Octopus Community Network

Octopus Community Network (Octopus) is a mutual collaboration between 14 of Islington's largest multi-purpose community centres. They collaborate to co-produce and co-deliver programmes, projects and activities informed by local communities.

Octopus received funding for their 'Relish Embellish Cafe', which delivered a series of replicable community-based participatory workshops that creatively challenged textile consumption. These were delivered through a collaboration of five multi-purpose community centres in Islington. Octopus Community Network is developing as a Social Action Hub and a key element of this is to outreach to and engage Islington’s diverse communities in the role of ‘Community Organiser’. Embedding a Community Organising approach into the design and delivery of the Relish Embellish project ensures that people have the know-how and capability to take the ‘Toolkit’ produced and use it in other areas of Islington, supported by their Network of 15 multi-purpose community centres. 

As part of the project they ran a Christmas jumper upcycling competition to engage families with waste prevention. By the end of the project, 92 residents had engaged with the workshops and over 200 families were directly reached through the Christmas jumper campaign. 

For more information on Octopus see their website, or their Instagram.