Putting them on the map.

There are some weeks when I sit down  in front of my computer and try to decide what to write in my blog when the news, both national and personal, might seem a little light. Indeed Richard made this the subject of his blog only last week “The silly season" - that time of year when new stories are very thin on the ground and we have to result to featuring Paul Daniels and Sooty in news bulletins.

 It seemed that several thousand other people thought that the  summer lacked news interest, though I doubt whether that was the real reason that they took to the streets with such vehement force to commit such appalling acts of criminality as we saw in areas of the country earlier this week. I'm not going into my thoughts on this. I am known for sometimes being slightly to the right of Attila the Hun and I was appalled at what I saw on the television. The nearest it came to us here in leafy Sydenham  were a couple of youths throwing a stop and go sign from some roadworks through the window of Corals bookmakers.  They ran off as soon as the alarm was activated  and within minutes two  vans of police turned up  to deal with the now absent vandals. I think we were one of the few areas of South London that saw eight policeman that night!

A somewhat appropriate  week to begin working on a community project in Walworth.  Last year one of the most satisfying jobs that I had was running a weeks workshop at Inspire, the community centre off the Walworth Road  run by Charlotte Benstead. It was a great week working with great kids and Charlotte and ultimately very successful. Charlotte has now moved on to run The Creation Trust, an organisation that will oversee the community interests in the regeneration of the Aylesbury estate in SE 17.

 The Aylesbury estate is a massive monument to our ideas of town planning from the 1970s. Huge blocks  of concrete connected by walkways in the sky. I don't think it's ever engendered the sense of community that it was supposed to and I'm sure for many it's never been a pleasant place to live. Wisdom has now ruled and the Aylesbury estate is to be regenerated - in our words - demolished and replaced with streets and smaller blocks. These streets  and smaller blocks of flats will need names  and this is where Charlotte and the creation trust come in.

Charlotte is a great inspirational force. She's a bundle of energy. A rock, and a force to be reckoned with all in one. She was a university with Rich  and he has always spoken of her in the fondest terms. Since I met her two years ago, and became part of a pub quiz team with her, I have adored her. She's exactly my sort of person. No-nonsense, plain speaking and yet with time for everyone. Inspire were lucky to have her, and The Creation trust should know what a jewel they have.

“Put it on the map" is a project has been devised by Charlotte at The Creation Trust to make sure that the renaming of the streets etc of what will become the new estate have a local relevance. Aylesbury as a place in Buckinghamshire  and never had any suitability for this particular part of south-east London. It's a part of London that is rich in local characters, local events, and notable contributions to history. Charlie Chaplin was born around here and yet there is no Chaplin Street. So my job, as coerced in a very friendly way by Charlotte, is to direct 30 half a minute films featuring local residents talking about or playing these characters. These films will then be uploaded onto a website and people will be asked to click on them and vote for the street names that they like most. A deal has been struck with the developers of the new streets that they will choose their names from this list selected by local residents. It's a great idea, exactly the sort of plan that will involve people in their local community.

My only wonder is whether people actually want to be involved. The project was advertised in a full-page ad in the Walworth post, it has Internet pages on Facebook, and flyers have been placed into many local community buildings. Yet on our two audition days on Monday and Tuesday it would be fair to say that we were not overwhelmed with applicants. We have had to supplement the amount of locals who came forward to take part with some out of work actors happy to do it to get something on their show reel. It would have been brilliant if all 30 films could have featured local residents who never really appeared on camera before. However we have assembled a team of people varying  in age, experience, and talent. The locals we have got are brilliant  - by far the most characterful and lively of the bunch. All working for a common cause.   That to my mind is a community. At the end of the event there will be a party where we'll be able to show the 30 films in a rough stage before they're loaded up onto the Internet. I'm sure it will be a great evening bringing people together who would otherwise have no reason to associate with each other. You can't just impose a sense of community on people. There has to be a reason. A common cause for bringing people together and giving them something to aim at. In the 1940s it was the Germans, and it is possible that we've never had such a strong sense of community since then.

Coming up with the right projects to keep people's interest alight. When minds are empty they  have room for all sorts of nefarious thoughts. Mine too.  Keeping busy can give one a sense of fulfilment on so many levels. Finding something worthwhile to keep busy on is the difficulty. For some of us it is work. For many it is not, and that is where we need imagination and innovation to create involvement.

The sense of community that has built up in some areas since the beginning of the week as a response to the violence is rewarding. It is a breath of air. It shouldn't of course have to be there as a result of a mindless view who tried to destroy and burn those communities in the first place.

So let's not have moaning about the number of cuts in youth workers etc. I rather suspect that if we had had another 300 youth workers working in the community at the moment we might still about the riots and looting that we saw this week. Let's think about projects, ideals, and worthwhile enterprises that can engage and involve people's minds and hearts.

That's what Charlotte does. And it can't be beaten.