As part of Sharing Power, Millie at Oxford Hub has recently interview “Ms P” about her thoughts on The Leys.
What do you love about The Leys?
I love the location of the Leys, it’s easy to access shopping centres and has great transport links to the city centre. I love the diversity that this community has always had. I moved back to the Leys for the second time in 1977 as a single parent and there was a good vibe. I felt safe because lots of my neighbours were black, they knew me, knew my parents, they looked like me, talked like me, shared the same values and connected with me. I feel comfortable and safe here.
What gave Blackbird Leys a bad name was the joy riders in the 90’s before that there wasn’t anything that anyone could say that was wrong here but this narrative has stuck with us to this day.
What has been your contribution to this community?
I love to share information with especially the young people to help them along.
I first worked running the adventure playground (BLAP) for 10 years and it’s great to see the children I looked after all grown up now and have their own families. It's fantastic to see them especially when I remember teaching them how to look after themselves for example in cooking.
I then started working as an outreach worker with the council for another 10 years to support families in need who were not using the services that were available to them. I would get instructions from the social services and my advantage is that I live in the community and understand the needs here so I was more effective in my work using my own initiative.
I was based in the children’s centre which was run by Sure Start. We provided facilities for young families. We had clothes, high chairs and stair gates and anything else a young family needed for a swap programme that successfully benefitted many families as it was cost effective. We had stay and play, cooking lessons and also a place to meet where people could share experiences. I really enjoyed working here helping people. I worry for the very young parents for not having this facility, the children’s centre has since closed. The youth centre was also taken away which is a shame for the younger generation.
I have since retired but am still very much involved in the community and because people know me, they will stop me anywhere and ask for advice on one thing or another.
I am now involved with the Oxford Hub in the PGM (Participatory Grant Making) as a member of the panel that decides who gets the funding. We were trained on the decision making process which was great as this is a skill that few have. The training programme does need to be changeable in terms of time and content delivery to better support the learning.
My knowledge from years of working in this community was also useful in the decision making. There is so much talent in this community, we were very impressed by the applications and the zeal for entrepreneurship, however we would like to see applicants get extra support in their business plans and grant application guidelines to make the process easier and businesses sustainable and profitable.
What change have you seen in the community?
Most of the things have been taken away and closed down, the children’s centre, the nursery. These changes don’t offer much support for new parents in the community and it is at this stage that the most effective interventions can be made!
The community has also become more diverse but there is no support for integration and community involvement.
What does the future look like?
It’s a different generation and we need the authorities to work with the community. The younger generation are not patient like the older generation were and they will not tolerate some of the things we put up with.
What is your call to action?
We need more spaces where we can run activities. The leisure centre needs to be more available to run different activities for all the age groups.
Better use of the park to provide more activities to engage the young people in this community with their various interests.
