News from Westminster Labour

Westminster Labour reports more support for community in Queen’s Park Ward

Queen’s Park Ward’s three Labour Councillors Paul Dimoldenberg, Mushtaq Qureshi and Barrie Taylor have given their support to four more local community projects from the Ward Budget.

The four local projects are:

* A twelve-month Community Gardening scheme. This scheme is being run as a partnership project between City West Homes, the Paddington Development Trust, NHS Westminster and Genesis Housing. The project will encourage residents to get involved in developing and maintaining the green spaces on estates
* A 40 week Apprenticeship programme at 20 hours per week for five Queen’s Park residents aged 16-24 years old. This project aims to start in April 2009. The project will work with the Paddington and Westminster Academies to identify students from Queen’s Park who would particularly benefit from an extended apprenticeship placement in a local business, organisation or agency. The aim will be to help participants gain nationally recognised qualifications (Apprenticeships (Level 2) and Advanced Apprenticeships (Level 3)) in Information Technology and Business Administration while working as an apprentice
* Welfare Benefits Advice. The project will also include an Arabic translation service. This service will be coordinated by the Beethoven Centre and will start in March 2009 and continue until March 2010. The scheme will aim to provide increased access to information, advice and advocacy on housing and finance issues for Queen’s Park residents
* A basket ball camp at the Moberly Sports Centre for young Queen’s Park residents, which will provide additional activities and services for young people

The Queen’s Park Councillors have also provided an update on two projects which are already underway:

* The Complementary Health project for over 60s is being launched on Tuesday 3rd March, 1 – 4pm, at the Moberly Sports Centre, Kilburn Lane. Sessions will be every Tuesday. For more information contact Rita Taylor on 07865 080 969
* The Real Action literacy project funded classes for 10 Queen’s Park residents, with the undertaking that more would be enrolled if they came forward. The literacy project accepted 15 enrolments, of which 5 completed 16 weeks and the remaining 10 completed a further 80 weeks between them. They have made excellent progress. It normally takes 6-8 weeks to complete a stage. They are given exams at the end of each stage, and only move on to the next stage if they have achieved a good pass. One resident who joined as a near-beginner in early September made a short impromptu speech of complete fluency, correctness and assurance at a recent meeting in Westbourne Ward at which government minister John Denham was present

Queen’s Park Councillor Paul Dimoldenberg, Leader of the Labour Group, said:

“The Ward Budget has been a huge success and has enable us to support a wide range of projects for the benefit of all sections of the community and all age groups. Long may it continue!”

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