Loughborough Junction Action Group (LJAG) is a local charity with an ambition to make Loughborough Junction a great place to live and work. We oversee the work of The Platform Café, Grove Adventure Playground and Loughborough Farm, fundraise for this work, run a local neighbourhood forum and participate in a range of activities to ensure the voices of local residents are heard.
We are looking for new trustees to join us in overseeing, supporting and developing the work of our dynamic projects and our wider work.
Do you live or work locally and want to contribute your lived experience or professional expertise?
We want all the richness of this diverse neighbourhood to be represented on our board. You may already be involved in one of our projects, have children who play at Grove Adventure Playground, be a customer in the Platform Cafe or be involved in the Loughborough Farm. You might be new to the area of have lived here for years and have more time on your hands now.
As well as new trustees with local knowledge, we are looking for people with specific skills including HR, safeguarding, impact and evaluation, IT and business development.
What we ask of you: time commitment
Trustees meet four times a year, sometimes in person and sometimes online, and are involved in discussion by email. Overall this will take up about three hours/month of your time.
What we offer you
We are a small, friendly group of trustees who will make you very welcome. We will offer training to help you understand your trustee role, equality and diversity training.
To find out more
Contact Kathy Jones [email protected] or Anthea Masey [email protected] to find out more.
More about our projects
Since 2013 Loughborough Farm has worked with over 700 residents as volunteers, including refugees, many with lived experience of long-term unemployment or mental and physical health issues, unstable housing or marginalisation. The Farm is also the setting for our most recent project, Seedlings, which supports parents/carers of babies and toddlers (0-5 years) to ensure connections to nature are made at an early age.
Since we rescued and re-opened Grove Adventure Playground in 2018, the playground has offered free supervised play and organised activities for over 400 disadvantaged 6-14-year-olds. Of 270 children attending our summer 2024 play scheme, 35 have Special Educational Needs & Disabilities. We have previously delivered a short breaks SEND contract with Lambeth Council and, while we no longer deliver that contract, we continue to provide inclusive play opportunities and respite care for families by working in partnership with Whippersnappers. At Grove, we also offer a structured volunteering/work experience programme for 15 young people aged 13+ who build their skills and gain work experience by shadowing our play-workers.
In its first year our employability programme running from The Platform Café supported 13 young people facing multiple challenges (46% reported a disability or health condition). As a community business, we offer a supportive environment where people with various barriers can grow and develop at their own pace. This is perfect for people who experience additional barriers to employment or have particularly low confidence – for example, we have supported people with Autism such as E, who was referred by Groundwork’s training programme, and said “at the beginning it was a bit awkward. I am not a very social character; I tend to keep to myself. But the more I worked here, the more I grew more confident and assertive, and felt comfortable enough to be myself”.
