Phoenix Court Works

Thank you SO much everyone who has supported our crowdfund campaign by pre-ordering our gorgeous soup cook book …coming out in October. It’s not too late to join this wonderful crowd too….as we’ve set a new stretch target of £75,000…please help us spread the word as it would be amazing to hit that!

Thank you to all our partners who supported our Great Big Baby Shower, by hosting one of our donation treasure chests in your offices, making it even easier for people to donate their fab pre-loved baby goods. Pictured: one of our chests at Phoenix Court Works #ItTakesAVillage

A couple of weeks ago we hosted our very first work experience week at Phoenix Court in partnership with Camden Learning & Camden Council. A snapshot of the week: 🧑🎓 6 Year 12 students 🏫 3 local schools in Camden ✍️ 14 hours of workshops 👏 13 Phoenix Court team members involved - 50% of our core team  🦾 1 Portfolio company visit - thank you Automata 🙏 🙋♀️ 1 Founder Q&A - thank you Christopher Kahler at Kinnu 💯 100% attendance and punctuality across the week 💯 100% of the students say they want to continue to learn about Venture Capital and are inspired to either become an investor, operator, founder or LP We really enjoyed hosting this wonderful group of students from Regent High School, Haverstock School (H3 Federation) and The UCL Academy, and we’re looking forward to staying connected as they continue their journey into Year 13 and beyond 🚀 Special thanks to Phoenix Court Works, Newton Venture Program, Camden Learning, Speakers for Schools and all involved in the planning and programming. Look forward to hosting again in 2025 🙏 Finally, if you’re a business and have the capacity to host a group of local students at some point during the year it really is a beneficial and enjoyable experience for both the students and business, and a great way to engage with schools and young people in your local neighbourhood 👍

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We are honoured to have a piece in Phoenix Court Works' recent magazine, featuring writing from the Somers Town community and neighbours, including Camden Council, The Francis Crick Institute, Refugee Community Kitchen, Little Village, New Horizon Youth Centre and many more. Our article, 'De/Valuing the Arts', sits alongside some beautiful pieces that shine a light on the important work being done in our local area. From 'Radical Histories & Radical Change' by the Somers Town Museum, to 'Paying it Forwards' by Coram's Fields, the magazine contains urgent and important calls to action and reflection. We have some copies at Scene & Heard HQ, for those in the area who are interested in finding out more! Phoenix Court Rachel Johnson Natasha Shaw #PhoenixCourt #PhoenixCourtWorks #BuildingCommunity #Placemaking #CommunityBuilding #ThrivingNeighbourhoods #CSR

Now for the moment we've all been waiting for! There is just one week to go till the Somers Town festival, a lovely intergenerational event that kicks off summer every year. I am lucky to work with most of the local heroes who make Somers Town and put on this great event: Diana Foster, Somers Town Community Association, Salima Abdallah, Jodie Allen, Somers Gallery, Rachel Johnson, Think and Do, Floricanto, the Cock tavern, Kindle Corner, New Horizon Youth Centre, Lifeafterhummus Community Benefit Society, Food For All Hare Krishna, Global Generation, P21 Gallery and many more! https://lnkd.in/e25gc8Pw

Do you care about nature in Camden?  Ahead of the general election in July, a climate and nature hustings for Holborn & St Pancras constituency will be held at St Pancras New Church (Euston Road, NW1 2BA) on Thursday 27th June, at 19:00. Candidates for Holborn & St Pancras will be given the opportunity to answer questions around the theme of climate and nature from their constituents. The themes for the questions are: Fossil fuels and the just transition; Nature, green spaces and wildlife; Housing, cost of living and energy bills; Travel and transport and local economy; and Food, health and wellbeing. To register for a ticket and submit a question to be asked on the night, please follow this link: https://lnkd.in/eQHxHbup The climate is changing and so must we! 

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If you wanted an alternative perspective to London Tech Week’s usual conversations, you could find it at Phoenix Court yesterday. 🏠 At Phoenix Court we like to say where you are is who you are. Our mission is to be a good neighbour and to help people fulfill their potential, partnering with organisations and supporting local initiatives in our neighbourhood here in Somers Town, Camden and beyond. 🧑💻 Yesterday’s Phoenix Court Works event focused on what it means to be part of a progressive neighbourhood and what more we can do to share the benefits of innovation with everyone. Our co-founder Saul Klein kicked the event off, explaining how Phoenix Court Works is baked into the economics of our business so that we can partner with organisations in and around Somers Town over the long term. 🔬 Next, co-COO Catherine Lenson hosted a panel of place-based innovators from across the  country. We heard from Patrick Page Fallon from Bristol Science Creates Incubators and the University of Manchester’s Professor of Innovation, Lou Cordwell OBE Cordwell, as well as Kev Dhaliwal who recently celebrated the opening of the Future Institutes in Edinburgh. We were delighted to be joined by Greater Cambridge Impact Fund’s Sara Allen, Nicole Vandeneijnde from Global Generation and Ella who is a Somers Town resident and Global Generation Fellow : https://lnkd.in/eE48ccet 😃 Our panel discussed:  - the meaning of place-based innovation - challenges in shifting from centralised to community-led innovation - the benefits that come from fully understanding the needs of those we’re building services and technologies for We learned that wherever you are in the country, every neighbourhood has particular needs but sharing challenges and learnings can help us all. Following the discussion, Mathu Jeyaloganathan from the Camden Community Wealth Fund highlighted how Camden Council is putting many of the takeaways from the panel into practice. 📖 Phoenix Court Works’ Rachel Johnson concluded the session by introducing the latest in a series of Phoenix Court folios and the first Phoenix Court Works edition, which features some of the incredible organisations in our neighbourhood sharing their stories in their own words. 🥘 Finally, it was time for lunch prepared by local charity Cook for Good, set up by Robinne Collie and Karen Mattison MBE to bring people together over a love and passion for cooking and community. Also thank you to Jane Myat for speaking about the Circle of Soup project.

Join us tomorrow at Phoenix Court to talk about the importance of place-based innovation! We, at Phoenix Court Works, invite our friends, partners and neighbours to a dynamic event where we’ll explore the power of progressive neighbourhoods with contributions from experts from Manchester, Edinburgh, Bristol and Cambridge, as well as London.  Hosted by Rachel Johnson of our Phoenix Court Works foundation you can hear from leading figures from Somers Town and beyond, and network with the passionate community of changemakers committed to building thriving neighborhoods. Limited tickets available here - https://lnkd.in/euxXm7Jh P.S. Enjoy a delicious networking lunch hosted by @Cook for Good!