Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Call for the community to meet to discuss how to help the young people of our Borough
A response to the riots and an invitation to the community
I write this from rural west Ireland, where I currently have no access to television or the internet, learning in horror of the riots in London via text and the radio.
I am heartened to hear of the response to our offer to help ferry donations up to Tottenham Green Leisure Centre. We have now taken two van loads and the cages outside the store continue to fill up.
I feel that it is time for the people of east and west Haringey to get together as a community and look for ways in which we can give the young people of our borough hope for the future. Be that by mentoring, offering work experience or re-opening the youth clubs.
Myself, Jim Shepley, programme director of Hornsey YMCA, and Azul Thome from FOOD from the SKY would like to call a public meeting (venue TBC) on Tuesday 23rd August at 6.30pm to discuss ideas and get our heads together or indeed link up with other local groups and initiatives who would like to meet.
Further to this if you would like to make suggestions before the meeting then please comment below or email al@thorntonsbudgens.com
Warm wishes,
Andrew Thornton
Tags for Forum Posts: london troubles
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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Not disagreeing with questioning the location neccessarily. It's a valid question to ask at least. More a gentle question on the challenging language.
Surely first and foremost it's positive for the meeting to be happening at all. That's to be applauded. Under those circumstances I thought it a little unkind to sideswipe with the handwringing comment.
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Permalink Reply by andrew thornton on
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I hear the point being made; we put out a call for comments, to link up with other groups and with venue tbc. Only one venue was offered but we could not get a response from them and as the meeting is next Tues, we needed to act. Very pleased that the YMCA have offered us a great space for this initial meeting. There will be more meetings and I hope someone on Tues will step forward with venues for them.
Billy although I was in a remote part of the West of Ireland at the time, I know from talking to some of my colleagues in our other store in Belsize Pk, where there was a similar gang of 30 ish masked youths gathering at the tube station, who then headed to Chalk Farm.. they were all terrified.
I hope to see as many of you as possible on Tues.
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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Perhaps I'm being a bit slow today, but I'm struggling to grasp the objections here. Is there some sort of test for where a discussion about the riots can take place? Or who is allowed to bring constructive suggestions or ideas?
Like cockneys being born within the sound of Bow Bells, can we only have a view about the riots if we live within the sound of looting or smell of the fires?
A friend of ours was made redundant by Haringey last month. She volunteered to help staff the Community Assistance Centre. And she wasn't the only one. Should they have checked the map to see if she lives too close to Muswell Hill or Crouch End? Should cleaner-uppers last Saturday been turned away if they had an N22 postcode?
Let's please have hundreds of conversations, discussions and meetings involving thousands of people. And while there will no doubt be very strong feelings and lots of anger, crucially let's try to hold them in open, constructive, mutually respectful ways which model how we want people to behave to one another in society. And to record and share those ideas and views.
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Permalink Reply by Old-Age-Emporium(OAE) on
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I agree totally with Alan on this. Not at all clear where Tindara or Billy are coming from - and I don't mean literally. I take it the contributions put together courtesy of Budgens a week ago weren't rejected in Tottenham because of their Crouch End provenance? I think Andrew's original post made it pretty clear "where he's coming from", so to speak: "I feel that it is time for the people of east and west Haringey to get together as a community and look for ways in which we can give the young people of our borough hope for the future. Be that by mentoring, offering work experience or re-opening the youth clubs."
There's nothing very parochial about that proposal. And if you want an initial meeting relating to the Borough as a whole, east and west, you can't get much more central than the YMCA on Tottenham Lane. The 41 Bus is the most convenient of links between Tottenham Hale and Tottenham Lane. Billy, stop bitching and get yourself over there to put all the questions you like.
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We have had a really fantastic response so far and really looking forward to Tuesday; we'll be starting promptly at 6.30pm as we have alot to get through; do try and get there a bit before.
We would like some input into the areas we discuss in the form of some open questions. We'll be using the World Cafe format (see below). Pse can you post or send suggestions by the end of Monday. Here are some examples we are considering:
What called you to this meeting?
What is possible for a committed group of people in Haringey to do for our young people?
How can we offer hope and solutions to our young people’s future?
What do you perceive as the biggest obstacles?
What do you perceive as the resources available to us in Haringey/Crouch End /Tottenham?
World Cafe:
Participants discuss the issue at hand around their table and at regular intervals they move to a new table. One participant (the table host) remains and summarises the previous conversation to the newly arrived participants. By moving participants around the room the conversations at each table are cross-fertilised with ideas from other tables. At the end of the process the main ideas are summarised in a plenary session and follow-up possibilities are discussed.
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Permalink Reply by Tindara on
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Heh. Well, I totally disagree Billy, but I too will be unlikely to get there in time. My husband might be able to attend as he works fairly locally. I would be interested to see minutes or some kind of summing up of the meeting, since I will be unable to attend.
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Also, in answer to some of your responses, I would like to add that I think it's perfectly clear where I'm coming from but no-one seems to want to say it directly. So I will. I worry that this will turn into a rather patrician white middle class "Crouch End" talking shop rather than a grass roots group with a more practical and direct approach. I could be entirely wrong of course. Are there any youth groups in Tottenham and Harringay involved for instance? I hope so. If that's the case it will be a real cross section of the borough.
Good luck, hope it goes well!
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What will come out of the meeting is based on who shows up and what people feel. Yes there are young people coming, yes there are people from Tottenham and indeed many parts of the Borough....
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens ca...”Margaret Mead
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Permalink Reply by Thorntons Budgens on
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Follow up to the first meeting in response to the riots, plus details of the next meeting... http://bit.ly/rasWTP
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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I'll be there. Sounds good.
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I'm really sorry I skipped out early. I've been on holiday since the 3rd of August and was expected home for dinner.
The young bloke who said it was so nice to be at a meeting that had not been taken over by the SWP opened my eyes. Is that what it's like when just the crazies attend? We all need to get out to meetings more... or have them online...
My hat is seriously off to you Andrew, you're doing something really great. I'll add my ideas for why I, despite being a teenage reprobate who committed crimes, have turned out to be a net contributor to society in the presumed follow on thread from the meeting. Needless to say, not being caught/arrested helped.
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