Our Mission
Our mission is to provide a safe and welcoming place for the whole community to flourish.
Within a one-mile radius of St Margaret the Queen Church, there are three wards that are in the 20% most deprived wards in England, with housing, employment, crime, youth/gang violence, local environment, mental health and poverty being the key issues here.
As part of our efforts to breathe new life into this little-used but beautiful and historic building, we aim to create a safe, accessible and welcoming space, fit to serve the practical, as well as spiritual needs of the surrounding community.
As part of our Big Lottery Reaching Communities application, we agreed to meet the following outcomes:
Better life chances made available to more ex-offenders and disadvantaged young people, unlocking potential and improving their employment opportunities.
A regenerated urban environment and a stronger, more inclusive community will have emerged, as a result of more relevant services, diverse programmes and an appealing cultural offer.
More people in need and hungry will have a safe place to go for sustenance and with help on site to address more deep-rooted problems.
More vulnerable and isolated young and elderly people will have a place to go that offers a warm welcome with much-needed facilities, tailored activities and inclusive access to services.
The Norwood and Brixton Foodbank is already a key user of the current space…
With demand for this foodbank rapidly increasing, storage is a key issue and we plan to create a space to meet this need. We also need to offer a welcoming space for local people to collect their food parcels and, in addition, be able to access financial/ debt and mental health advice.
We have piloted a successful youth project in conjunction with Knight’s Youth at St Margaret’s. There is a clear need for a youth programme to help address local issues, including gang violence and knife crime. We would look to either employ someone to deliver this for us, or work in partnership with local organisations, in order to meet the needs of local young people.
We currently have a small group of older people who meet at the current building. However, as the current building is not fit for purpose they are unable to grow the group. We plan to create a warm, welcoming space and to support this group to develop and grow to help tackle the issue of loneliness and isolation in older people.
We also know there is a need for accessible space for those with disabilities and would like to be able to offer an accessible and sensitively designed space for people with mental or physical disabilities, including those with dementia.
More broadly we aim to offer volunteering, training and employment opportunities for local people through this project.
By 2022 this space will enable us to serve the needs of local people by offering:
Urgent food and essentials provisions via a Foodbank – we estimate 1,800 people per year
Financial/ debt advice crisis mental health support – reaching 200 people per year
Support for young people including gang prevention work – 215 young people per year
Opportunities for social connections amongst older people, aiming to reach 60 people per year
Local employment and volunteering opportunities through our enterprising approach – we aim to create 40 new paid jobs (assume including nursery)
Community Groups and Events…
Along with all these opportunities, we’d also like to offer a space for events and activities to take place throughout the year. These would include the following:
Food bank continued provision
CAP Debt advice - money management course
Health advice – HealthWatch, Mental health well-being, CAP life style course, ESOL course
Youth Club [Theatre & Film club. Dance & Performing Arts club]
Ex-offender family and CAP Job club
Young at Heart Elderly club
Taekwondo youth club
Story Book club
Maths club / Alzheimer’s club
Parent/toddler group
Entrepreneurial workspaces
Artist studios
Community cafe
Concert Space
Conference / meeting rooms
Help Us to Fulfil Our Vision…
In order to fulfil our vision, we must reconfigure the church and land, so it is fit to serve the community and can generate sustainable income. We plan to realise capital through a small housing development on the site.
We will also build and run a commercial nursery on site to create a revenue stream to enable us to run the community projects. Essential external works, plus refurbishment of the interior to a basic level, including creation of two community rooms and space for the Food Bank will cost circa £1 million.