St James Street Big Local Charity

In December 2012 the St James Street area of Walthamstow was fortunate enough to be awarded a £1 million grant as part of the nationwide Big Local initiative. The funding is intended to be used for resident-led regeneration and community development – to help local people shape the area in the way they think would benefit the area most. The St James Street Big Local area is bounded by: Courtenay, Chewton and Northcote Roads in the North; Palmerston and Gosport Roads in the East; Bude Close, Markhouse Avenue and Grange Road in the South; and St Stephens and Edwards Roads in the West.

There are about 42 streets in the St James area of Walthamstow that ccould boast, if they wanted to, that they have a specific organisation with a paid worker to represent and development their interests. One of the problems is that they may never know what they've got until its gone, few things last for ever.

Rachel Carder, the Community Development Worker for St James Street Big Local, makes every effort to meet with local people in the St James area once a month over a coffee in a local cafe to keep them up to date about new and beneficial opportunities for everyone.

Wayne of Forest Radio decided to drop-in to meet Rachel at the St James Cafe on St James High Street, otherwise known as St Js, to ask her a few questions.

One of the first things Rachel said was that "We don't always meet in the same cafe and like to try different ones in the area."

For convenience we have divided the interview into two parts, each preceded by a summary of the topics covered.

Part 1

1. What is Rachel's role as Community Development Worker in the St. James area?
2. Residents' Grants up to £500 for individuals in the community to develop their ideas to benefit the community
3. What streets make up the St James area?
4. Grants that will soon be available specifically for Young People
5. Things St James has been able to achieve in the last 18 months
7. Who can use the Taxi-Bike scheme?
8. Events taking place to bring people together
9. The consultation will be available very soon – local people shared their ideas about what they wanted
10. The value of volunteers and volunteering
11. Rachel's music choice: Baby Shark from Pinkfong Songs for Children