“I’m having tea with the Mayor of Islington this week!”
It’s very special to be able to share this kind of news with the local people I support as a community artist and organiser based in Islington. The young people I’d shared this with were just as excited as me to hear a Mayor had invited me for tea at his Parlour with the Islington Giving Alumni. Together, we looked him up online with heaps of curiosity.
Known as ‘the people’s Mayor’, Councillor Jason Jackson was sworn in as the Mayor of Islington in May 2025. As the first Nigerian-born Mayor of Islington who’s lived in the borough for over two decades, Cllr Jackson is grounded in the everyday life of the region as well as the challenges many residents face, and is a passionate advocate for social entrepreneurship, racial equality and mental health.
“The young people I’d shared this with were just as excited as me to hear a Mayor had invited me for tea at his Parlour with the Islington Giving Alumni. Together, we looked him up online with heaps of curiosity.”
Every year, the Mayor of Islington chooses a charity to champion while in office – and this year, Mayor Jason Jackson has chosen Islington Giving. Not long after his appointment, he invited the charity’s Grantmaking Alumni to have tea with him at his Parlour in Islington Town Hall.
A few days after receiving my invitation, I walk into the Town Hall and meet the rest of the Islington Giving Alumni in the lobby. We are led upstairs and into a room with an array of sandwiches, cakes, juice and tea, and chat excitedly as we pile our plates with sustenance.
“It feels good to get recognition for our work.’, one Alumni member says to me, and I nod my head in agreement.”
When the Mayor arrives, he greets us all with a handshake and leads us into his Parlour. The seven of us sit on various chairs and sofas, facing Cllr Jackson at his desk, and begin by introducing ourselves and the work we’ve done with Islington Giving.
One Alumni member starts off by sharing how her involvement in the Carer’s Panel empowered her to use her lived experiences as a mother and carer of a child with autism to help decide how funding should support other unpaid carers in the borough.
As we go around sharing the various resident grantmaking panels we’ve participated in, I’m reminded of how far Islington Giving has come in including local people in shaping funding decisions that support and strengthen our communities. Islington Giving pioneered its first resident-led grantmaking panel in 2018 with the Young Grant Makers pilot. Since then, it has embedded participatory grantmaking into its core approach and helped shift philanthropic models across London toward greater inclusion and community leadership.
“I’d worked as a Community Researcher for a peer-led research project gathering insights to inform Islington Giving’s funding priorities, and as an Alumni Storyteller, interviewing and writing articles about local community organisations for Islington Giving’s blog.”
When the time comes for me to tell Cllr Jackson about my work with Islington giving, I have plenty to share. As well as participating in the Make It Happen panel, I’d worked as a Community Researcher for a peer-led research project gathering insights to inform Islington Giving’s funding priorities, and as an Alumni Storyteller, interviewing and writing articles about local community organisations for Islington Giving’s blog. In addition, Islington Giving has provided funding to Allie’s Art Club, an Islington-based community arts organisation that I’d set up and led since 2021.
“The Mayor is moved to tears, and we sit with him in this tender moment, witnessing his humanity. Today, we got to see that he was not just the Mayor of Islington, but a man with his own hopes, fears, longings and losses. Today, we got to meet a fellow member of a community we are proud to belong to.”
As we discuss our work and concerns for the borough, the Mayor listens and responds attentively. He shares his concerns for mental health, particularly for Black men, and the work he’s done to pioneer the Young Black Men’s Mental Health Programme. Mayor Jason Jackson’s activism around mental health stems from his own lived experience and a deep understanding of how stigma often prevents people from accessing the support they need.
Towards the end of our visit, one Alumni member named Deannia reads aloud a heart-warming poem she wrote about Cllr Jackson, describing his journey of overcoming adversity and becoming a Mayor who truly stands with the people. The Mayor is moved to tears, and we sit with him in this tender moment, witnessing his humanity. Today, we got to see that he was not just the Mayor of Islington, but a man with his own hopes, fears, longings and losses. Today, we got to meet a fellow member of a community we are proud to belong to. Today, we got to meet a fellow member of a community we are proud to belong to.
The next week, I’m back facilitating the same group of young people I’d shared the news with about the Mayor’s invitation for tea. ‘He was a wonderful man’, I tell them, and go through all the highlights of the visit. I smile to myself, recognising our shared humanity and efforts to stand with our communities.
Lydia Rose is a multidisciplinary artist and cultural organiser based in North London, whose mission is to build life-affirming relations and systems through radical creativity and collaboration.
Links:
htps://www.islingtontribune.co.uk/article/were-together-even-in-tough-times
htps://islingtongiving.org.uk/islington-giving-has-been-chosen-as-cllr-jason-jacksons- islington-mayors-charity-%F0%9F%8E%89%F0%9F%92%9C/
htps://www.thinknpc.org/resource-hub/place/case-study-islington-giving/
htps://www.local.gov.uk/case-studies/islington-improving-mental-health-young-black-men
