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 Finsbury Park Homeless Families Project We met up in Finsbury Park and travelled together to the Embankment where we got on a boat. The children were super excited and did not stop taking photos. At Tower Hill we got off the boat and looked at the Tower of London. We then boarded a double decker sightseeing bus and travelled around, taking in the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben and Buckingham Palace. We ended our route at Oxford Circus where we all had lunch in a place chosen by the children. During lunch we wrote messages on the back of the postcards with the 2 girls choosing to write to Ardit, their cousin back in Albania that they have not yet met.
 Boi who has difficulty walking, was asked if there was anywhere she might want to visit, and she chose the nearby Finsbury Park. She dressed up beautifully to be photographed for the postcards. We walked around on a cold but beautiful afternoon. She posed on a park bench with a lonely dog. We then had some tea together. She wrote a postcard to a friend back in Liberia.
 PWAF/Islington Asylum Team We started by meeting up in North London and got the tube to the St Paul's area. The group had decided to go to Tate Modern as it was something none of them had done before. We were lucky with the weather, which was beautiful. From early on Christian decided to pose lying down in public spaces. The first time, on the Millennium Bridge on the way to the Tate. We all took lots of photos of each other and laughed with Christian and at the funny art piece not really understood inside the Tate’s Turbine Hall. To do things "like the English" we went to a pub and had fish and chips and then walked to Trafalgar Square where we visited the National Gallery. Christian laid on the floor again although we were forbidden to take photos.
 The fact that they live just in the outskirts of the city has not made a difference. David, Mahdi, Anne Marie, Bashir and Abdel did not know the City of London, just like many Londoners also don't. We chose a special day to hang around there, the Lord Mayor's Show. They all took great pictures of the people parading and of the buildings in the city. Everyone's favorite was the Gherkin (Swiss RE). We all had lunch in the group’s fast food place of choice and walked early to the Millennium Bridge via St Paul's to reserve our place amongst the crowds, waiting for the fire works. Despite the low temperature we all lasted till the end and took loads photos.
 Islington Young Parents Project It’s normally very hard to use the public transport with push chairs and all things babies require, so the young mothers tend to stay around their area of North London. When talking about places to visit most of them, specially Jade thought it would be nice to see the London Aquarium and take photos of the kids in there. It was a good option as the weather was horrible that day. We had a bit of lunch and then stayed inside for a long time, with the children running around, nappies being changed and loads of photos being taken. The young women took really great photos of their babies and toddlers, allowed them to run around and put their hands in the water. All the postcards were written for their families, especially grannies and granddads from the children's fathers side.
 Hilldrop Poetry Group A lot of the women in this group had been to some well known places in London. They were excited not only with the taking pictures side of the project but very much with the writing as they are a "poetry group". We discovered that no one in the group had ever visited Borough Market so we should go there. We started at St Paul's, stopped at the Millennium Bridge and of course the Globe Theatre, an inspiration for anyone wanting to write poems. Borough Market was an inspiration too, with it's colours, tastes and a smells.We stayed for hours, touching and photographing everything. The little poems that were written on the back of the cards reflect the day.
 The Factory Community Project – Women’s Group On a sunny but chilly morning we all met in Stoke Newington. With several children of all ages and what seemed like not enough adults to look after them, we went to Victoria to pick up a Double Decker bus. From there we went to the Natural History museum, although most of the children were convinced that this was the Science Museum. The children were taking great pictures of themselves on the floor "imitating dinosaurs" when some of the ladies took me to the museum's bathroom, opened their bags and showed me 2 changes of traditional clothes they had brought for them and for their children. One of the families changed twice to pose in front of different dinosaurs. It made it all into an even bigger and happy event. We were the noisiest group at the Museum canteen at lunch. Later we took a bus to Piccadilly to see the Christmas lights. We took yet another bus to Islington where we sat in a cafe and wrote postcards, to family and to themselves, in the form of a diary or just drawings. It was a long fun day.
 Richard Cloudesley School We were talking about places to visit, somewhere where they had never been, and were curious about.... someone in the corner of the room says "Arsenal Stadium" in a quiet voice. Immediately all faces are lit in smiles of approval. The young people wanted to see a place that not many have seen yet. We all felt so lucky when we were not only given a special tour but discovered that not even the Queen had been yet as staff were preparing for the official opening by the monarch. Everywhere was grand, clean and beautiful but the favourite place was by far the changing rooms, where all young people could imagine their adored players concentrating and relaxing. We all took photos of each other, one by one posing with their chosen official T-shirt. We were then offered tea, biscuits and autographs by former Arsenal and England legend, Kenny Sansom who was accompanying us in the tour.
All Change Arts Limited was established in Islington in 1985. It is a registered charity (no. 293972) and a company limited by guarantee (registered in England no. 1964724).
All Change uses the arts to promote social inclusion and community cohesion. www.allchangearts.org
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