Good afternoon IT Group!

I hope you enjoy the video and Trevor's lovely piece about the groups at the ICT Suite:

IT Group online at Hubbub

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best wishes from Jane

update on hubbub

Autumn colour by the 124 bus stop

The kids are alright

Welcome to the Friday night youth club at Goldsmiths Community Centre. Friday night isn't a school night so the kids can stay longer and relax.

See the full gallery on posterous

Autumn allotment in the sunshine

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Watch on posterous

September update

The allotment, 17 Septenber 2010. Very lush and productive with runner beans, tomatoes, chilli peppers and sunflowers.

Last of the beans!

New directory sign for Goldsmiths Community Centre

Pop Up Restaurant at the Goldsmiths AGM

What were they looking at? 

Pop Up Veg!

The Allotments Learning Project (London Action Trust) and local families have been cultivating an area of the community centre, growing vegetables such as potatoes, beans, onions, celery and even mooli radish. Every week the plants get bigger and we look forward to a tasting session!

Use Your Loaf at the Pop Up Cafe

Centre users, families and voters visited the third Pop Up Cafe on 6 May to try some different breads, baked, bought in and made on the spot! Lovingly crafted by hand and baked in a flowerpot or made with mathematical precision in a breadmaker the results were judged to be terrific. Here are some comments:
"What a wonderful selection with many different ideas to take away and try"
"Most enjoyable - lovely tasting bread of all kinds. Please could you do this more often, with recipes?"
"This is wonderful I think we all should learn how to be creative in baking tasty bread"
"The homemade bread without gluten ingredient is excellent. Tastes very healthy and tastes a lot more of the other ingredients - have taken my own portion home with me"

Use Your Loaf was devised and led by Downham Nutrition Partnership's Ruth Webber and the Limelight's Tiny Rumbletums session (families with under 5s) also did a breadmaking session, producing pizza, olive and herb breads.

We had many requests to run breadmaking demonstrations and workshops so watch this space! We hope that Le Pain Quotidien, who supplied the walnut (most popular) and sourdough breads, will agree to sponsor this or a future event at the centre.

The next PopUp Cafe will be on 22 June to coincide with Goldsmiths Community Association Annual General Meeting.

Pop Up Cafe makes its 2nd appearance

Another successful cafe event was held on Saturday 19 April at the Limelight 10th Anniversary Fun Day. A great collaboration between Limelight and Goldsmiths meant that families could not only enjoy healthy snacks in the Food Place - and outside in the sunshine! - but make their own dessert afterwards at a trifle-making workshop.

Our next event is Use Your Loaf on 6 May - yes, we know what day it is... from 1-7 pm in the Food Place to celebrate Real Bread week. We'll be offering free tastings of different breads, how to make bread including using that breadmaker that's been stuck in the cupboard for the past year! Refreshments and cakes are £1.

Welcome to the PopUp Cafe!

The PopUp Cafe was launched at Equinox, the North Downham Community Festival on 19-20 March.

The former creche was transformed into a sunny, bright cafe serving healthy snacks provided by Feast Your Eyes and fruit by Aldi!

This is Equinox as realised by our very own aerosol artists under the guidance of Mark Davis.

The Food Place - update on the brief and our expectations

We now have a model of the Food Place and some fine graphics and photos to get our message across! We need to tell the story and to identify a bottom line in terms of what we can do plus a vision and wish list. We could use architects who have been involved with the centre before; ask some of the cafes and places we have visited which professionals they used; find someone sympathetic to working with community groups and will engage with the process and use local networks.

I read 'Inclusion by Design' which is produced by CABE, the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, and was impressed by what it said about inclusive design.

Think about how a place will work in the future, what it will look like, what it will feel like, how people will use it and how will it be different from other places. The impact of bad design is more likely to be felt by disabled people and older people, people from minority cultures and faiths, carers with young children ... The management and use of places have a significant effect on whether we find them friendly and welcoming, and whether they generate a sense of belonging. 

·         a place that is affordable

·         a place that isn’t stuffy

·         a place that you can use with dignity and free from anxiety

·         a place where you aren’t talked down to

·         a place where you can linger if you want to

·         a place you can get home from safely

·         a programme that stimulates your interest

·         management that knows that comfort is important

·         management that uses up-to-date technology to maximise participation

 

Buildings by Design and Food Place update

Loscinia, Ruth and I went on the Buildings by Design course at Hackney City Farm on 24 & 25 February. This amazing course was run by the Glasshouse Trust, who have helped us over the past few months to shape our ideas for the Food Place.

More later...

The Food Place - a summary of 10 Feb workshop

The cafe can be a catalyst for social cohesion - it's what a community centre is all about. The space has got to be flexible enough to do several things, to work for all members of the community and to sustain itself beyond the life of a funded project.

We liked welcoming entrances and open, visible space: we asked 'How can we make our space both welcoming and secure?' We thought about whether people relaxing in the area would be affected by others using it as an entrance to the centre, people propping their bikes outside etc, kids rampaging and so on. We could make it visible but perhaps not directly accessible from the road and have passive security in the form of barriers such as a living fence or the placement of furniture. Alternatively we could have two entrances.

We agreed to keep the momentum up by communicating via email, blog, website and meetings. The Local Food, Communitybuilders and Community Voices applications will hopefully keep us together and focused, plus the 'virtual cafe' Mayor's Fund events between now and November. Ruth, Loscinia and Jane are going on the Buildings by Design course on 24 & 25 February at Hackney City Farm. We could make a physical model of the centre for local people to look at - the displays have generated quite a bit of interest, alternatively we could make a virtual model to put on the website, using Sketch Up.

We need to maintain a broader perspective - what else do we want to do with the building and how can we make it more navigable and welcoming as a whole? We can carry on looking for sources of funding that broadly fit in with what we've decided to do, but be opportunistic too - a Place for the 21st Century.

We agreed to meet on 3 March at 4pm, to feedback on the design course and progress on the applications and business plan. More information about the brief, finding an architect, planning regs and costings to follow...

Our Vision

Our vision - we envisage a future at The Food Place where:

• the community visits on a daily basis
• every member of the community feels welcome and at home
• it's seen as an integral part of the centre
• a range of agencies operate local services
• the space is well designed, practical and attractive
• people stop and enjoy refreshments
• local business people choose to meet
• people choose to hold private functions
• the community is proud of their space

Design and development ideas, some a bit wacky but why not dream or be inspired?

A neat and modern kitchenette

Some jolly tables all different shapes and colours

An extraordinary kitchenette from Italy

All sorts of furniture including stacking chairs and tables

10 things I like and 10 things I dislike

I like regulars and specials and stuff that everyone likes and veggies can eat eg pasta or soup, even quiche... I dislike too much choice and I won't believe you've got it
I like interesting things on the walls: art, photos, poems, tin signs, history... I dislike the sort of posters you can buy in Smiths or anything stuck up with blu tack, or out of date noticeboards (take note Goldsmiths)
I like different types of seats; stools, chairs, some with arms... I dislike hard plastic stackable chairs, particularly orange ones
I like tables that you can make different shapes (square or rectangular) with and dislike round tables, even outside
I like today's newspapers or failing that a few books, but not magazines of any description as they remind me of the dentist, GP or hairdresser
I like music or the radio playing in the background, especially if it's otherwise quiet, but I dislike any sort of compilation tape or jukebox apart from a Bal Ami or Rock Ola
I like a good cup of coffee and anywhere that has a proper coffee machine... I dislike any of the 'real coffee' chains that infest our cities
I like unhurried service that you know is efficient... and really dislike staff who get in a flap or are rude
That's not 10 I know but it will do to be going on with