Community Partners
A key part of the Air is Kin Methodology is directed by our relations to communities addressing the health impacts of air pollution. We work with communities primarily through dedicated community partners by engaging in co-production and support via our network experts, including other community partners.
Meet the Community Partners
Cellina
Edmonton, North London | REACT Edmonton
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Residents of Edmonton Angel Community Together (REACT) is a community in North London. The community is affected by various sources of air pollution, including an incinerator in close proximity. The neighbourhood is deemed one of the most disadvantaged in the UK, a large proportion of people belong to minoritised ethnic groups, and many people do not have English as their first language. Cellina Momodu Doswell, our main contact, describes that many people in the neighbourhood do not yet understand the negative effect that air pollution has on their health. She has observed that air pollution can lead to social isolation of elderly women in her community. Cellina wants to reduce social isolation in her community with a community gardening project. She also wants to run workshops on wellness to improve community health and well-being.
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Initial aims:
Improve community health and well-being, specifically reduce social isolation, by organising a community gardening project.
Educate the community about the effects of air pollution on health and how to best help their well-being, by running regular wellness workshops.
Additional aims (developed over time):
Collect health data using the Signs and Symptoms Questionnaire/Health Diary.
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We commit to working with REACT for up to three years.
We meet with Cellina once a month to catch up, brainstorm, and strategise.
We provide Cellina with AIK resources.
We provide an initial advocacy grant of £1,000 to support her initiatives.
We support Cellina in collecting health data using the Signs and Symptoms Questionnaire/Health Diary.
We will also explore the relationship between air pollution and social isolation/loneliness when Cellina is ready.
Rebecca & Anna
Stoke on Trent | Portland Inn Project
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The Portland Inn Project (PIP) is a community in Stoke-on-Trent in central England. They are affected by various sources of air pollution: an industry producing lubricants (FUCHS), an industry making steel products, specifically cutting metal and thereby creating noise and smell (Brown McFarlane), a brownfield site (Bluefield Sandbach), and busy roads. Many are also affected by mould in their homes (owned by private landlords). The community has noticed changes in nature, specifically the bird ecosystem, as well as their health, with many reporting problems with asthma.
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Initial aims:
To collect data, specifically air quality monitoring, but also health (bioindicators).
To understand better the impact the poor air quality can have on the body.
To make air pollution visible, to prove that they are exposed to air pollution, and to make industrial polluters admit that they are the source.
To understand what can be done to improve the community’s health.
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We will support them in creating a data gathering plan (e.g. providing the Signs and Symptoms Questionnaire/Health Diary).
We will help identify the story that they need to achieve their goals.
We will help understand how to use air quality monitors to tell part of their story.
We provide AIK resources (including the air quality monitoring manual).
We will connect them with scientists and doctors.
Beccy & Stephen
Brighton | AGHAST
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AGHAST is a community in Brighton. They are affected by a Berkeley development on contaminated land on a previous gasworks site. The community is worried about the impacts the development will have on their health, especially pollutants currently sealed in the ground but to be released during the development. The community felt disheartened when the council’s decision to turn down Berkeley’s plans was appealed in the autumn of 2025. Beccy East, our main contact, said that the community now feels more energised again to work towards the best possible outcome. The main aim is to safeguard the community’s health. They want an advanced remediation plan (based on conversations with Jude from Keep Kensal Green about pressure tents). They also want to monitor air quality around the site and collect baseline health data and follow-up data. They want to collect data as robust evidence to campaign for legal action. Ultimately, they want to change the law on remediation.
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Initial aims:
To collect air quality data around the site.
To collect baseline (and follow-up) health data.
To achieve a more robust remediation plan.
To change the remediation law.
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We donate £500 to their fundraising campaign (as an advocacy grant).
We provide AIK resources, including the air quality monitoring manual.
We review a validated health survey the community has identified.
We connect the community with scientific/academic and healthcare advisers.
Teju
North London
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Teju is a London based audio producer, writer and cultural programmer with lived experience of the health impacts of air pollution. Her lived experience has led to enquiries into respiratory justice, alongside localised health care responses to air pollution and the broader health impacts of the climate crisis.
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Initial aims:
To work with local authority and GPs on running air pollution clinics.
To work with local community groups on running workshops on how to stay safe, regulate their environment, and build/lean into infrastructures amidst climate concerns.
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We are providing resources for the various workshops and clinics over time.
Jude
Kensal Green, London | Keep Kensal Green
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Keep Kensal Green is a community in West London. The community is affected by a Ballimore and Berkeley development on a previous gasworks site. Jude Allen, our main contact, learned about Centric from Angela Fonso (Southall, CASH). She started the campaign in 2023 and wants to stop the development or at least achieve that more attention is given to remediation plans. The main aim is to safeguard the community’s health, which Jude wants to achieve with legal action. She wants to collect data through air quality monitoring and hold the developer and council accountable.
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Initial aims:
They want to stop the development or at least advance remediation plans.
They want to focus on raising awareness, political discourse, and legal action.
They want to create a playbook to share their learnings with other communities.
Additional aims (developed over time):
They want to further develop a map of gasworks sites to raise awareness.
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We commit to working with KKG for up to three years.
We meet with Jude once a month to catch up, brainstorm, and strategise.
We provide Jude with AIK resources.
We provide an initial advocacy grant of £500.
We co-create a guidebook.
We co-create a mapping of UK gasworks sites (based on Jude’s existing map), aiming to include the health element for a stronger message.
Serafina
Mitcham, London | Mitcham Gas Works
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Mitcham is a community in South London who are affected by the remediation and development of a former gas works site. St. William (Berkeley Group) wants to develop an 11-storey building (over 600 flats, no affordable housing) on a former gas works site. They started remediation in 2020 but stopped and closed the site in around 2022 after the community complained about very bad odours and health problems (headaches, nausea, itchy skin and eyes, coughing; with kids having to go to hospital). At the end of 2025, the council has approved to re-open the site and start construction (no definite start date), without consultation of the community. The community is concerned about the effects this will have on their health. Council and MP are not responding to their emails/concerns.
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Initial aims:
To collect health data before and after they re-opened the site.
To collect air quality data.
To get the MP to listen to the community.
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We provide infrastructure (i.e. AIK resources and the AIK network for support).
We will run a workshop on the signs and symptoms questionnaire/health diary.
We connect the community with scientific/academic and healthcare advisers.
We offer an advocacy grant of £500 to cover costs and lower the financial burden.
Solène, Liz, & Katherine
Lea Valley, North London | Love Lea Bridge
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Love Lea Bridge (LLB) is a community in North London. The community is affected by a major Berkeley development on contaminated land on a previous gasworks site. They started getting together in 2019 when the development was first announced. The plan has changed several times but final permission has now been granted in 2026. The community worries about the effects that the development, and specifically the remediation of contaminated land, will have on their health. They are not aiming to stop the development, but they want the council and developer to pay more attention to the remediation, especially after Berkeley made a mistake in Southall, which caused health problems in many in the community. Liz: “We prepare for the worst but hope for the best.”
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Initial aims:
They want the council and developer to pay more attention to the remediation plans.
They want to do everything they can to safeguard the community’s health.
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We provide AIK resources, including the AIK academic and Signs and Symptoms Questionnaire/Health Diary.
We provide an initial advocacy grant of £1,500 that the community can use in whichever way they think is helpful.
We attended a community meeting.
We ran a health workshop.
We support them in setting up a Miro to collect and centralise information.
Ruth
Havering, London
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Ruth is a resident of Havering who campaigns for peace, disability and carer justice, and clean air. Ruth has taken Havering Council to the High Court via a judicial review, and continues to campaign against the fires and toxic smoke from the illegal landfill site on Arnold’s Field and bring justice to the children and other vulnerable populations of Rainham.
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Initial aims:
To work together to proactively validate the experiences and monitor the long-term health of Rainham residents affected by the fires.
To work with local authorities and other institutions to build cases both for appropriate medical treatment and statutory accountability.
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We provide resources to be used for health documenting by residents.
We provide health experts as support.
AIK Community Peer Group
A fundamental part of a living lab and participatory action research is fostering a community that is enabled to co-create of tools and research on topics that matter to them.
For this reason, we’ve recently piloted the UK-wide AIK Community Peer Group. By inviting our AIK Community Partners and others within our ecosystem with similar goals within air pollution, community health, and justice, we are creating a space that encourages research embedded in community and lived experience contexts and colearning amongst those actively seeking justice.
We are using the AIK Community Peer Group to co-develop and innovate methodologies around how communities withstand and create healing infrastructure. Community Peers also get a chance to run workshops for each other to communally upskill.
