Inspiring, Encouraging, Motivating
Lazza: Islington Volunteer of the Year 2023
Lazza: Runner Up Islington Volunteer of the Year 2022
HMHB wins Mayor Civic Award in 2022 for its
"Outstanding" Delivery in the Community"
See below all our recent news.
This includes Health Packs, Ajani courses, Izzwalkz
Fitness sessions, and much more.
HMHB were awarded a Mayor Civic Award in Mar 2022,
HMHB were nominated for Mayor Civic Award in 2023.
Lazza won Islington Volunteer of the Year 2023.
Lazza was runner up for Islington Volunteer of the Year 2022.
Delighted that we are working with users.
To the right, some feedback to our Ajani course.
Please contact us for anything you need.
RE: AJANI HEALTH COURSE
"absolutely life changing course. Clear, unpatronising, friendly, inventive, funny, informative, and crucial approach to self-care, nutrition, and exercise. Lawrence is a gem, and both he and Oliver were born to be communicators, both are highly skilled at imparting information with great humility, humour, and both possess a wealth of knowledge and great soul. They seem to understand how to incorporate these vital life survival skills whilst inside the mind of depression and debilitating anxiety, without ever being anything less than empathetic and caring. Wonderful people. I am so glad I got myself to attend this course."
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YES: You can see the certificate.
Lazza was chosen to be
Islington Volunteer of the Year 2023.
He was runner up in 2022.
And won Mayor Civic Award for our delivery during the pandemic in 2022.
This is a momentous achievement for both Lazza and for Healthy Minds, Healthy Bods.
At a ceremony on the 1 November at Union Chapel, Upper Street, with over 300 people put forward, Lazza had the most nominations from different people praising his work and his project. Our delivery in Islington and beyond is extensive and has received incredible feedback.
"Nobody deserved it more"
Jeremy Corbyn
HMHB: Lazza wins Award at Volunteer of the Year 2022
Lazza was one of four people out of nearly five hundred nominees to be commended at the 2002 Islington Volunteer Of the Year Awards. Wow!
HMHB Wins Mayor Civic Award 2022, and was officially nominated in 2023
For our "Outstanding Work in the Community during the pandemic", HMHB, nominated by local Councillor Sue Lukes, won a Mayor Civic Award. Here is Lawrence picking up our certificate. HMHB is extremely proud of this wonderful accolade.
health packs
Our Health Packs have gone from strength to strength since we started back in 2020.
Those 50 weekly packs, eventually being 26 pages each, (PDFs on this site), turned into 36 page monthly packs in 2021.
We then revised them in 2022 with 10 issues.
Now in 2023/2024 we are producing 40 page monthly health packs, focusing on Mindset, Nutrition, Exercise, and Health, with recipes, quizzes, medical research, HMHB news, stretches, games, and more.
The 40 page January 2025 Issue is now on this site.
Do check out PDF copies on our website pages.
recipe page
Lazza started cooking for the health packs, producing recipes he had never created before, to show that it is never too late to learn new skills.
He has now produced over 100 recipes, and there is a page with the PDF of those recipes, together with accompanying photographs as evidence of those first tries.
This page has the first 100. A second page is being prepared with the next ones.
HMHB is hoping to interest a publisher with printing a book around this venture.
Do try the recipes out at home. I can assure you that they are all delicious in their own way.
We are excited to say a book of the first 150 recipes is being produced for sale. More news on that soon.
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exercise sessions
HMHB is currently taking part in several FREE exercise sessions - we welcome newcomers.
Tuesday: 9:30am
Highbury Leisure Centre with our terrific group.
Hour session in the main studio.
Friday: 9:45am
This with Healthy Generations and PT Sarah at the very top of Highbury Fields on the play area. An hour long.
Saturday: 8:45am.
Sobell Leisure Centre.
A 45 minute studio exercise session to get the weekend started with a bang.
Please note this session is currently on hold - we are hoping to restart in January 2025.
These sessions are accessible to people from 20 to 90. We adapt to allow everyone a chance. We can have disabled people, but cannot accommodate severely disabled people, sadly. But we can signpost you on to other relevant local services.
funding
We would not be able to do our activities without funding, and we have received various grants over the years for our work.
We have been successful for Awards for All Funding with Lottery, as well as a completed a Video to launch a bid for salary and core funding for three years.
For year 2022-2023, following Lawrence's wins at Volunteer of Year Awards and Mayor Civic, our funding money almost doubled, and we were able to increase our intervention.
Lawrence is hoping to get a record amount of funding in this year - 2023-2024 - including some salary money, and continues to apply around the sector.
zoom
HMHB has purchased Zoom. and are exploring how we can make use of this useful product.
In the past we have done Zumba lessons (as the picture above shows) and we currently use it for our Quiz night (as per the green entry two slots over).
I am sure we can get more use out of it, although we do prefer face to face events.
AJANI COURSE
Our Mind-set Course has received a lot of amazing feedback over the years.
We have completed
courses with
The Stuart Low Trust, AGE UK, Better Lives, and with Finsbury Park Job Centre.
We also worked with Kentish Town Job Centre, Change Grow Live, Haringey Well-Being Network, and with Sotheby Mews with HMHB users and Eagle Project.
HMHB completed courses in Islington, Camden, Haringey, and Hackney..
We have also worked with Single Homeless Project, Anchor Hanover Housing, and other projects.
Many reports at the base of this website.
We are now approaching the DWP as we especially want to work with the Unemployed.
quiz night
HMHB started our very own quiz night, which is accessible for people of all ages and abilities as very little actual intelligence is required.
It is more about having some fun with friends.
A Zoom link is sent out to people, so if you would like to participate please contact us. We have a terrific laugh, and there have been some cracking answers so far.
Quiz: every Thursday evening at 7:30pm
Clissold Park Health Walk
HMHB have been walking in Clissold Park since November 2016, and only stopped for the Covid Pandemic.
Our Thursday walk (leaving from Highbury Grange Medical Practice at 11am) is every week, and we launched two new walks in 2023, in Finsbury Park and Highbury Fields following funding from the London Mayor
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Zumba
Our fantastic outdoor Zumba session, licensed by Islington Council, has its usual spot near the top of the main field on Highbury Fields.
We have been running Zumba for over four years, with our extremely talented and fabulous Qualified Zumba Instructor, Karina.
Due to an unfortunate injury, our sessions have been on hold, but as soon as we can get them going again, and we are looking to partner with other organisations, we will let people know.
social outings
HMHB have been running outings for quite some time, and have visited some extraordinary venues, and experienced some terrific exhibitions and events.
We have attended the theatre, marvelled at museums, laughed at comedy, walked with friends, viewed gorgeous paintings, but mostly enjoyed each other's company.
Most of our events are Free, although we do sometimes ask for a contribution towards the costs, so we can do more events in the future.
Recent events included London Zoo, Kew Gardens Globe Theatre, Sadlers Wells, Francis Crick Institute, and the Tate Modern.
Highbury fields health walk
With the help from the Walking and Cycling Fund, we have a walk in Highbury Fields, every Wednesday at 9:30am leaving from outside the Leisure Centre.
This is in partnership with the wonderful Better Gyms and Islington Central Medical Centre.
Do join us.
Finsbury Park Health Walk
Our newest health walk is in Finsbury Park, meeting from outside the Lidl on Seven Sisters Road every Monday at 9:30am.
This means we now have three weekly health walks, the only project doing that in three different boroughs: Islington, Hackney, and Haringey.
We have to send enormous thanks to the London Mayor Walking/Cycling Fund for their belief in us and their understanding.