Pictures from the Celebrating Streatham event, held on Saturday February 27 at Dunraven School…

For more pictures, please visit Chuka’s Facebook page.

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To mark the retirement of Keith Hill, who has been MP for Streatham since 1992, he is hosting an event to bring together and celebrate the continued success and achievements of local organizations and the people of our area.

Celebrating Streatham will feature ‘Streatham Presents…’: a talent contest judged by local celebrities rapper Speech Debelle, who won the 2009 Mercury Music Prize, and singer Leo Ihenacho from The Streets.

It is being held at Dunraven School on Saturday 27 February 2010 between 2.00pm and 6.30pm.

The event will showcase the talent of local performers to the wider community and hopes to challenge the negative perceptions of both Streatham and young people, which are too often put forward by the national media.

From 2pm local community groups, businesses and charities, will be hosting stalls (including food), running workshops and activities such as face painting and T-shirt making. These include local Scout groups, Streatham-based charity Spires, local chocolatier Paul Gregory who specialises in chocolate sculptures, businesses like Perfect Blend and a street dance demonstration class led by local entrepreneur Jerome Barnes of Streetbreakers.

From 4pm, performers in ‘Streatham Presents…’ include local schools, youth groups such as Clapham Youth Centre and The Palace Project, as well as Gloria Bailey MBE’s Make a Difference group from the Streatham Darby & Joan Club. Prizes will be awarded to the winner and one runner up. The top prize will be the opportunity to record a music video with the Generation Next Foundation, which has experience in producing short films as a major area of its work with young people.

The event is free and those wanting to attend can obtain tickets by emailing their name and address to tickets {at} streathamlabour.org(.)uk. Due to limited availability, people should book early to avoid disappointment and those attending who are under the age of 18 and not part of a group will need to be accompanied by an adult.

The contribution of four local residents has been recognised in the Queen’s New Year’s Honors List: Lesley Morrison CBE, Gloria Bailey MBE, Ilene Ming-Deans MBE and Jean Roberts MBE. They are truly inspiring people who have made a real positive impact both locally and nationally.

Ilene Daisy Ming-Deans has been made an MBE for her services to Clapham Youth Centre. The centre is part of the Knight’s Association of Youth Clubs, which have been pioneers of youth work in South London.

Aiming to inspire and help develop young people in constructive and innovative ways, the centre works on projects such as the ‘Summer Uni’, which raises young people’s aspirations.

Lesley Morrison, Headteacher of St. Martin-in-the-Fields High School for Girls in Tulse Hill has been made a CBE for her contribution to education.

Mrs Morrison, who has been head of the school for seventeen years, has overseen the launch of a new and successful sixth form and excellent exam results across the board.

Interviewed in the Streatham Guardian she said: “It is a real honour, but it feels bizarre getting something for just doing your job.” She added “no man was an island” and that her success was because she had a “great team of staff helping her”.

Mrs Morrison’s positive ethos “values all our individuals. It places emphasis on high expectation and the fact that if our pupils believe they can do it, they can. We want our pupils to fly and they do fly,” she told BBC News.

Gloria Bailey is well known for her work with the Streatham Darby and Joan club where her Make a Difference Group is based – she has been made an MBE for her services to the community in Lambeth.

As well as fostering more than 100 children, she has run recruiting drives for foster carers in Brixton and also launched the Godparents initiative to provide opportunities for local youngsters.

Jean Roberts, a ministerial messenger for the Department for Transport, also becomes an MBE.

Congratulations to all those who received honours – we are truly proud to have such inspiring local citizens.

The Streatham Festival is our area’s very own world-class community event held every summer.

Having been founded in 2002 when it was attended by 600 people, it now attracts more than 10,000. Being run entirely by volunteers, it is chaired by Patricia Sauer.

The festival consists of numerous art and culture events held across Streatham including exhibitions of local artists’ work, film screenings, family events and showcases for performing arts like the search for ‘Streatham Idol’.

This year, the week-long festival was launched by a open-air fun day on Streatham Common, followed by open-air theatre and world music. In October 2009, the work of the Streatham Festival was honoured by the Prime Minister when its Chair Patricia Sauer was invited to a Community Heroes event at 10 Downing Street.

Streatham’s Naga Munchetty presents BBC 2’s Working Lunch, the network’s daily business programme. Previously, she was senior presenter at the international Bloomberg channel, where she headed up economic coverage, guiding viewers through the first months of the global downturn. For the network, she grilled central bankers and chief executives. On Working Lunch she has also focused on consumer issues, highlighting financial dangers and investment opportunities for viewers.

Having grown up in Streatham, Naga studied English language and literature at Leeds University. After taking a postgraduate degree in journalism, she began her career writing for the City pages of the Evening Standard, going on to write for the Observer’s business section. Naga first moved into television news with Reuters Financial Television, before becoming Business Reporter for Channel 4 News. She has also presented the BBC Black and Asian Forum alongside Meera Syal.

Naga also occasionally presents BBC 1’s Breakfast programme and met Chuka in May of this year when she interviewed him on the show.

When she’s not reporting on business and finance, she has a passion for music and can play the jazz trumpet and classical piano.

Christians Against Poverty is a charity reaching out to those stuggling with debt. It operates through a network of advice centres based in churches, including in Tulse Hill at Holy Trinity & St Matthias Church, where Keith Hill MP holds surgeries.  The charity offers a debt counselling service which empowers people to help themselves out of poverty and eases the burden of overwhelming debts.

CAP’s support workers help those with debt problems by working out sustainable budgets based on income and living expenses, ensuring that essential bills are prioritised. Because the charity is recognised within the finance industry, it is able to work with creditors to stop unfair interest and charges where possible for those who need help. The charity can set up a CAP account, meaning debtors can pay a weekly or monthly sum through CAP to cover all their bills and debts in affordable repayments, allowing them to work their way out of debt without feeling pressured. This helps those who have experienced debt problems to get back their self-respect and take control of their lives again. Christians Against Poverty’s advice is free, non-judgmental and open to those from all backgrounds.

The charity has just been named – for the second year running – the Sunday Times best small company to work for and the Tulse Hill Centre was runner up at the CAP annual conference for best new centre. Chuka and Keith applaud their work and wish them every success in the future.

For more information, visit the website: CAP

Streatham Hill resident Stone Walters seems destined for great things after making this year’s Brit awards album. The Brit school graduate has avoided the major labels and recorded his album on his own independent label, Fivestone Records, which he runs witrh his sister and wife

Here is Stone being interviewed on the red carpet at the Brit Awards launch:

You can find out more about Stone, and hear some of his music by visiting his website.

Local lad, Alexander Amosu, has just appeared as a one of the famous ‘dragons’ in BBC2’s Dragons’ Den programme.

Alexander Amosu was named as one of the most influential black Britons in the recently published Power List of Britain’s most influential Black people which Prime Minister Gordon Brown (left) described as,
“a celebration of the contribution of black people to British culture and to British public life – and a testament to what can happen when talent meets opportunity in our country today.”

Amosu (right) became a millionaire at the age of 25 when he launched Rnbringtones. The company was one of the first ring tone companies to be set up in the UK in 1999 and generated a turnover of £6.3 million in 4 years before being sold. Amosu now runs a luxury mobile phone company.

The Power List panel said of Amosu “Alex is a serial entrepreneur whose influence in the mobile telecoms arena grows yearly.”  You can watch Amosu appearing on a Christmas edition of Dragons’ Den here: BBC2 - Dragons’ Den – Around the World.

Streatham Drop-in Centre for Asylum Seekers and Refugees has been awarded a Lottery grant to help it to continue all the hard work it does in the community.

The grant is for £8,781 and is from Awards for All, a Lottery grants scheme for community organisations. The money will go towards providing opportunities for asylum seekers and refugees to integrate and adapt into the community, introducing them to local resources.

The Drop-in Centre was founded in 2002, and provides vital services as well as a safe and welcoming environment for refugee and asylum seekers in the local area. Based at English Martyrs Church Hall, the centre offers English lessons, complementary therapy and access to health advice as well as a crèche, weekend family support group and homework club. It works in partnership with a range of local organisations including Lambeth College and PCT. All services are free of charge.

Chuka congratulates the Drop-in centre on its recent funding award, and the good work it does for local asylum seekers and refugees.

Carys Afoko

Streatham Vale Park is a charming piece of green space in the south-west corner of the Streatham constituency. Originally built in 1930/31, following campaigning by the Streatham Vale Property Owners Association, the park is wooded in areas and contains a selection of trees, flowerbeds and shrubs. The park is home to tennis courts a disused bowling green and pavilion, a playground, an adventure playground and the One O’ Clock Club, which offers activities for children under 5 and their parents.

Unfortunately, the park is hardly visible from the outside – many people in Streatham are unaware that it exists, but that is changing thanks to local residents.  It is accessed by two very small, almost hidden entrances on Abercairn Road and an even smaller one on Lonesome Way (the access road into the park). It is a real gem.

The Friends of Streatham Vale Park was formed in 2003 by local residents interested in maintaining this wonderful communal area. The organisation aims to promote the park, campaign for its development, provide community views on it and organise events there. The Friends’ main event of the year is the Fun Day held in the park each summer.

Chuka is pictured (right) in the the Park with Streatham South ward Cllrs Dave Malley and John Kazantzis.