A Week In The Life…

Thursday Tots - Rhymes and Story Telling



The wonderful staff of Walthamstow Library



Thursday of last week (17 October) was Local Government Day and we put together a programme of visits in Waltham Forest to highlight the sort of things that council officers are doing every day to help the life of the borough run smoothly. I’ll tell you about that in a moment, but before then, I want to share a couple of other engagements I went to. Monday saw me going to Brent to the Pearl Education Foundation Awards. The Foundation started in 2006 to enable British Muslim women to develop their leadership qualities, talents, skills and knowledge to achieve better economic integration. More than 6,000 students have been involved and the organization now teaches men and women from many backgrounds. As a result, people can better understand and support their children’s schooling, earn an independent income and assist in the integration of their families into British society.

 

  

Simone Abani - Receptionist at Town Hall



Waiting at Sycamore House to see Enviro-crime unit.



Back in the Borough, I went to Walthamstow School for Girls for the launch of their in-house banking scheme ‘Mybnk’. ‘Mybnk’ helps young people learn about things like saving and budgeting, moving into independent living and survival money management. It also gives access to interest-free loans to set up their own enterprise in their local community. Managing money is such an important skill, so I was delighted to see the work that the school and the students have been doing.

Back to Local Government Day, I enjoyed a varied tour around different departments of the Council. In the library at Walthamstow there were stories for our young residents and, with Age UK, IT lessons for the young at heart. The enviro-crime and planning enforcement teams told me about their work and I was also shown the impressive and reassuring CCTV control centre. At the Registrars’ Office I met the teams looking after weddings and civil partnerships, and citizenship. More importantly, I met a very happy couple who were getting married – how lovely to share even a little of their special day.



My next stop was the Learning Centre in Queens Road where the staff and students all impressed me with their hard work. Finally, I met with some of the staff in our Highways Department down at our Low Hall Depot. A very busy day, but one which brilliantly illustrated just how much is going on every day in every corner of the borough. Take a look at the tweets that were put out during the day.



The wonderful staff of Walthamstow Library