We are organising a community conference and celebration and would like to invite you to take part in this exciting event.

Along with stalls, food, music, dance and a mini-film festival we are also having a mini-conference or our very own Hackney 'social forum'.

Amongst confirmed speakers are Roland Muldoon who will speak on Saving the Hackney Empire, Cathy Bird on making Hackney a Sanctuary Borough, and a speaker from the Sam Hallam is innocent campaign.

We will be hosting several workshops including:

1. Greening Hackney: an environmental forum

2. Migrants, refugees, asylum seekers -

3. Launching our Workers Advice Project

4. Hackney elders

5. Return to study: learning, skills and education

6. Youth in Hackney

If you love Hackney's vibrancy and diversity you will love this event. It is so unique, we are having difficulty naming it. It will be part conference, with a range of speakers and debates, and part a simple celebration.

There will be fun, with performances from local community groups, there will be food, and there will be massage. There will be performances from a choir, as well as a drum and a dance troupe.

Unusually, the event will have participation from a cross section of the local political groups. The Labour party, Lib Dems, Greens and Communists are all attending with stalls and hope to convince you of their respective positions and will provide you with an opportunity to tell them what your priorities and concerns are.

If you are sick of headlines portraying teenagers as sinister gangsters, then you will have the opportunity to listen to them discussing the problems they face and the solutions they feel are necessary in a specific session on youth and the future.

As to the pre-teens, a local business that runs children's parties has committed to put on a range of events from face painting to balloon art to story telling.

There will also be a session on older people, their needs, their priorities and their resources: the retired often have tremendous skills to share with community organisations.

We will hear from cleaners who are seeking to unionise their industry and there will be a free 'workers advice session', bring your problem, listen to a general discussion and then have a one-to-one advice surgery.

There will also be a discussion on the future of our public services in the light of the anticipated cuts in funding post the general election. What do we as a community think of the proposals to cut back on our services?

While we are keen that the day is fun, relaxing and informative, we also hope that some shared objectives will emerge. One theme we are keen to address is the demonisation of refugees and asylum seekers. We are grateful that a speaker from the national 'City of Sanctuary' movement will be speaking at the conference on how communities can enrich themselves by simply opening their community organisations to the new arrivals.

We will of course be discussing how our communities can continue to work together to address issues of concern.

It is going to be a fantastic event, are you going to be part of it?

To find out more and to register please see: http://celebratehackney.eventbrite.com/ [1]