The event was held at St Mary’s Church, Somers Town, the parish of the 1920s housing campaigner, Fr Basil Jellicoe. Community leaders from across London revealed a series of proposals, which London Citizens will ask the candidates for Mayor of London to commit to at an Accountability Assembly held a week before Election Day.

The Citizens Agenda came out of a 9 month Listening Campaign, which included thousands of one-to-one meetings with Londoners and voting by members of over 220 schools, faith groups and civil society institutions. The Agenda contains proposals on 5 key areas relating to the major hopes and concerns of citizens – governance, housing, crime (CitySafe), poverty (Living Wage) and opportunities for young people.

These range from ideas to boost existing campaigns like the Living Wage to exciting new requests for a summer talent scheme and solutions to the London housing crisis. However, London Citizens have not left it all to the Mayor and, in exchange for these “asks”, have committed to do a number of specific actions to support whoever is elected in tackling these issues.

You can view the Citizens Agenda for London 2012 here in full

Alongside seeking commitments on the specific proposals in the Citizens Agenda, London Citizens aims to increase the participation of our communities in the governance and democracy of the capital. This is London’s fourth Mayoral Election and the fourth time the alliance has run such a campaign, by listening and voting on a common agenda before holding an exciting Accountability Assembly.

Back in 2004, London Citizens secured commitments which led then-Mayor Ken Livingstone to establish the Living Wage Unit at City Hall and enshrine our ethical guarantees in the Olympic bid and legacy. Later in 2008, Mayor Boris Johnson backed all 5 of our proposals in front of a packed Methodist Central Hall. He then opened CityHall as London’s 200th CitySafe Haven. Each time, the Accountability Assembly was the highlight of the election season, demonstrating politics at its best – authentic, engaging and led by citizens.

This year’s Accountability Assembly will be held on April 26th in Methodist Central Hall. Between now and then, our member institutions will be reaching out to their neighbours and raising awareness of the Citizens Agenda in their communities.

For more information about the campaign contact Stefan Baskerville (stefan.baskerville@londoncitizens.org.uk); Neil Jameson (neil.jameson@londoncitizens.org.uk); or Tom Chigbo (tom.chigbo@londoncitizens.org.uk).

On Wednesday 30th November, 1600 TELCO leaders met at the Troxy Centre in Limehouse to celebrate 15 years of successful Community Organising in East London.

Community Organising in the UK is at its strongest in east London, where 1000s of leaders have been trained in the art of public action over the past 15 years. East London is where the Living Wage campaign began, and where CitySafe was launched.

Over the past 15 years, TELCO has transformed the way politics happens in east London, and has revived the tradition of public Assemblies, where diverse communities come together to hold the state and the market to account.

On Wednesday 30th November, Delegations from 65 dues-paying member institutions gathered to welcome Lord Sebastian Coe and his Chief Executive Paul Deighton to negotiate on the commitments made to TELCO 7 years ago as London was bidding to host the Games.

Some of the agreed ‘People’s Guarantees’, as they are known, asked London 2012 to make sure that at least 30% of jobs are set aside for local people and that the Lower Lea Valley is designated a ‘Living Wage Zone’.

Lord Seb Coe came to our Assembly to recognise TELCO and our Living Wage campaign, and he gave ‘Living Wage Certificates’ to 50 TELCO leaders who’d been offered a job for next summer, as part of our Olympic Job Recruitment Actions.

Paul Deighton, Chief Executive of the London Organising Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG), also attended our Assembly and Fr Sean Connolly, an experienced leader from Manor Park, negotiated with him on jobs for young people after the Games.

Paul Deighton praised TELCO for the great Jobs Actions we’d organised recently – getting 100s of TELCO leaders jobs for next summer – and agreed to work with us to build relationships with some of the top Olympic sponsors in the view to get an agreement from them to invest in our young people. We want to get them to offer 10,000 6-month paid work placements over the next 5 years.

On the night, TELCO also made public its intention to build a relationship with McDonald’s. The largest McDonald’s in the world is currently being built on the Olympic Park, and we’re keen to get Ronald to be a kind employer which means he’s got to pay the Living Wage!

A great night for TELCO. A great 15 years, with an even clearer focus for the future.

For more details about our work across East London, contact a TELCO organiser.

This success is the result of TELCO’s relationship with London 2012 officials since 2004.

In 2004, as Lord Sebastien Coe and then-Mayor Ken Livingstone were trying to convince the International Olympic Committee to award the 2012 Games to London, TELCO negotiated with the London 2012 Bid Team and got them to agree to work with us and include some ethical guarantees into the Bid.

The People’s Promises, as they are known, set out our demands for:

1)  affordable homes for local people through a Community Land Trust and mutual home ownership;

2)  money from this development to be set aside to improve local schools and the health service;

3)  University of East London to be main higher education beneficiary of the sports legacy and to consider becoming a Sports Centre of Excellence

4)  at least £2m set aside immediately for a Construction Academy to train up local people;

5)  that at least 30% of jobs are set aside for local people;

6)  that the Lower Lea Valley is designated a ‘Living Wage Zone’ and all jobs guaranteed a living wage

More details about the commitments made to TELCO by the London 2012 Bid Team here.

On Tuesday 15th November, St John-at-Hackney Church hosted an Olympic Contractor Fayre, negotiated by TELCO leaders a few months ago, as we met with the Paul Deighton (Chief Executive of the London Organising Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games). Amadeus, a Catering contractor working with London 2012, came to interview our people and because Hackney is full of talents, ALL OF THEM GOT JOBS.

The young people came from member institutions working with TELCO: Skinners’ Academy, Our Lady’s Convent High School, Cardinal Pole School, and Clapton Girls’ Academy. The schools were involved in the organising work that led to the fayre and this great success. Change happens when people get stuck in, and getting involved pays clear dividends.

The jobs will be paid £8.30 per hour (the London Living Wage) when they would normally have been paid the Minimum Wage (£6.08 - the main rate for workers aged 21 and over, £4.98 – the 18-20 rate, £3.68 - the 16-17 rate for workers above school leaving age but under 18). The difference and the impact this will have on our communities is staggering.

Other contractor fayres are coming up in some more TELCO institutions, and we look forward to welcoming more of them and more jobs to East London!

On 30th November, we will celebrate this achievement at TELCO’s 15th Anniversary Assembly (details here).

For more details about our work in Hackney, get in touch with Sebastien Chapleau, TELCO Community Organiser.

A report analysing the government’s proposed ‘Universal Credit’ to reform the benefits system calls on London employers to “consider adopting the London Living Wage”.

The Centre for Economic and Social Inclusion argues that the London Living Wage “makes a big impact on work incentives under Universal Credit. If London employers paid the London Living Wage, many of the negative effects of the benefit changes on spending power would be minimised or reversed.”

The report goes on to make the economic case that “if London workers were paid the London Living Wage, the costs of Universal Credit payments in London would shrink dramatically.”

“We recommend that London employers consider adopting the London Living Wage.”

To read the full report, click the following link: Making work pay in London under Universal Credit.

The living wage idea is no new idea – the need for a rate that pays according to means and needs, has long been recognised, hypothesized and theorised. Launched in 2001 by London Citizens. David Cameron said “the living wage is an ideas whose time has come” and yesterday, May 2^nd 2011, Citizens UK celebrated 10 years of putting a living wage ideal into action, during their annual assembly at Westminster Methodist Central Hall.

The assembly gathered all Citizens UK members from the four London constituencies, but also from Milton Keynes, Nottingham, Cardiff, Glasgow and many more including their partner organisation in Germany; in order to celebrate 10 years of difficult but successful campaigning for the living wage. With stories told from its beginnings in East London, and from living wage heroes such as Helen and Kaoutar, cleaners from Queen Mary University in London. Queen Mary was the first university to gain a living wage status and also one of the six founding institutes of the Living Wage Foundation. The Professor, Simon Gaskell, as well as other representatives from living wage institutions stood to declare their pride at being living wage.

The latest company to join was the hand-made cosmetics retail chain Lush. Lush’s chief executive explained how they were a company of people who think they can always do better.??. Announced at the assembly, was the new Living Wage figure for London, calculated by the Greater London Authority and championed by Mayor of London Boris Johnson. The figure has now increased from £7.85 to £8.30.  Also announced was the first national Living Wage figure. London’s Mayor, Boris Johnson, gave a message of commitment to the cause for London and elsewhere in the UK, asserting, “you have my full support for a living wage for this country.

While the assembly was one of thanksgiving of what has been achieved, it was also of reflection, and urging into action. Seven year old campaigner, Lucas, stood to announce the campaign on Tesco, as part of Citizens UK’s turning concerns to the retail sector. He met in person with the chief executive, Philip Clarke, in a Tesco store in Westminster, challenging Clarke that “no one should do a hard days work for less than they can live on,” which of course highlighted the irony of the slogan ‘Every Little Helps.’ The store’s cleaners are paid £5.96 an hour, which is just over the national minimum wage.

The event’s hosts encouraged Citizens to take action, first by signing postcards to be sent to Philip Clarke, backing the Living Wage campaign, and secondly by approaching managers at their local Tesco and politely challenging them on the living wage. Then at the AGM on 1^st July, the organisation will prove their persistence with their turn out. It was a monumental event for the London and national Citizens, and for the living wage campaign, which spoke to all there both of hope and resilience.

PR: New Tesco boss urged to pay Living Wage by 7 year old activist

PRESS RELEASE

for immediate release

THURSDAY 21^st APRIL 2011

NEW TESCO BOSS URGED TO PAY LIVING WAGE BY 7 YEAR OLD ACTIVIST

Photos: http://bit.ly/hPbk3p

The new Chief Executive of Tesco, Philip Clarke, had a chance encounter yesterday when he was challenged in one of his stores by a seven year old boy about the low pay received by Tesco cleaners.  Lucas Pinto, of community organisation Citizens UK, gave Mr Clarke an Easter Egg and asked him to pay his cleaners a Living Wage. Philip Clarke agreed to “think about it.”

More than 50 local people from Citizens UK, some dressed as the Easter Bunny, were giving Easter Eggs and flowers to Tesco workers and customers at the Tesco Metro store in Covent Garden, to call for Tesco cleaners to be paid a Living Wage. Philip Clarke, who was doing press interviews in the store at the time, came face to face with Lucas and other Citizens UK activists.

Lucas Pinto, a seven year old Citizens UK activist, said:

“I shook his hand and explained about the Living Wage. He seemed quite busy but pleased to see me. My impression of him was he was quiet and sensible. I felt very excited that he said he would think about it.”

Andy Hull, a Citizens UK activist, said:

“Lucas and I were in the aisle, giving shop staff and customers Easter eggs and talking with them about the Living Wage campaign. Then, who should walk around the corner but Philip Clarke himself. I clocked who he was and Lucas thrust a cream egg in his direction. We introduced ourselves before Lucas explained what the campaign was about: trying to get Tesco to pay all its staff – including its contracted cleaners and security - at least the Living Wage.”

The Living Wage is the calculated as the minimum needed for a worker to provide for their family. In London, it is set by Mayor Boris Johnson and currently stands at £7.85/hr. The national Living Wage is £7.20/hr. Tesco cleaners only get £5.96/hr, on their 5am shifts.

Recent media interviews with Clarke have indicated that he thinks Tesco’s brand is respected but not loved and hinted that he wants the company under his leadership to have a softer image.

Andy Hulls adds:

“I suggested that a great way for Tesco to earn people’s love back would be to become the first supermarket to pay everyone who works in its stores the Living Wage. We gave him a leaflet about the campaign and said no-one should do a hard day’s work for less than they can live on. He said he’d think about it.”

Local schools and churches that are members of Citizens UK have conducted similar playful actions in Tesco stores in Hackney and Lambeth and others are planned across the capital and the country over the coming weeks.

Notes to Editors:

1.       Andy Hull is available for interview.

2.       Lucas Pinto is available for telephone interview (he is off to DisneyLand Paris).

3.       Photos of the action are available including of Mr Clarke meeting Lucas and Andy, in the aisle at Covent Garden Tesco.

4.       The London Living Wage is endorsed by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, and is currently £7.85 an hour. The Living Wage for the rest of the UK is £7.20 an hour. Many Tesco cleaners are paid just over the minimum wage of £5.93.

5.       Philip Clarke took over from Sir Terry Leahy as Chief Executive of Tesco in March 2011. On Tuesday Tesco announced record profits of £3.8bn, an increase of 12% on the previous year.

6.       Lush announced this week it would be the first Living Wage employer in the retail sector, see here: http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23943080-lush-founder-becomes-first-store-boss-to-pledge-living-wage-of-pound-785.do .

7.       The Living Wage campaign began in 2001 after London Citizens began campaigning for a rate of pay that allowed people to maintain a basic standard of living. The campaign has won over £70m for 10,000 low paid workers.

8.       Current Living Wage employers include KPMG, Westfield, Queen Mary University London, Greater London Authority, Transport for London, Barclays, Linklaters, PWC, and more than one hundred others.

9.       Citizens UK is the country’s largest alliance of civil society organisations working together for the common good. More information at www.citizensuk.org.

10.   For more information please contact Stefan Baskerville on 07952694651.

Out of these testimonies came the first campaign in the UK for a ‘Living Wage’.

TELCO launched this Campaign before an Assembly of 1200 citizens and the BBC’s ‘News at Ten’ in November 2001. Thousands of members of LONDON CITIZENS have since been involved in making this call for a Living Wage so that all families in London have time for their children and all workers can live and experience life in its abundance and richness. It is estimated that this action by civil society has led to £70m in better wages being paid to over 10,000 families and individuals. This CITIZENS call for action for a Living Wage has involved students, school children, their parents, faith communities and civic groups – with a growing number of excellent employers seeing the business sense in it.

On May 2nd 2011 CITIZENS UK will salute those employers who have led by example; will honour those who have taken their personal or corporate Mission Statement’s seriously and done the right thing. Please join us and bring your children so that you too can be part of the most significant anti poverty initiative of the last ten years. There is still much to do and thousands of employers across the UK for CITIZENS to relate to and engage. This is a story of hope, action, inspiration and leadership by civil society and its core institutions of faith, community, education and association.

‘The Living Wage is an idea whose time had come’. David Cameron PM

‘A Living Wage must be sufficient to maintain the worker in the highest state of industrial efficiency, with decent surroundings and sufficient leisure, with reasonable time for recreation and rest, home comforts and able to discharge the duties of citizenship’. Mark Oldroyd, Liberal MP. 1894.

‘Pay the labourer his just wages before the sweat on his brow dries up’. Mishkhat Al-Masabih, 2/900. Hadith. 610AD

‘A dictate of natural justice more imperious and ancient than any bargain between man and man namely, that wages ought not to be insufficient to support a frugal and good wage earner. If, through necessity or fear of a worse evil, the worker accepts harder conditions because an employer or contractor will afford them no better, then the worker is made the victim of force and injustice’. Pope Leo X111. ‘Rerum Novarum’. 1891.

By Joanna Cordero

In November of last year at the TELCO Annual Assembly, a brazen 17-year old student from Our Lady High School in Hackney, stood in front of over a thousand east Londoners to demand Lord Coe to make the Olympics about the east London youth and above all to make it a Living Wage Olympics.

“At the time of the Olympics, Inez Sarkodee Adoo said, I will be 19, a time when trying to get work and employment will be most relevant to myself and thousands alike. I am aware there will 6000 jobs available during the 12-week period of the Olympic and Paralympic games. So this evening, I would like to propose to the ODA and London Organising committee for the Olympics whether they will give us this once in a lifetime honour, as the hospitable people of London, to contribute to the Olympic and Paralympic games through jobs that champion the Living Wage.”

A month later, Olympic bosses pledged to support the London Living Wage as they recruit 130,000 people for the 2012 event. It is truly a great success for the Living Wage Campaign and a reminder of the important role that Inez and other young people play in community organising. This month, to pay tribute to this achievement, Citizen UK named Inez its Community Leader of the Month.

I sat down with the Inez to talk about what motivates her and how she juggles five A-Levels while working to get young people involved with the Citizens UK.

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JC: So, how does it feel like to be responsible for getting 130,000 Living Wage jobs for the Olympics?

IA: I still don’t think that it’s dawned me the magnitude of what has actually been achieved. I won’t claim that it was my idea but I am very proud that something that I did contributed to such a great achievement. It is actually going to happen, 130,000 people are going to be paid GBP 7.85 that would make such a difference to their family lives.  It is really an overwhelming thought.

JC: What was going through your mind?

IA: At that time, I did not think it was that big. It wasn’t until the run-up that I thought, ‘this is it, it’s down to me to deliver this message to these delegates from the Olympic Authority who have the power to say yes or now’. It was a proud moment that I communicated the message effectively and actually gets a positive response. When I read on the Evening Standard that they had actually agreed to pay the Living Wage, it was mind blowing. I can’t comprehend it up to now, the sheer scale of it.

JC: Did you volunteer to become a speaker or were you chosen?

IA: I don’t actually now how I was chosen for that specific thing. It was during my first meeting, my first experience of London Citizens. They said that they wanted to develop youth leadership within TELCO and within London Citizens. During that meeting, I was contributing ideas. They probably thought this person could possibly be interested in speaking. The following week there was a rehearsal for the assembly and I got the script and I was scanning it but I couldn’t see my name anywhere and I was thinking: ‘oh why am I here then?’ And then I saw Inez next to addressing Lord Coe regarding championing the Living Wage. ‘Ok, that’s me.’

JC:  Let’s go back to the beginning, how did you get started with London Citizens?

IA: The whole way that I got involved with London Citizens was kind of by fluke.  I had been involved with CARJ Catholic Association for Racial Justice, since about two years. I was part of their Youth Forum, which was created to get young people involved with CARJ and the work that they do.

They had their own campaigns like Strangers to Citizens that I got more involved in. I later found out they were joint with London Citizens. Then, I was asked to go along to a planning meeting for last year’s TELCO assembly. I got to the meeting at the Whitechapel office a bit late, so I didn’t really know what was going on and I’d hardly been briefed about what I was going there to do. And so I got there and then I was just hearing all this acronyms like TELCO, LOCOG and ODA and I was thinking: ‘Ok, what to do they mean?’ I was kind of overwhelmed with all the information that was going on and everyone seemed so organised around the table planning this assembly that I really knew nothing about. It was still intriguing to me because I hope to study politics in University. After the meeting, I spoke with Sebastien Chapleau about my school getting involved. It turned out that he was already coming to the school the following week to speak to us. That worked out well; it was a follow-up of what had been established during the strategy meeting. When he came in then I got a really firm understanding of what the organisation did and that’s when my involvement developed.

When Sebastian came to talk to us, I introduced him to our 6^th form group because I met him that previous Saturday. What we wanted to establish at school was a core group who would be like an action team, as like a wing of London Citizens within our school for any campaigns that we had. Everyone was really impressed with what Sebastien had to say and what I had to say about the London Citizens but it seemed like they weren’t very motivated to do anything about what they had heard. I took it upon myself to remind people throughout the week about what the London Citizens talked about and asked people to come along to meetings to see where they could get involved in. Slowly by slowly we build up a core central group of people who seem really interested in the work that London Citizen do and want to progress within the organisation like they saw me do and they also want to see how they can get involved.

JC: What are the current projects of the group now.

IA: It’s all relatively new. We are all just finding our feet really. There are things planned. With the run-up to the Olympic games, we really want to get a core group of students to will be the youth wing of the Olympics team to really stir up youth participation. There will be a strategy meeting coming up soon. I’m just rounding up the troops, sending out emails, telling them what’s going on. A few people have already told me that they will come along and they really want to come to terms with what it is that London Citizen does as an organisation.

It’s just the little things that pop up here and there. ‘Oh, there’s a meeting there, I’ll drag along two people or there’s something going on here that we can go to, I‘ll drag along another two people.‘ Slowly, progressively, that’s how I’m trying to get a core group started who already have the interest within themselves and just need someone to let them know what’s going on.

JC: What do you think is the reason why you are able to persist and be motivated to take action?

IA: I guess it goes back a long way. Back to probably year 7, I was always the person enrolling myself in things, even if it’s a burden to myself. If I think that it’s something that I will enjoy doing or that it will benefit someone I will take on the burden to do it. When I saw what London Citizen was doing was actually having a real impact in the city that I lived in that they really do have a strong force and thinking that contributions that I can make to the London Citizens can help to further their mission that was really my motivation. Knowing that what I can do can make a difference that really motivates me.

JC: How did you get interested in politics?

IA: It wasn’t long ago that I developed my interest in politics. My dad was really adamant for me to become a doctor. I knew in my head that I didn’t want to do medicine but I didn’t have an alternative.  So I couldn’t turn to my dad and say that I didn’t want to do medicine because then he would ask me what I did want to do. I did some soul searching and I realised that my previous interests and all the things that I had been involved in beforehand they all seemed to revolve around the world politics.

I’ve taken part in a public speaking competition a couple of years ago. I got into the final stage that was a London-wide stage I didn’t win that one. But I kept in contact with the organisers of the competition because I realised that the skills that I learned through public speaking benefitted me and actually changed me as a person. When I put the skills that were already there but just dormant it turned me into someone more than a light-hearted person going about life anyhow.

The organisers invited me back to speak to them at the Speaker’s House at the House of Commons. That was the wake-up call for me. It all came weirdly together.  Combining my passion in helping other people, as well as helping myself and my family, my joy in public speaking, it all manifested in a possible career in politics. Then by fluke, I ended up in a London Citizens meeting.

JC: What issues are you currently working on? What are the key campaigns that you want to be involved in?

IA: My key campaign is to motivate young people, my peers, people who turn to me. Help raise aspiration, try to stretch out a helping hand, really. I won’t say that I am the beacon of high aspirations.  I have high expectations to where I think I am going and I hope to spread that to other people. Let them know that there is a lot out there as long as they put their head into it.

The closest issue to heart would be raising low aspiration within London, especially in the city Boroughs. I don’t come from a particularly privileged background and I know people who are worst off than I am. Especially living in certain areas in London they are surrounded by poverty, crime, hardship and unemployment. All these different factors demoralise them. They think that that’s all there is to London, to life. My key motive is to see how I can reach out to those people who think that there’s not much to life. The people who don’t take their education that seriously because they don’t think it will take much further than the people that they see around them who are unemployed and who turn to crime.

Even within my college, there are people who have the potential to do so much more but they aren’t motivated and their aspirations aren’t high

JC: Besides working with CARJ and Citizens UK, how else do you accomplish these goals?

IA: I’m also involved in other groups that are not politically based. I’m involved in a youth organisation called the UFA, the University of the First Age. They develop youth leadership through a series of training courses that teaches you how to run your own youth club. I have been with them for about three years now. I went along to their residential training.  It was a really relaxed atmosphere and friendly. You make friends and at the same time they teach you core skills of responsibility, budget management, team working, generating interests in your club and other entrepreneurial skills that you would need to run a youth club. That was a couple of years ago. Now, I am mentoring other young people to run their own youth clubs. I am still involved with the work that UFA does.

JC: Why do you think it is important for young people to be involved in politics and community organising?

IA: I think it’s important for young people to get involved in politics to develop a sense of awareness. Why not be a part of the decision making as opposed to just sitting back and letting them affect you. I think it’s important for young people to realise that if they really want something to change they can’t just sit around and let things happen and they can’t complain about something that’s changed unless they know that they have tried to stop or to change it.

JC: Can you tell me more about where this confidence comes from?

IA: I have always been someone who likes being in contact with people. I’m quite at peace with who I am and I think once you understand who you are as a person then confidence just comes naturally. Combined with the fact that I like to talk to people, always chatting away somewhere, I’m always trying to get to know someone better, always trying to understand something better I’m always trying to learn something new, always trying to develop myself as a person.

JC:  Considering your ease with public speaking, do you think that it’s your responsibility to speak up and voice concerns?

IA: I think you could put it that way. I wouldn’t say that it is my responsibility but since I feel that I can speak up then there is no reason why I shouldn’t. If there is something that needs to be said, if there is something that’s gone wrong or something that affects other people there is no reason for me not to speak up.

JC: Do you see yourself as a role model, then?

IA: I would like to think so. I always try to be the best that I can and I know that people do take on the customs of the people that they admire and that they think are acting in a good way. I don’t necessarily like to tell everybody the things that I do because the small achievements that I make they are quite personal to me. I’d rather reflect the things that I have done in the way I act, how I communicate with people and the relationships that I keep. I’d like to think that people look up to me and see that I am someone with high aspiration. I hope that I motivate them because they know that I am no different from everybody else and if I can do these things then there is no reason why anyone else can’t.

JC: Where do you find the strength and the motivation to do what you do?

IA: I was born in the UK but my parents are from Ghana. I live with my Mum and my step dad. My dad is an architect living in Yemen, at the moment. I’ve got three older brothers and three younger sisters. We’re really close, all seven of us. They have always been my backbone. My parents have always pushed me to strive for the best and always try to help people in what you are doing. They made me understand that I am not only striving for myself but also striving for everyone else. They were the one who motivated from practically birth like they did with my older brothers and younger siblings.

But, there is only so much that somebody else can tell you to do before you have to do it for yourself. Now, it’s the time for me to push myself.  When they see me now doing all this things they are surprised. They saw me in a picture with David Cameron on Facebook the other day and they were like: ‘When did you do that?’

JC: How do you manage between school and all your responsibilities? Do you feel that you are making sacrifices?

IA: I don’t have a life really (laughs). London Citizens is more or less my social life. Juggling five A-Levels is a struggle and I hardly have any free time. The free time that I do have, London Citizens always have something going on, whether it’s a meeting or a campaign or a protest that I want to go to. Because the work of London Citizen coincides with my interest and passions so much it becomes my social life. When I go along to a meeting or a campaign I am doing something that I enjoy. It doesn’t really come across as work. I know what I am doing is benefitting someone, it’s helpful somewhere. It’s not something that I need to balance it’s just something that I do really.

Also, I have a core group of friends who know me. We grew up together. We are really tight friends. We are all embedded in our A-Levels so we all know the boundary between when we go out and when we have to study. Because we have that balance it works out well. I don’t feel that I neglect my friends. They know me; they know everything that I am involved with.

JC: What would you say to a young person like yourself who wants to get involved in community organising?

IA: First of all, identify which group or which organisation would best fit with their interest and with what they want to do whether their core values coincide with the values of the organisation. First of all, do the research. Then, there’s always an email address, and I’m sure organisation would be happy to receive an email from an eager, enthusiastic young person who wants to make a positive contribution.

JC: What do you consider as the benefits of working with Citizen UK?

There is definitely a sense of self-development. With the little things that I do, I understand things better, I know how to do things better. Whenever I go along to a meeting I get a better sense of what goes on behind closed doors. Also, it is satisfying to know that the actions that I am taking are having a greater impact.

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This feature is sponsored by Stanfords, the world’s largest supplier of maps, guidebooks and travel information, who are proud to support the London Citizens by donating maps of Hackney and creating an outline map showing the People’s Route for the Olympic Marathon. The map shows that the route connects a number of diverse communities and showcases the best that the East End has to offer.

Stanfords are also offering one reader the chance to win a copy of Lost London, a sumptuous collection of more than 500 black and white images of the capital from 1870-1945, capturing whole districts in London as they were vanishing.

To enter the free prize draw, please visit www.stanfords.co.uk/prizedraw.

A decade after its launch, the Living Wage Campaign celebrated landmark achievements at the The East London Communities Organisation (TELCO) annual assembly on Tuesday.

Jane Wills of Queen Mary University in London told TELCO members last night that: “In the last ten years, you have given at least 9000 workers in London a living wage and that is an amazing achievement.”

She added that they have put “50 million pounds, roughly, back into the pockets of low wage Londoners in that same decade.”

When the Living Wage Campaign was launched in the very same town hall, the TELCO assembly took place this week, community leaders from London Citizens were responding to the needs of thousands of people living in the East End who struggled to provide for their families while living on the minimum wage. With mounting financial pressures, parents had to work two or, sometimes, even three jobs to make ends meet. As a result, parents had less time to spend with their families.

On that night, ten years ago, London Citizens vowed to push employers to recognise their responsibility to end poverty pay. Since then hundreds of organisations, universities and corporations have committed to meet the £7.85 per hour rate established by the Greater London Authority as the minimum wage required for a worker to provide for their family with the essentials of life. KPMG and the University of East London are just a few of the latest examples.

The campaign also marked its achievement in pushing for the first Living Wage Olympics. Working with the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA), London Citizen has successfully pushed for 96 percent compliance to Living Wage.

London Citizens began its work with the ODA in 2004 when it helped launch the Ethical guarantees as part of the Olympic bid. With the commitment by the ODA to comply fully to Living Wage by next year, it has accomplished some of it goals but there is still more to be done.
The TELCO assembly took the opportunity to re-launch its People’s Agenda for the Olympics this week. Attendees heard from the young people of East London who demanded for a chance to take part in the Olympics.

“At the time of the Olympics, Ines, a student from Our Lady High School said, I will be 19, a time when trying to get work and employment will be most relevant to myself and thousands alike. I am aware there will 6000 jobs available during the 12-week period of the Olympic and Paralympic games. So this evening, I would like to propose to the ODA and London Organising committee for the Oly whether they will give us this once in a lifetime honour, as the hospitable people of London, to contribute to the Olympic and Paralympic games through jobs that champion the Living Wage.”

The London Community Land Trust, addressing the Executive Director of Real Estate for the Olympic Park Legacy Company, Duncan Innes asked that East Londoners be given the chance to build a sustainable community by providing cheap housing on the Olympic site.
“Give us something to be proud of aside from the gold, silver and bronze medals, give us a community where we can live in affordable homes, ” London Community Land Trust Vice Chair said.

As Adam Atkinson of St Peter’s Bethnal Green summarised at the end of the Assembly: “All the eyes of the world are going to be on East London as we near the time of the Olympics we are in a unique place and as organised citizens and communities we want to take advantage of this opportunity.

“There is more work to be done. And we are the people to do it. The time to act is now.”

The London Living Wage (LLW) is a London-weighted minimum wage which takes into account the higher costs of living in the capital. Since it began campaigning for the LLW in 2001, London Citizens has persuaded banks, hospitals, universities and shopping centres to pay it. Since 2004, the rate has been set by City Hall – currently £7.85 as opposed to the national minimum wage (NMW) of £5.93.

The LSE, the Institute of Education, Queen Mary College, SOAS, Birkbeck, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Goldsmiths, and University College London have also agreed to pay the LLW following campaigns by London Citizens.

London Citizens warmly welcomes the announcement made by Professor Patrick McGhee, Vice-Chancellor, who says that the University of East London’s decision “is in line with our University Strategy, Transformation for Excellence where we state: ‘An outstanding workforce: professionalism, careers, flexibility. UEL has exceptional staff at all levels. We will build on this strength and make sure that all staff have the opportunity to play a full role in our future (…) We will create level playing fields for all staff and champion equal opportunities across all that we do.’”

Dr Timothy Hall, from the Politics Department at the University of East London – part of the team of academic staff, cleaners, students, and neigbhouring institutions in membership of London Citizens who led the campaign - said: “This is a phenomenal decision. We are pleased about this decision and feel even prouder to be part of UEL. As an institution, we hold strong values about society and citizenship, and it’s great to see that those values are made real.”

For more details about the Living Wage Campaign and its benefits, see: http://www.citizensuk.org/campaigns/living-wage-campaign/