As the community regeneration arm of Newlon Housing Trust, Newlon Fusion delivers regeneration programmes, in partnership with local authorities and community groups in the boroughs of Islington, Hackney, Haringey and Tower Hamlets. These programmes include community activities, training and employment opportunities.

This year we opened the new Barnsbury Estate Community Centre, on the site of the the old Grimaldi Hall. Find out about the modern facilities available by visiting the Barnsbury Community Centre page.

Current programmes

Greener Newlon initiatives
Newlon Fusion and Global Action Plan (an environmental charity), are working in partnership to help Newlon residents save money and energy on a number of projects. Find out about our various programmes on our Greener Newlon page.

Financial inclusion initiatives
We currently have some programmes running in partnership with Fair Fanance and Money Made Clear to offer help with saving money and managing finances. Find out more on our Help with finances page.

Currently we are also managing the South Barnsbury Neighbourhood Arrangements programme in Islington and the Family Project at the John Scurr Community Centre in Limehouse. We are also running a Barnsbury Youth Forum at the new Barnsbury Community Centre on the Barnsbury Estate in Islington.

Other programmes we are involved with are: Resident Support and Advice programme and the Keep it Moving programme.

Find out about other recent programmes.

Recent programmes

Other recent programmes, which are now completed, include the Buxhall Bee project, the Newlon Award for Young Residents, the award-winning ReWork project in Haringey, originally designed to target refugees with permission to stay, the Construction Works project which worked with unemployed adults and the Safer Spaces project.

The Buxhall Bee project

This was Newlon Fusion’s project to get Newlon residents at Buxhall Crescent more involved in their local area through a blog, newspaper, walks, gardening skills, photography, recipe swaps and even a communal lunch.

Artist Lucy Harrison, in partnership with SPACE worked with residents to produce three publications on thier lives and experiences living in the local area, focusing on skills, hobbies and interests. The Buxhall Bee is commissioned and project managed by SPACE, a visual arts organisation based in Hackney, with funding from the Arts Council, England, and Newlon Fusion. More information about SPACE can be found on thier website www.spacestudios.org.uk.  

The residents who got involved in the project were able to find out about their neighbours, learn new skills and take pride in their own interests. There was also a social side to the project where they were able to take part in events such as nature and history walks, music exchanges and a photoshoot.

The Buxhall Bee Newspaper was designed and produced by Lucy which included information about the participants' lives on the estate.

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The Newlon Award for Young Residents
(living in Islington and Tower Hamlets)

The Newlon Award for Young Residents was designed to sponsor young newlon residents with their chosen activities – to help build self esteem and develop social skills as well as help them to stay physically fit. The programme provided funding of up to £200 per person or £400 per household for young people aged up to and including 18 years old. 

The Award supported young people with a wide range of activities including learning and becoming involved in a particular sport or dance activity or even learning a foreign language – the choices were endless.

One of the beneficiaries, Daniel, received sponsorship money from the programme towards his Badminton fees. Daniel’s mother, Janet wrote to us to say, “It has helped me out a huge amount. I appreciate how quickly the application was dealt with, and how straight forward the whole process was. He is training 4 nights a week and has a few competitions coming up shortly.” 

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The ReWork Project

Winner of the best BME Project at the National Black and Minority Ethnic Housing Association Awards

This programme was originally designed to engage refugees with ‘permission to stay’ and help them enter three strands of industry; care, construction and retail. The programme was then broadened to reach all Black, Minority and Ethnic (BME) members of the community.

The programme offered combined intervention that linked personal development to relevant vocational qualifications i.e. Food Hygiene and Level 1 Service Sector VRQ’s. The short term educational aspect of the programme was supported by an internal job brokering service and a range of further education and vocational packages including an interpreting course and care sector NVQ's.

This programme was open solely to people of BME origin, within the London boroughs of Haringey, Enfield and Waltham Forest.

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Contruction Works

Developed as a partnership with Newlon Housing Trust, this industry awareness project was designed to link unemployed adults with the construction industry via NVQ qualifications (up to level 2) in plumbing or carpentry.

Supporting elements included personal development training and additional vocational qualifications in sales or customer service.

Additional to the main project, work was undertaken with pupils participating in Newlon Fusion’s Key Stage 3 and 4 programmes in order to raise awareness of the construction industry as a possible career option.

The adult section of this programme is operated on an open referral basis.

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Safer Spaces

The Newlon-led Safer Places project was successfully completed this year. Safer Places identified five anti-social behaviour (ASB) ‘hotspots’ in Hackney, which we have been tackling with residents and five Housing Association partners, using funding from the Hackney Neighbourhood Renewal Fund. Environmental improvement works have resulted in a reduction in nuisance and better living conditions – for example, residents living at Prospect House have benefited from substantial work to improve lighting, access to the building and parking.

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