An Artist's Thoughts: Toynbee Hall, Mother Clucker, & "Slum" Tour of London

Today was a FULL day!!!!! At 11 AM we had a sit down discussion with a man named Christopher (who's in charge of the $$s), and he told us a great deal about about the foundation that was laid by Henrietta Barnett and her husband Samuel Barnett for Toynbeehall.

This information is just copy and pasted from the web site about there vision:
To eradicate all forms of poverty.
Our strategic aims

To increase financial inclusion
To increase access to justice
To improve people’s wellbeing, opportunities and social networks
To build a strong local community
To build a strong and sustainable organization

Alongside these aims we have 4 cross-cutting objectives:

Mitigating the impact of welfare reform, monitoring and evaluating impact and changes in demand for services, and identifying ways in which we can mitigate the impact of welfare reform and support our community through these changes
Becoming a Digital pioneer – maximising the potential of a digital society to improve our services, empower our community and tackle poverty and isolation
Becoming more local –strengthening Toynbee Hall’s connections to our local community and East London, building greater networks and cross sector relationships to achieve our aims
Demonstrating impact – becoming more user-centred and holistic, achieving excellence and demonstrating our impact

Our core values

We believe:

That society benefits from diversity, and we aim to support people’s rights to live free of discrimination, hate and prejudice.
That people should be empowered with the knowledge to enforce their rights.
In involving service users in the development, delivery and evaluation of our services to ensure the continued improvement and relevance of our work.
That volunteering strengthens the communities we work with. It enriches the quality of our services by providing volunteers with the opportunity to learn and develop through giving back.
In supporting and encouraging the personal and professional development of our staff and volunteers.
That by sharing lessons of our work with the local community we help them to tackle social problems and advocate for their own needs.
That by learning from and gathering evidence about the impact of local action and programs we will influence national policy.
That we can make a greater impact and achieve better outcomes for people by working in partnership and collaborating with partner agencies; both professional bodies and the community.
In the importance of sustaining the environment; as an organization we are committed and will continually strive to take positive action to become greener.
All people should be treated with respect. As an organization we value diversity and promote equality and know that we cannot understand difference unless we are diverse ourselves.

http://www.toynbeehall.org.uk/our-vision

This year is their 130th anniversary!!! They've helped so many poverty stricken people and families since 1884!!!! The room that we met it was the only part of the original building that was left standing after World War II, with the table we sat around was also an original piece of furniture too!!! It was beautiful!!!

After Toynbee Hall we went to lunch before the tour that was soon to follow. We went to a little market place that had a bunch of different things.... one of them was this:

Next we went on a historical walk through London. It was interesting to learn that the Jewish people were kicked out of London for a period of time, then when London's financial prospects were crashing the royals invited them back into London because their trades (dominantly in silk weaving) brought a flow of prospects for the country. It was a little shocking (but not alarming) to learn that a young girl by the age of 12-14 years old had to go out and start earning a wage (via prostitution), and young boys by the age of six could crawl their ways through the sewage tunnels to get around/working. Which is why the mortality of a child during these times was so high.

The last h ouse on the right has been kept a house with no electricity or running water. It is a spot that is used for filming on a regular basis. The other homes along the street are said to go for £400,000 if not more to purchase