Written by Joe Batty, KCSC's Community Development Manager:
"Every year on World Habitat Day, the United Nations asks us to pause and think about where and how we live. It’s a reminder that decent housing isn’t a luxury, it’s a right.
This year feels especially poignant. After eight years as Community Development lead at Kensington and Chelsea Social Council (KCSC), I’m preparing to step away from my role. It’s a moment of transition, and potentially a moment of renewed commitment to what truly matters in community work. My leaving marks what I hope is just a hiatus, in KCSC’s historic role of being both a change, and a place-maker.
From Grenfell’s Shadow to Grassroots Action
When I joined KCSC in October 2017, the atrocity of the Grenfell Tower fire was still viscerally present in memory and in every conversation. The community was traumatised. Trust in institutions was fragile, non-existent. The question before us was: how do you move forward from that kind of rupture?
From the start, my aim was to walk with the community, not over it. To create spaces where people could speak, organise, influence, potentially move towards healing. Over time, that meant being an advocate, facilitator, and connector in a place where trust is scarce but essential.
What We Built, Together
Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of helping bring to life projects that rooted recovery in community power. Some highlights:
- Grenfell Network Group; a cross-community forum bringing charities, residents, and leaders together to shape recovery strategies and hold statutory agencies to account.
- Charter for Public Participation; a policy innovation embedded into the borough’s constitution, giving communities a formal framework to influence planning and housing decisions.
- Power and Participation training; equipping residents and local organisations with practical tools to engage, challenge, and reshape their environment.
- Maxilla Men’s Shed; a vibrant and meaningful space of connection, skill-sharing, and healing.
- Crisis responses; from organising food distribution in the first Covid lockdown to launching a coordinated Cost of Living response, linking advice agencies and foodbanks via a digital referral system.
- And I stood in the background ready to help many nascent projects take hold, it was a febrile but fertile, and inventive time for projects for the first few years after the fire.
- Helping to build the Digital Inclusion Partnership, hosted by RBKC working with many local community groups and regional organisations, coordinating efforts so more support is available for our residents to get online and be able to confidently use the internet.
- Standing with the community as many new campaigns and initiative were started.
Every one of those efforts was shaped by the belief that communities are not passive recipients of change, they are agents of change.
Why This Work Matters, Beyond North Kensington
World Habitat Day is not about structures alone. It's about justice, dignity, and belonging. It speaks to how cities include or exclude people; how power is distributed; how voices are heard.
In North Kensington, we've seen both ends of that spectrum. We’ve witnessed development that ignores those who live there. But we’ve also seen what happens when communities are trusted to lead: confidence grows, resilience becomes collective, and solutions become more equitable. That’s the heart of community development — enabling people to build their own futures.
6 October 2025 Event at Bay 20
I’m honoured to share that KCSC is hosted an event on World Habitat Day, 6 October at Bay 20.
There community members, partners, experts, and voices from within and beyond North Kensington gathered to reflect, challenge, and imagine new paths forward.
Speakers included:
- Public Interest Law Centre (on housing rights & health)
- Richard Lee (Just Space) & Fairville London Lab
- Arantxa Gaba & Isis Amlak (on trauma-informed planning)
- Cordelia Cembrowicz (Keep Kensal Green)
- Tim Oshodi (on self-build, health equity, community-led regeneration)
… and more. (kcsc.org.uk)
I invite you to come, listen, ask, challenge, and connect. Because change only happens when many voices join.
What I’m Taking Forward
Leaving KCSC is bittersweet. North Ken, the people, and the communities have shaped me as much as I've tried to support them.
As I move into the next chapter, I carry with me three core lessons:
- Participation is power. Decisions shaped by those affected are more just and sustainable.
- Resilience is relational. When institutions and communities are connected before crisis, they endure better through it.
- Small spaces matter. The Men’s Shed, a training workshop, a community meeting, these modest spaces carry disproportionate weight as seeds of resilience and hope.
On this World Habitat Day, and especially as I step away from KCSC, my belief is unchanged: the right to a decent home and a safe, inclusive community is not something to be handed down. It’s something we need to fight for and build together.
Let’s build together a future that honours that belief."