • £12,940 to Tree Shepherd to provide business start-up training for residents.
  • £5,000 to It’s Your Local Market to launch a weekly market.

Grants are managed by The London Community Foundation, fund-holders of the Dispossessed Fund.

Who is funding the project? £100,000 from Citi banking group, £100,000 from Lambeth council, and £50,000 from the Dispossessed Fund.

Why are we doing this? To focus attention on the potential of our estates, impacted by gang war and poverty, and home to 20 per cent of Londoners.

Will more grants be given? Yes, up to £40,000 is available. Community groups or charities operating on or around Angell Town, can apply for grants of £1,000 to £5,000 by Nov 23 at: www.londoncf.org.uk/grants/angell-town-.aspx

Kamika’s strap-line, “My London — no postcode divides us” hints at the serious issues her field trips address.

“How many more mothers must walk into their son’s room and find he is not there because he has been killed?” she railed in the wake of the killings this summer on and around Angell Town of Ogarra Dixon, 24, and Jerrell Elie, 17.

“People say we must end the madness of our children killing each other. Part of the answer is to show them a world beyond the boundaries of the estate.

"That’s where My London comes in. It helps youngsters realise London is open to them, that there is more to life than postcode rivalry.”

Local street pastor Claudette Douglas, 53, said that schemes like Kamika’s were “life savers” for parents on the estate.

“The two concerns for parents bringing up children on estates these days is that our children will end up in gangs or join Islamic State,” she said.

“I think people join gangs and IS for similar reasons — because they feel excluded from society.

"Luckily IS is not a problem on Angell Town but it is on other estates, especially in east London, and in both cases we need to address this issue of youngsters making bad choices because they feel cut off.”

Kamika, who has lived on Angell Town for 10 years, is no stranger to “bad choices”.

People say we must end the madness of our children killing each other. Part of the answer is to show them a world beyond the boundaries of the estate

&#13; <p>Kamika Nathan</p>&#13;

“As a teenager, my role model was my mother who was a hard-working administrator for Eurostar, but I was distracted by the ‘rude boys’ and I ended up getting pregnant at 18 and leaving school after my GCSEs,” she said.

“I hoped to continue my studies while the baby’s father did the childcare, but it didn’t work out that way.”

Later Kamika went back to college to do customer service and followed that up with a community development course at Birkbeck.

Her dream job is to be a primary school teacher and she recently completed a course at Hammersmith and City College to be a teacher’s assistant.

For the Rev Rosemarie Mallett, vicar of St John the Evangelist Church, Angell Town, Kamika exemplifies why she feels hope for the estate.

“There are a group of strong mothers here who are hard-working, dynamic and aspirational, and none more so than Kamika,” she said.

Big society may have fallen away as a political idea, but the concept of ordinary people taking responsibility for their community is as crucial to estates like Angell Town as ever

&#13; <p>Kamika Nathan</p>&#13;

Kamika believes My London could go viral on other estates.

“When David Cameron made his Big Society speech four years ago, I thought he was talking directly to people like me.

"Big society may have fallen away as a political idea, but the concept of ordinary people taking responsibility for their community is as crucial to estates like Angell Town as ever.”

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