On Wednesday the process of announcing the programme started with a parliamentary reception for MPs, peers and key stakeholders at the House of Commons. The event, which took place on the beautifully sunny terrace, was held under the auspices of the All Party Parliamentary Group Reception on Local Environmental Quality.
The reception went really well, with 126 delegates listening to key note speeches from the Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell and Lord Hunt of Kings Heath, Minister for Sustainable Development and Energy Innovation. It was great to hear Tessa Jowell support the programme and recognising the role that the programme can have in extending the regeneration of east London beyond the Olympic Park.
With events coming to a close at the House of Commons, attention moved to east London for the official launch at Three Mills Island, Bromley–by-Bow. 
On an unseasonably warm and sunny day, 73 volunteers transformed an overgrown, graffitied, and generally rundown area of the Three Mills Island, into a path that can once again be used by the community. Volunteers included local people, employees from Lloyds Banking Group and Deloitte, members of the local Metropolitan Police Safer Neighbourhoods Team and some extremely energetic children from local Eastlea Community School. Time-lapse photography was in place during the whole day to capture the transformation to the site. Watch the video
By lunchtime, when LOCOG Chief Executive Paul Deighton arrived to officially launch the programme, volunteers had already cut back significant amounts of the vegetation and painting had began to cover up the extensive graffiti. During the course of his visit, Paul chatted to volunteers and even rolled his sleeves up and got involved.
During the course of the day the 200 metre section of towpath was made accessible once again by the cutting back of heavily overgrown vegetation, 30 bin bags of rubbish were removed, and approximately 350 square metres of graffiti were painted out.
The last few days have been an extremely busy start for the Changing Places programme. But they have shown what can be achieved when the Games inspires people to work together.
