CAMDEN IMAGINES PARTICIPANT BLOGS
So Yusuf, what are your dreams for this year?
Journal entry from Yusuf Bahroozi, a resident of one of Camden’s housing estates in 2025 — by Ododo Dafé
This blog is part of a series of blogs written by the participants of the Camden Imagines programme. This eight week training introduced council officers and public servants to the skills of collective imagination and horizontal leadership to empower them to become agents of change in the borough.
Ododo works in housing at Camden Council as the head of housing transformation. In this blog she reflects on how thinking into the future on the programme helped her to think differently about transformation.
“It led to me becoming more involved in my community and I suppose in the big and small politics of life, of our lives. Things have been happening.”
Starting from an ‘Our Space’ meeting on a local council estate, Yusuf has been involved in various ‘Our Space’ activities in Camden neighbourhoods.
Most recently, he became part of an inter-borough Imagination Activism group, where he was introduced to the activity of journaling. Here, he is happy to share the journal entry he made on Monday 25 August 2025, the day after his 18th birthday.
I didn’t sleep too well last night. I’m a mix of excitement and trepidation because this week I’m moving out of the 2-bedroom flat I’ve lived in since I was born with my parents, grandma and siblings — currently just my two younger brothers. We’re lucky my twin sister, Tasmina, moved out last year to go to university in Bristol. I’m happy I’ll have a room of my own, but really worried too.
I needed some water and quietly went to the kitchen, through the sitting room where my grandmother, our manani, sleeps. The noise woke her. She asked if I’d enjoyed my 18th, and said “So Yusuf, what are your dreams for this year?”
I loved the question.
A few years ago, my older sister, Nahid, had been volunteering on the estate — helping with social media publicity for ‘Our Space’ events, fundraising and admin. I think the name ‘Our Space’ was coined around that time for gardens, bits of land and community buildings on council estates that were sort of given over to residents to create indoor and outdoor spaces for community good. Remember, there had been that massive energy price increase in 2022, people were struggling financially, there were lots of strikes and talk about how things had never been so bad…
Anyway, around that time, Nahid had been talking for weeks about something to do with imagination. People were coming together with Camden Council to imagine a better future. She said a council person had said they were all being encouraged to ‘Dare to dream’ and to be bold about the changes they wanted to see — but I never really paid her any mind because things never change.
One afternoon she came home buzzing about a discussion happening the following week — she thought I should go. It was about what boys and men could do to make their daughters, sisters, wives, mothers, aunties, grandmothers, nieces, all women, feel safer in our neighbourhoods.
She ran off a list of some of the people who were going, Declan, Ayo, Leroy, Tom, Mustafa, Ifeanyi and Brian — a few were our neighbours’ Dads, and some of the boys had gone to my school but they were older than me. I didn’t fancy it.
My manani said that Leroy and Brian were such “nice boys” and had helped her wellbeing group build a flexible shelter over a lovely outdoor space neighbours had created for teaching Thai Chi, yoga and other exercise classes. She loved using her skills to help people on our estates, said it kept her mind active and her body young. I didn’t really get it, but she mentioned that Leroy and Brian would be great community ambassadors when they finished.
Forwarding to today, in 2025, I now know that Leroy and Brian had gone to that discussion about how men’s behaviours could change in order for women to feel safe, got into the whole imaginations thing, and then had later gone to a session about making our homes better on the estates.
“He talked about all the inspiring work happening on council estates and in Camden generally, with local people acting as germinators, activists, champions.”
The council had been going through some difficulties fixing up our homes a few years ago — something to do with Brexit, post-Covid backlog of work, massive inflation, and not having enough people to do the work. I can’t remember the details but Brian and Leroy ended up on an apprenticeship programme that was about getting people on our estates trained up to do handyperson jobs and repairs. It has meant that our homes are in much better nick now, and people don’t wait a long time for repairs. The idea had come from a woman on an estate in Kilburn who, during lockdown, had gone on YouTube to get tips for doing her own repairs and ideas for doing up her flat with her daughters’ help. They then helped a new family who moved onto their estate. The woman had been at one of the imagination sessions at their ‘Our Space’ and asked “What if, as council tenants, we helped the council at this tricky time by doing as much of the work on our homes as we can, and they helped us by skilling up more of us, and offering some of us jobs? My girls probably know more about plumbing and decorating than most people in my block.”
Like I say, I didn’t really listen to my sister back then, but one day last year, Brian came to our flat with an older woman — my Dad had called Camden Council that morning about a leak. Brian started chatting. He talked about all the inspiring work happening on council estates and in Camden generally, with local people acting as germinators, activists, champions… and he was surprised I didn’t know all this already. He mentioned that there were ongoing conversations about ending homelessness, and a couple coming up — one in Somers Town about what if all council tenants lived in the right size housing; and another one in Hampstead about what if we found an easy way of re-ing.
“Whating?” I asked in complete puzzlement. I was fascinated, eager to hear more.
He laughed and said “Mate, you know, it’s like all that stuff on reuse and recycle we did back in school, but supercharged. Stuff about having as little waste as possible, and re-using loads, and understanding how much of earth’s resources is used in the recycling process, and supporting people locally to do more and to do better, and helping local businesses in a circular economy type way. You know — re-upholster, re-donate, re-imagine, re-gift, re-purpose, re-fix, return, re, re, re…. Even stuff about reusing materials from the homes that were demolished on our estates, and making sure that when new homes are built the materials can also be reused in the future. It’s big man. Tell you what, I’ll send you the link, why don’t you log into it next week? Or better still, come with me.”
It wasn’t until months later that I understood the re-use bit, but living in my cramped flat I was interested in the ‘right-size’ homes one, and arranged to go with Brian. It was lit. As we walked into the ‘Our Space’ building I recognised some of my sister’s posters on the walls, and took in some of the information on doors, on cards etc — things with headings such as ‘Our choir’, ‘Our veg plot’, ‘Our swap shop’, ‘Our compassion for ourselves and those who come after us’, ‘Our ambition’, ‘Our fix-up and repair space’, ‘Our energy, our soul and our love… and some new things on me like 4th sector this and that…
The discussion that Saturday on council tenants living in homes that meet their needs in a dignified way was interesting — different types of people, different perspectives, and so many ideas. It led to me becoming more involved in my community and I suppose in the big and small politics of life, of our lives. Things have been happening. The council and local people have been helping people with unused bedrooms move into smaller homes to free up homes for people living in overcrowded conditions. Brian and I chat a lot now, and he’s so proud about doing up homes knowing some of the people moving in, and how they sometimes leave little welcome notes for them. There’s been some movement on ending homelessness — it’s by no means ended yet, but already there seems to be less people on the streets, and I heard Camden was the first Council in London to stop using expensive commercial hotels.
I’ve been involved in discussions over the past year that led to lots of housing investors and landlords being encouraged to be part of an ethical lettings movement in Camden. It’s through this scheme that I’m now involved with imagination activists in neighbouring councils, and that I’m moving into a flat on a nearby estate that had been sold under the Right to Buy years ago to someone who now lives in Spain. The rent is massively below market rent levels, I get some independence, share with someone I know, and it gives my brothers a little more space at home.
So, back to this morning, as I was thinking about my manani’s question, she told me to hold that thought while she nipped downstairs. A few minutes later, still in her pyjamas, she popped back from the community garden with some fresh mint and rosemary for her tea, and a small bowl of berries for our porridge.
I told her I have two main dreams for this year. To be happy, and to keep on imagining.
This blog is part of a series written by Camden’s Imagination Activists as part of their Imagination Activism programme called “Camden Imagines”. To read the other blogposts in the series, please visit this link.
