Organisations Based at FinSpace
Who is based at FinSpace?
FinSpace is the name of our building at 225 - 229 Seven Sisters Road, Finsbury Park. The building contains offices which are rented out to different community organisation and projects.
The organisations based at FinSpace are as follows:
· Vision Housing
· Bright Sparks
· Finsbury Park Business Forum
· Ghana Union
· Islington Somali Community (ISC)
· People’s Advice Centre (PAC)
· Philippines Indigenous People’s Links (PIPLinks)
· Jabbok Support Services
· Congolese Community Council
· Bright Directions
· Refugee Children’s Rights Project (RCRP)
· Islington Community Safety Board (ICSB)
Vision Housing
Contact details: Rachel Russell
Tel: 020 7619 3579
Email: info@visionhousing.org.uk
Opening Hours: Appointment only
Services:
Vision Housing was set up in January 2007 by the founder and Managing Director, Annys Darkwa. It follows a successful project that she ran when she was a serving prisoner. Vision provides support to ex-offenders prior to and on release from prison. We have first-hand experience of what it is like to come out of prison and we work with our clients to give them exactly what they need. The first thing is a place to live. We have built up a network of estate agents and private sector landlords who will accept our clients. These range from rooms in houses, self-contained flats and whole houses. We have housed well over 200 people and we are proud to say that our reoffending rate is extremely low – around 10%.
Bright Sparks
Contact Details: Bright Sparks
Tel: 020 7561 5515
Email: Shop@brightsparksonline.com
Website: http://www.islington.gov.uk/brightsparks
Opening Hours: Tuesday-Saturday 12:30-5.30pm,
late opening until 7pm on Thursdays
Bright Sparks is Islington’s Repair and Reuse Shop that will bring your small electrical items back to life. You can buy small electrical items at Bright Sparks, donate them when you have finished with them or even get them repaired. The choice is yours!
Bright Sparks is an easy way to reuse, repair or recycle your old electrical items rather than putting them in the rubbish bin which causes carbon pollution and damages the environment. The repairs are done at a new workshop the offers training and volunteering opportunities for local people. There are also donation sites around Islington where you can drop off your unwanted small electrical gadgets and appliances to help support people and the environment.
Services: Bright Sparks is Islington’s Repair and Reuse Shop that will bring your small electrical items back to life. You can buy small electrical items at Bright Sparks, donate them when you have finished with them or even get them repaired. The choice is yours! Bright Sparks is an easy way to reuse, repair or recycle your old electrical items rather than putting them in the rubbish bin which causes carbon pollution and damages the environment. The repairs are done at a new workshop the offers training and volunteering opportunities for local people. There are also donation sites around Islington where you can drop off your unwanted small electrical gadgets and appliances to help support people and the environment.
Finsbury Park Business Forum (FPBF)
Contact details: Courtney Bailey, Chair of the FPBF
Tel: 020 7527 5172
Fax: 020 7527 5109
Email: info@businessforum.uk.com
Website: www.businessforum.uk.com
Opening Hours: Monday-Friday 10.00am-4.00pm,
Appointment only
Services:
- To act as a conduit between businesses based within the Finsbury Park area and the outside world, particularly the local authorities of Hackney, Haringey and Islington.
- To promote trading links as well as encourage supply chains between businesses e.g. printers, the fashion industry, restaurants, solicitors and accountants.
- To promote business in Finsbury Park, within and outside the area as desirable business location
- To provide business in the area with the opportunity to increase their skills or the skills of their employees.
- To encourage inward investment and actively promote the regeneration of Finsbury Park in a business context.
- To act as information service, ‘signposting’ businesses to the relevant authority or support agency where the Forum is unable to provide practical assistance.
- Joining the Finsbury Park Business Forum costs from as little as £10 a month and offers great benefits to the business community
- Regular communications to keep you informed of what’s going on in the area
- Networking events
- An information help line
- Information on where to apply for Grants and loans to develop your business
- In addition, through our Finsbury Park service, we lobby the three councils of Hackney, Haringey and Islington on behalf of individuals and groups of businesses over issues important to them.
Ghana Union
Contact details: Kwame Adu
Tel: 020 7267 3224
Fax: 020 7263 3269
Email: info@ghanaunion.org.uk
Services:
- Provides a focal point for the general welfare of Ghanaians
- Established Ghanaian Women in Focus (GWIF) and is aimed to discuss issues pertaining to the interest of women and the family for quality life whilst promoting the Ghanaian culture
Ghana Union Youth Project was set-up to provide services, share knowledfe, advise the youth. create leaders, Promote Ghanaian Culture/traditions among the youth and build on African Unity.
Islington Somali Community (ISC)
Contact details: Yussuf Ahmed, Manager
Tel: 020 7272 0550
Fax: 020 7272 1022
Email: isc26@btconnect.com
Opening Hours: Open Monday to Friday 10.00am – 4.00pm
Closed Wednesdays.
Services:
Deal with all Somali Community needs.
Women’s issues
Befriend and support for the Elderly
Mental disorders
Crisis Intervention service working with individuals and families suffering from trauma of Civil War
Council problems
Advice and Guidance in all fields
Welfare
People’s Advice Centre (PAC)
Contact details: Philip Mutio, Project Manager
Tel: 020 7263 1089
Mobile: 07813 347124
Opening Hours: Appointment only
Services:
Legal Advice on Employment Law, Age, Disability and Sex Discrimination
Legal Matters
Debt Management
Advice and Guidance and referrals
Community Support
PIPLinks
Contact details: Geoff Nettleton
Tel: 020 7202 0230
Email: geoff@piplinks.org
Opening Hours: Appointment only
Services:
To uphold and promote the collective and individual human rights of Indigenous Peoples and other land-based communities
Jabbok Support Services For Women (JSS)
Contact details: Naa Lanfermann
Tel: 020 3490 0179
Email: info@jabboksupportservices.org.uk
Web: www.jabboksupportservices.org.uk
Opening Hours: Drop in every 2 weeks Friday between 12 – 2.00pm
Services:
Jabbok Support Services (JSS) mission is to secure the financial and mental resources of female ex-offenders in their journey from send-down to economic empowerment. JSS affords female ex-offenders the opportunity to pursue their individual gifts and talents so increasing job opportunities and personal wellbeing. JSS is an Islington-based non-profit organization that serves women ex-offenders and those suffering mental distress.
· Information, advice and support on accessing training and employment
· IT skills and literacy skills
· Volunteer recruitment
· CV writing
· Filling out job application forms
· Interview techniques and disseminating health information to preserve and protect health
· Providing facilities for recreation and other leisure time occupations, in the interest of social welfare, for those who by reason of their youth, age, infirmity or disablement, financial hardship or social and economic circumstances, have need of such facilities
· Developing the capacity and skills of clients in such a way that they are better able to identify, and help meet, their needs and to participate more fully in society
· Information, advice and support on housing and benefits. A third of women lose their homes in prison 41% do not have any accommodation arranged upon release
· Listen, encourage, support and help the individual build confidence, fellowship and spiritual growth
JSS encourage the women, help and support them, train them to gain some skills to get paid work
Congolese Community Council
Contact details: Teme Wanga, Project Co-ordinator
Tel: 020 7272 1465
Web: www.congolesecommunitycouncil.kk5.org
Opening Hours: Appointment only
Services:
Raising Awareness - Congolese Community Council seeks to act as a platform to assess the needs, and raise awareness of the rights of Congolese and francophone African asylum seekers and refugees. The organisation is involved in a range of partnerships with organisations in the statutory and voluntary sectors, as well as local, regional and national networks and forums concerned with the welfare and settlement of asylum seekers and refugees.
Influence and Development - We collect and disseminate information relating to the take-up and development of our services. Congolese Community Council is able to inform and advice statutory and voluntary sector, organisations as well as the general public of the issues and conflicts faced by our clients and target group.
Challenging Disadvantage - Congolese Community Council strives to enhance and promote the skills, abilities and experience of our clients and target group. Our service provision is tailor-made and needs driven, improving access to training and creating better opportunities for employment and personal development. We ensure that information resources and advice on health, housing, welfare and education issues, facilitates social and economic empowerment of our clients and target groups.
Bright Directions
Contact details: Estee Zakaim, Manager
Tel: 020 7272 1465
Email: estee@brightdirections.co.uk
Opening hours: Appointment only
Services:
Bright Directions offer a selection of free or low cost training and skills development courses to those in receipt of benefits. Current courses include developing careers in the fitness industry along with IT qualifications.
Refugee Children’s Rights Project (RCRP)
Contact details: Lucy Miles
Tel: 020 7272 1465
Email: lucym@islingtonlaw.org.uk
Appointment only
Services:
We are delighted to announce the launch of a new Refugee Children’s Rights Project at ILC in partnership with the Children’s Legal Centre. The project aims to fill the gap in specialist legal services for asylum-seeking children by highlighting the distinct needs of this vulnerable client group.
Working from the premise that asylum-seeking children must be recognised as children first and foremost, the project will combine strategic litigation with law-based policy advocacy to ensure children’s rights, as embedded in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, form the core of asylum processes and social care practices.
It will also develop existing legal policy and networks to promote knowledge sharing amongst professionals and provide legal expertise to those working with children and young people seeking sanctuary in the UK. In doing so, we hope to improve access to quality representation for asylum-seeking children and young people; advocate for their fair and humane treatment in the UK and empower them through these changes; and promote the reform of immigration policy, practice and legislation in line with international and domestic standards on children’s rights.
Islington Community Safety Board (ICSB)
Contact details: Susan Fajana-Thomas
Tel: 020 7272 0492
Email: info@icsb.org.uk
Web: www.icsb.org.uk
Opening hours: Appointment only
Services:
At its core, the membership of the Islington Community Safety Board (ICSB) comprises of representatives drawn from the local community, including council officers, police officers, professionals and practitioners in the community safety field. The ICSB is owned by the community. Legally, Community Safety Boards are not an instrument of the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA), rather, a community-led initiative funded by the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA).
Any member of the local community can raise their concerns through the Islington Community Safety Board. Public meetings are arranged every two months, where any member of the public can attend and ask questions to the member bodies. Please feel free to attend any of the public meetings or if you have any issues that you would like to address outside of the meetings please contact the ICSB via email or telephone on the number listed in the contact section