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Rosilin Mache was a resident keen to make a real difference on Grahame Park Estate, in North London, where the major concerns of residents were the growing drug problem and the nuisance created by bored and disaffected young people.
She saw how easy it was for ex-offenders living on the estate to become isolated and slip back into trouble. Using a grant of £4,000 to buy IT equipment, she started a basic skills club in secure premises to teach ex-offenders new skills, resulting in jobs for 8 students after only six months. Three years on, all 15 of her initial clients are employed. Mache now runs a mini training centre – including computers (clients are referred by the probation service and others have been excluded from school or are in danger of exclusion), as well as teenage mothers who learn hairdressing skills, as well as sewing machines. extra maths lessons, and music-making equipment for the 30 or so youngsters, aged two to 18, who turn up every Saturday for music, drama and dance.
Mache's project was part of a Real Time Community Change. A one-day workshop is set up, during which ideas are turned into formal proposals, presented to funders, and grants allocated. The money came, in this case via the Metropolitan police, from the Home Office Communities Against Drugs fund.