BloomIn Hallywell

Living in urban London with its grey concrete ground, beige buildings and addiction to fast foods makes our green natural spaces ever more important. 
loveLife Generation returned to Hallywell crescent this year but this time to take over the Green. Over the years we have worked in this area running different action projects led by young people to bring the residents together as a community. We teamed up with the Wildlife Trust and Southern Housing to bring people together, learn about the natural world around us and share in the community spirit. 


WILDLIFE ON THE GREEN
With thehelp of the WildLife Trust we went on nature walks in the urban jungle and found all sorts of bugs and wildlife. We even made a bug hotel for all the little creatures.The green was blooming with a wildlife meadow which we planted with a single poppy rising to the challenge.

MUSIC ON GREEN
Every week singing tutors sat on the green and were joined by people of all ages to belt out some tunes. Current songs as well as the old classics flowed in the Hallywell air. 
There was even African drummers one week who shared and danced with us all. 

FUN, FITNESS  AND GAMES ON THE GREEN 
Young people led other young poeple and children in fun games - taking it back to the old days when the streets were the playground! It was a lot of fun! And for those who wanted to get fit - our very own personal trainer ran sessions that got people sweaty!!

PHOTOGRAPHY & ART ON THE GREEN
With cameras, the young people learnt the art of photography.Capturing the precious moments each week they were given a differnt theme. A firm favourite was the self- portrait! 
We also captured the insects which we found but with colouring pencils drawing them on canvas.

FOOD ON THE GREEN

Food always brings people together. But here at loveLife Generation we pick our own! Rabia, our resident herbalist was back with us cooking up pots of freshly picked elderberry tea, handpicked rosebush berries and lots of other goodies!


Our final celebration saw our local MP Stephen Timms come down to habd out awards for the games and pictures. 

Take What You Need - loveLife Generation

Feel free to share this and stick on walls everywhere. 
To download or print a copy go to https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7O_xJTOY0uYcm5pZVNvR0M1ekE/edit?usp=sharing

and do tweet us a picture of it up @lovelifegen 

oh so Natural...Hand Made 4 U.

"Because you're worth it"
but it seems like you are only worth it if you have long sleek straight hair, perfectly straight white teeth and skin that screams 'fake tan'!

But is this really beauty? What happened to natural beauty never mind beauty within.
Well we're not putting up with the status quo anymore! We are on a journey to reclaim natural beauty inside and out. So join us and *SHINE* with our hand made natural products that are good for our body, soul and the environment.



At loveLife Generation we teamed up with Haqqani Herbs (medical herbalist) who taught us about using herbs, essential oils and natural products for health benefits and cosmetic use. 
We also learnt about health and safety, certification for public use, labeling, marketing and building our social enterprise.


All this learning came together in the creation of our own Fit Kit made up of:

• Born Free Shampoo & Conditioner
• Proud to be Me Shower Gel & Body Butter
• Fly High Soap
• Shine Body Butter
• Hands Up Hand Cream
• Full on Lip Balm
• Make a Difference Detox Skin Tea;Calming Tea & Warming Digestive Tea

The products have been made, packaged and tested. The Fit Kit rocket is ready for take off and light you up ...inside and out! 

Flourishing Fitness

Flourishing Fitness, part of loveLife Generation was created to encourage and help young girls to get fit! The idea was created by Salma, a loveLife Generationer- 

Looking at statistics, it was shown that only 38% of girls did moderate amount of exercise compared to 68% of boys. But this was about to change.

Flourishing Fitness came about due to some of the problems young girls have in society. Body image issues, weight issues and confidence issues. 

Being a young female, I understand the issue that some young girls go through with confidence and exercising around both males and females. I decided to create an opportunity for a short period of time to get girls and only girls to exercise with a female personal trainer. 

Discussing our nutrition plan!

This was a way to get them away from all that lazying around in front of the telly and laptop. Personally, I fell well developed technology is part to blame in keeping young people in the house as opposed to going out to play. I remember those days of playing 'BullDog' and 'POLO' on the side street with the children from the rest of the neighbourhood. 

Anyway, I applied to get a small amount of funding from 'o2 Think Big' to get me started and fortunately  they did not disappoint me. 

So, I started of my journey. I had to get a qualified female personal trainer, a place where the sessions could take place, timing, getting young girls/ladies involved. Luckily, I am part of  loveLife  and could do most of that. 

I think its important that young girls get fit and active and have an awareness of nutrition and what benefits the health because, the knowledge will go far. Starting to take care of health now benefits later on in life and helps protect against diseases.

Starting Flourishing Fitness was also a way of letting the young girls share what knowledge they had of fitness and health. 

I took part in a few sessions and I must say, the energetic sweaty, feeling at the end felt awesome because I knew I worked my muscles and mind. 

It wasn't long before Flourishing Fitness was moved to the open streets in Beckton where the loveLife Generation BloomIn Hallywell street project took place. 

Young girls who lived locally were intrigued by the boxing gloves and the fast skipping on the spot and joined in enthusiastically. 

The huffing and panting that went on, I can only thank the trainer. 

The thing is, young girls avoid joining the gym because there are males there and it's always the same old machines. With Flourishing Fitness, we had different activities, both indoors and outdoors so it allowed the young girls have a feel of exercise in two settings. It helped that they had a trainer who was also female and could relate to them but also show them that getting fit is not just about looking good but most importantly feeling good too.

I find it more fun outside and I'm sure the young girls did too. I could see some of them get all fired up and wanting to punch the boxing pads some more.  

What made me want to start this project was the Olympics in 2012 being in London, in Stratford, not far from me. I felt that if young girls could come from around the world to perform in our town, then our girls could also perform in our town with a little bit of help. Flourishing Fitness was that little bit of help. 

I wanted the young girls like me to feel like they were part of this legacy that London had. 

I only hope that Flourishing Fitness taught them more about the benefits of a healthy lifestyle and that it has got them eager to look out for what they put in to their mouths and what exercise they participate in. 

I know it has changed me.

By Salma Razia Khatun, A loveLife Generationer :)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/10269797/Golden-legacy-from-London-2012-lost-on-young-girls-missing-out-on-the-benefits-of-sport.html

Kingford Take Back The Future

loveLife Generation were back at Kingsford School in Beckton - this time with the Year 10s. 
This group have self confessed that the rest of the school did not necessarily have the best perception of them...BUT that was about to change.

How you see yourself determines how others see you and as loveLife Generation started to get these young people to start reflecting back on themselves they started to recognise that not only were they a great year group but that they could really make an active difference in their lives and that of their school. 
Themes that were looked at included identity, perception, personal reflections and our talents.

LLG finally get their residential

Double LL - G as they like to refer to themselves have been involved with loveLife Generation for over two years now. The majority of them started their journey in Year 9 when they took part in the 'Take Back The Future' training programme.
They enjoyed it so much they voluntarily continued to attend, build themselves as leaders and also help on social action projects. Between them they have participated and contributed to the the Hallywell street projects, the wild life projects, Hand Made For You, Ubuntu Conversations For Change, Save The  Children workshops, Swedish RESPECT MORE exchange, Usher's New Look Foundation as well as others. They've completed their Duke of Edinburgh Bronze, Youth Challenge and are even helping out on other trainings. 
Now having just completed Year 11 and about to embark on a new journey as they hit 16, loveLife Generation have finally been able to afford a residential for them where they stayed on the FairPlay Barge.
Not only did they enjoy the beautiful countryside - they showed great teamwork and love for each other as they completed a timed walk/run with only a map, a few torches and a very heavy wind behind them.

All the training and development they had been through was on display as they shouted words of encouragement as the completed the high ropes obstacle course, rowed, caved and cycled.

Best wishes to you all and continue to BE THE CHANGE you want to see in your world!

UBUNTU

loveLife Generation was founded after a team from Newham visited South Africa and were completely blown away with the way loveLife worked with young people - there was nothing else but to share this with those back home in the UK.
And South Africa keeps on giving. Most recently we teamed up with the Tutu Foundation UK using the great South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu's work on peace building to ensure that Africa's gift of Ubuntu is delivered.


Ubuntu captures the essence of being human. 
"Ubuntu [is] the essence of being human. Ubuntu speaks particularly about the fact that you can’t exist as a human being in isolation. It speaks about our interconnectedness. You can’t be human all by yourself, and when you have this quality – Ubuntu – you are known for your generosity. We think of ourselves far too frequently as just individuals, separated from one another, whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole World. When you do well, it spreads out; it is for the whole of humanity.”

Ubuntu captures what loveLife Generation is about in 'being the change' we want to see because we know we are a force for good.
We have strong links with the Foundation as Rukiyah who is a ground breaker also works for them and after being trained as Ubuntu community facilitators we ran 3 seperate Ubuntu 'Conversations For Change' bringing together very diverse people together. 
The first set brought together young people from different schools and colleges, the second brought together people from different faith and no faith backgrounds and the last one brought together different service providers together.

The young people hooked onto the ubuntu so much so they now call themselves the UBUNTU TEAM (U-Team) and as a form of ubuntu action went on to complete their peer coaching qualification and have created a project to spread ubuntu onto primary school children. They will run ubuntu activities with primary schools in July and also put on an ubunutu outdoor event.

The interfaith group also took on their own action which was to learn and provide people with information on the new changes in benefits.

The 3 different ubuntu groups were brought together for a final celebration where the CEO of the Tutu Foundation presented them with their certificates as well as sharing each others ideas.
We were also blessed to have been invited to watch Archbishop Desmond Tutu receive his Templeton Award at the Guildhall. We were estatic to see this great man in action as well as to meet his daughter REvd. Mpho Tutu who was as inspirational as the great man himself.