On Saturday 21st April 2018 we held our Big Local Big Lunch Commonwealth Community Event organised by our Big Local Youth Action Team and Heston West Committee. The glorious weather inspired the community to come out and get involved with the host of fun activities on offer. We had Flower Arranging, Food Art, Jewellery Making, Multi-Sports, Creative Club, Face Painting, Indian Classical Dancing, Army Cadets, Police Car and Fire Engine Show. Around 350 local residents attended the function and we also raised around £450 for our Natural Disasters Campaign and the Family Forever JP Campaign. We were joined by special guests Maria Pedro, Her Majesty’s Representative Deputy Lieutenant and Deputy Mayor for Hounslow Borough Mukesh Malhotra. 

Jon White, Family Learning Coordinator for Hounslow Council said: "It was an excellent event!  I loved the way your (Heston West) volunteers (Callum and Wole in particular) helped out and kept the event on track and relaxed.  The variety of activities on offer was really impressive too.  We were delighted by the way our sessions went down."

Caroline Baxter, Heston West Police Constable added: "We enjoyed the down time chatting and playing football with the young people. The event did appear to be a success and I should think there were many happy residents from the local communities."

​Anita Sangha, Community Connector from disability organisation Certitude was really impressed with our event, she said: “It was an absolute amazing day, so well organized, great turnover, lovely food and yes great weather as well. The kids did a lot of drawing and colouring at our stall and I got to hand out some leaflets to families regarding our Thursday's Community Drop-In Arts Session with the Big Local.”

I have been volunteering with Heston West for 18 months and have helped out with many activities and enjoyed my time getting involved. There were community events at the Brabazon Community Centre, Berkeley Academy, YMCA Centre in Hayes, Cranford Community College and Parliament. At Brabazon, I helped paint the mural outside the centre and performed a dance. At Berkeley Academy I helped with their summer fete and Winter Wonderland. At the YMCA  we went to see young refugees and gave them donated Christmas gifts and played games with the children. I even did a dance performance for them and of course, played pool amazingly (just kidding I barely knew how to play)! ​

Young people from NCS The Challenge discuss self-esteem with the Big Local Youth Action Team during the summer 2017.

If you would like to more support about the issues raised in this video please visit Childline.

NCS The Challenge joined the Big Local for  to support and participate in our MADE in HESTON WEST youth film-making session. For more information please click here.

My name is Neha Soni and I am 22 years old. Last year, I graduated with a degree in Politics, International Relations and Philosophy. I enjoyed my degree and knew that I wanted to work in the political sector in the future but I soon realised this harder than it seemed. I was working as a team leader in a retail store throughout my degree and I was not enjoying it. I decided to volunteer abroad with International Citizen Service for three months in Zimbabwe. I taught in primary and secondary schools and had the experience of a lifetime. I learnt how charities work and the impact one person could make in a community. When I came home, I returned to my retail job and decided it was time for a change.

Later, I left my retail job and applied for jobs in the political sector. I did not have much experience aside from my degree, so I applied for volunteer roles too. I volunteered with Big Local Heston West and other charities to help build my skills. I enjoyed my time volunteering much more than my retail job and I was learning a lot more; I was interacting with community members in a fun environment, positively contributing to my community, gaining more confidence and working in a motivated team. At a Big Local community event, I spoke to my local MP about job opportunities and I am now working in my local MP's office. If I did not volunteer I would not have had the opportunity to work for my MP. Volunteering is a great way to give back to your community, have fun and gain new skills. It was especially useful for me, as I now possess the skills needed for my current role and I have a new perspective on how I can make a difference.

​By Serena Lola

​Today on the 23rd September 8 members of Heston West Big Local went to the Local Trust Young People Make A Difference event where many organisations juts like ours gathered together for a day of bonding, having fun and learning about other volunteers like us. After an hour journey in a cab we finally arrived at Lambourne End Centre for Outdoor Learning and it was nothing like I expected the event would be. We were given a warm welcome and settled in before being put into groups and set off for some team building activities, which were really fun. The first activity for my group was we had a big ditch in which we had to get across without touching the bottom of the ditch and we only had 2 planks of wood. After a little conversation we went straight into it and managed to do it pretty well with only a couple of little screams! Just like this activity we managed to get through all of them pretty quick and had lots of laughs along the way and from observing the other groups they were having a great time as well working together and enjoying themselves. After a fun morning of activities we returned back to base and our lovely instructors read out the rules each team had made and we had a giant list including “don’t steal the pens” and “no mobile phones during activities”
 
Our own group then gave an inspiring speech about what we have done and how much of journey it has been for them, which was really amazing; we also filmed the whole thing. We then were moved into another room where another Big Local group from Hackney shared with us what they’ve done which was also inspiring and amazing to see what they’ve done to their community and it even gave us ideas for what we can do to make our area better. When all the inspiring talk was done we all enjoyed a great BBQ that was made for us along with pasta and salad and this really gave us a chance to talk to each other and just learn a bit more about one another. This was really important to spreading the message that young people’s voices need to be heard and even Big Local representative Sian Penner agrees as she said, “It was a brilliant day and I think more people should give time to listen to more young people”

​We then proceeded to take part in one of two workshops I chose to go to the Social enterprise workshop in which I learnt a lot about what social enterprising is and what the group had actually done in their area, we eve heard some of their journeys and stories about volunteering and how they’ve created an enterprise called FREEDOM-E which was astonishing to see how much they’ve accomplished especially with primary school kids.
 
Then it was back to more fun activities, which ranged from things like archery and fencing to caving! We all picked our activity and headed off for some more fun. Id picked archery, which was really good and it was full of laughs and jokes and a bit of failing! We even had competition within the groups and other challenges one, which included balloons that was slightly deceiving. Also from what I saw and heard the other groups had a great time as well in their activities. Even the instructors thought today was a good day as Andrew (one of the activity instructors) said “It was a fun enjoyable time had by all”
 
Once that had all finished we headed back to the main hall to get to know each other’s organisations a bit more with a fun activity of choosing random postcards which represent us as a group which I found pretty interesting as at first glance all of them seemed irrelevant to us but by looking closer there were many interpretations to be found such as a all the colours representing us as a unity of all different types of people. I thought this was a really good exercise for really trying to understand what it is that we do as volunteers.

Today was an exciting day out for some of our big local volunteers and many other Big Local organisations from around the country. It was informative, inspirational and fun day and also something we would love to do again to do again; it was a huge success!
 
Serena Lola, 15 years old
Heston West Big Local Volunteer

​Big thanks to Local Trust, Vicky Tedder, Wendy Sugarman, Sian Penner and staff at the Lambourne Outdoor Centre for Learning in Romford for organising a brilliant day out for our young people.

​Photo credit: Vicky Tedder. 

This is a short film was created by our MADE in HESTON WEST young film crew. The film was written by Abbie McFerran and Juhi Kumra and filmed at Cranford Community College on Sunday 26th March 2017. The short film highlights self-esteem and body image issues young people face.

The 'It's OK not to be OK' campaign is led by our Youth Action Team.

It’s OK not to be OK. As a society we have created these outrageous ideals of how a person should look and dress instead of looking at what matters and what makes them who they are. And, no matter what society says those ideals don’t matter because despite what we have been brought up to believe we are all beautiful and unique and that includes you, me and everyone around us. So if you ever feel you are not good enough remember that you are and talk to someone because at one point in our life we have all felt like there is something wrong with us when in reality there isn’t. Don’t be afraid to share your feelings because there is many just like you and if you’re not OK then the world is not OK.

It’s all right to feel nervous or scared when going to talk to someone but trust me it could make all the difference and there are many people out there who would be willing to listen to you whether that be friends, family or teachers there is always someone you can turn to for help even if you feel like you’re alone.

It doesn’t matter how small or big the problem is because there will always be someone to help and a problem is still a problem despite the size of it so all I can say to you is be happy with who you are because you are perfect and beautiful in every way and if you ever doubt that remember there is always someone you can turn to and there people out there who feel the same way you do because despite what we may look like on the outside we could be the complete opposite on the inside.

Also if you ever feel that a friend or relative or anyone doesn’t seem themselves or something doesn’t feel right you could be the one to say: “Hey are you OK?” because that lets them know they are not alone and it could change everything for them because you never know what might be going on in someone’s head. Be the one who helps them through a dark time to get them to a bright and happy place and remember It’s OK not to be OK.

Check out Serena Lola's amazing VLOG documenting our recent Big Local trip to Parliament!

​On the 29th of August 2017: The Heston West Big Local Youth Action Team went to the UK Parliament to present their campaign idea to make politics more accessible to the younger demographic as well as implementing life skill courses/classes for youth in order to give them a kick-start in life so that they are ready for everyday problems they will face in the future. We believe this is very important and it was said by Mariam Quraishi that life skills/ politics are important “because we gain transferable skills we can use as well as opening up opportunities for ourselves.

​The day started off with us meeting Seema Malhotra, the MP of Feltham and Heston and then being led into Parliament and to the café where we enjoyed some delicious food. After Seema then gave us a tour of Parliament as well telling us about some of the history of the place such as Spencer Perceval was assassinated in the House Of Commons and ancestors of him as well as from the murder are members of parliament to this day which I found pretty interesting as well as astonishing. Furthermore the Parliament building itself was really beautiful just like the outside of the building and I especially thought that the centre of the houses was amazing due to its stunning detail and astounding design.  

​Following that we were taken into a conference room where the select committee usually have their proceedings and to be in there was a huge privilege and an even bigger one was to sit in their seats while doing our presentation. We were joined also by Rupa Huq (MP of Ealing Central and Acton) we then proceeded to present our campaign which is all about getting the younger generation more involved in politics so they can gain a wider understanding along with leaning valuable life skills for the future which can help them not only once they’ve left school but also whilst in it. Moreover we not only want to engage the younger generation but the older generation as well because we feel that we can help build a stronger community through bridging the generation gap but also by doing this the older generation also stand to gain as they can have the correct information to help them decide when voting as most of the time they are influenced by what the media tells us as opposed to thinking for themselves.
 

​Once we had concluded our presentation Seema and Rupa asked us questions to get a deeper understanding of what we were trying to do and after we were happy to hear that they would be happy to help us with the campaign and helping us to run things, so overall this trip was a success! Feeling pretty proud of inspirational day, and ourselves we took some photos in the conference room and left having had a fun day, which is the beginning of us doing something great for our community.

Anjali Parmar (age 13) said: “ Today was a really fun day” and she thinks “that more people should get involved with organisations like the Heston West Big Local as it helps to build confidence as well as getting to meet new people and having fun whilst making a change to our community in order to make It a happier and healthier place to live”

​This highlights our message we want to push across as we want to inspire others to get involved and help make a difference.

​I can also see that the other volunteers can see that we will make a difference as Rajan Sandhu said: “Today was really useful and motivating as it not only expanded his communication skills but it was also and bonding event for the team”

​He then went on to add “that it is important for children to know about politics so they know that they have a voice that they can use to make a difference in the world”
 
Overall, today was a fantastic and once in a lifetime experience, which we as young volunteers are extremely proud of and hope we may be able, to do something like this again as we love to help people and make our community a better place.  Now that we have done this we feel we can really make a change and we cannot wait to start work on our campaign and inspire more people to get involved.
 

The presentation was delivered by Anjali Parmar, Sharanjit Kaur, Serena Lola, Rajan Sandhu, Amadeus Lang, Saim, Mariam Quraishi  and Mustapha. 

We were also supported by our Youth Action Members: Iman Jaura , Subhan Jaura , Anjali Kumar, Caitlin Poon, Huzayma Khamis, Abbie McFerran, Rhys Jones, Cammeron Jones, Callum Willis, Amrita Tar, Megha Dahdrai, Ayushi, Harveer and Harpreet Kaur.