St Hilda's East News 2023
NOVEMBER
Dear Guild Members,
Health and Wellbeing Activities for Older People
For many years, St Hilda’s East has been well known for the programme of activities we run for older people. Generally, the older people we support live alone, within walking distance or a short bus ride from our community centre, and most experience long-term health conditions such as diabetes or arthritis or are stroke or cancer survivors.
They come to our centre to join in social activities, to see their friends and make new ones, to learn new skills and take part in physical activities which improve mobility.
At present, we run weekly classes of seated exercise, dancercise and strength training with weights.
“Dancing at St Hilda’s makes me forget all my worries!”
On Thursdays, we run a Chit Chat & Chai group. We are very grateful to local business Columbia Road Clay, who are running a series of pottery classes alongside the weekly sessions.
Our services are particularly important for older people during the winter and at this time of the year especially, we encourage our elders to stick around after each of their activities for tea and toast and a place to keep warm and chat.
“I love coming to St Hilda’s and winter is around the corner so I will definitely need to save some money on my gas and electric bills at home so I can come here instead of heating it up at home.”
Our older people have told us that they need help with basic IT skills, and we are planning some computer classes where we will support people to learn how to book health appointments, manage their banking, do their shopping online and learn some tips around staying safe online.
We often run trips out from the centre. One of our service users recently led a local history walk and we are getting ready for Christmas by planning for a group to see Sadler’s Wells’s performance of The Snowman.
Do, please, get in touch if you would like to discuss ways to support our work.
With kind regards,
Lucy Bingham
Director
Tel: 020 7739 8066
lucy@sthildas.org.uk
www.sthildas.org.uk
OCTOBER
Dear Guild Members,
Wellbeing - Many of our activities at St Hilda’s East’s Community Centre focus on wellbeing - we run programmes targeted specifically at women and those experiencing mental health issues.
We work with local women to increase their confidence, reduce isolation, and improve their overall wellbeing through various opportunities to get creative, learn new skills and create friendships. Recent activities include learning about aromatherapy, a self-care and mental health session, and a “Climate Justice Sisters” workshop.
One of the participants noted “I continue to attend the sessions because of everything we do and it represents! I particularly appreciate the chance to try new things and have conversations with other mothers. I like the fact it is what it is – it is a safe, welcoming environment.”
In partnership with the mental health charity Mind, we offer yoga, a weekly creative space and, from next month, a cooking club. For those who might be experiencing mental health issues, these activities help develop levels of concentration and the ability to stay in the present. The groups are facilitated so that a peer-support network is built amongst the participants.
New Head of Operations - We are delighted to announce that we have a new Head of Operations, Daniel Charcharos, joining St Hilda’s this month. Daniel has a long and successful track record in operational, administrative, and marketing functions within the voluntary sector. He has a passion for community centres and the difference they can make in people’s lives. Daniel will lead on financial and facilities management, ensuring our centres are welcoming and safe, whilst working with those involved in fundraising to fix a leaking roof and upgrade our heating system.
Annual General Meeting - St Hilda’s East’s AGM will take place at 6pm on Wednesday 29th November 2023, at 18 Club Row, London, E2 7EY. It will be an opportunity to hear about the range of activities that St Hilda’s East has delivered over the past year and about our plans for the future. If you are able to join us, we would love to see you there. Please confirm your attendance by contacting me.
Thank you, as ever, for your support.
With kind regards,
Lucy Bingham
Director
Tel: 020 7739 8066
lucy@sthildas.org.uk
www.sthildas.org.uk
Aromatherapy at St Hilda's East
SEPTEMBER
Dear Guild Members,
Over the autumn and winter, we have planned a full programme of activities, including soft play, jewellery making, IT classes and line dancing – there is something for everyone! After participating in activity sessions at the community centre, our service users often stay around to chat with friends, volunteers and staff. The oncoming colder months will bring more challenges for those who are impacted most by the cost-of-living crisis. We therefore will ensure that we offer a comfortable and welcoming space for people to stay warm and connect with others.
Our advice service is extremely busy, and we are very grateful to Cadent Gas Limited, who have recently awarded us a grant which will enable us to expand our advice sessions alongside our other activities. As well as welfare benefits, we offer advice around housing, homelessness, debt, and general help with completing forms. Alaya, our advice worker is bi-lingual in Bengali (Sylheti) as well as English and advocates on behalf of her clients by phone and in writing.
It is important that charities like St Hilda’s East can evidence, for our supporters and the regulators, the quality of our service delivery. A passion for engaging with people is why we choose to work for St Hilda’s East, and empowering and supporting local communities is our raison d'être. However, this month we have a routine accreditation visit for our Advice Quality Standard as well as the usual annual visit by the auditor, who provides external scrutiny of our accounts. This means that, for a few days, some of us are confined to the office preparing paperwork!
With kind regards,
Lucy Bingham
Director
Tel: 020 7739 8066
lucy@sthildas.org.uk
www.sthildas.org.uk
AUGUST
Dear Guild Members,
Having joined St Hilda’s East as Director three months ago, I feel honoured to lead a charity with such a long history with Cheltenham Ladies’ College Guild, and to work alongside an amazing team of committed and talented Trustees, staff and volunteers. Over my career, I have managed several community centres, but St Hilda’s East is the most exciting in terms of the opportunities it presents to empower and support people who experience social exclusion and multiple disadvantage. There is a lot to do to ensure the financial sustainability of the charity whilst continuing to deliver impactful services that are responsive to local needs, but we are up for the challenge!
Activities this summer at St Hilda’s East have included several day trips for our older people. We filled every seat on a coach bound for Eastbourne and, braving the dreadful weather, fish and chips by the sea were enjoyed by all. Over the next couple of weeks, we also have coach trips planned to Clacton-on-Sea and Whitstable which, for many older people, will be their only chance to get outside London all summer.
We packed picnics and took the train to visit the Thames Barrier, where participants enjoyed seeing the spectacular flood barrier and relaxed in the peace of the adjacent park. Others joined us on a trip to Mudchute city farm where our elders explored the farm, petted the sheep and goats, and delighted in meeting an enormous black pig, which when given a bath by one of the farm workers, they discovered was pink!
We continue to value partnerships which help to expand the activities we can offer. The British Museum brought artefacts to show our elders and offered a guided tour of the Museum which included access to rooms not normally open to the public. Sadler’s Wells, who previously offered ballet classes to our Over 50’s Feeling Good group, are currently teaching them Cuban Dance.
Our work with young people continues apace. Our twice-weekly Stay and Play for Under-5s provides messy play, group reading, song time and therapeutic gardening activities as well as access to our sensory room for those who will benefit from it. A recent survey revealed that 90% of parents and carers believe our sessions are meeting their child’s needs and 100% report an improvement in their child's confidence from coming to our sessions.
Following their visit to CLC’s Upcycled Fashion Show in March, our BRAVE girls, aged 10 to 12 years, created their own version in Shoreditch with the help and collaboration of pupils from CLC. The principle behind the event was to foster community around the concepts of sustainability, upcycling, and zero waste. The show was a great success, and our girls managed to create seven amazing outfits despite not knowing how to sew or stitch before the project’s inception.
Please get in touch if you would like to find out more about our work at St Hilda’s East, and, if you are in the area, do drop in to our friendly community centre to say hello.
With kind regards,
Lucy Bingham
Director
Tel: 020 7739 8066
lucy@sthildas.org.uk
www.sthildas.org.uk
JULY
Dear Guild Members,
Our ongoing fundraising efforts and planning for our 135th Anniversary next year continue to be a focus, alongside the many activities available to the Tower Hamlets community as we start the summer holidays.
Our Young Boy's group launched last month, bringing together boys aged 10-14 from a variety of different schools. Initially they have been getting to know each other through sharing skills, experience and ideas through team games, trust-exercises, and story-telling. We’re fortunate to have Benji coordinating the group, with a background in theatre and performance, working alongside volunteer James who brings great experience in wellness and coaching. We’re excited to see how the group will develop through a mixture of play, creativity and reflective sessions.
St Hilda's East Women's Programme meets every Tuesday afternoon, providing a safe space for open discussions and work on wellbeing, as well as engaging in a wide range of creative activities. For Mental Health Awareness Week, Columbia Road Clay delivered a workshop on clay model making, helping the group to switch off and relax from everyday worries.
We’ve been delighted to welcome 3 interns this summer from the CAPA study abroad programme. Morgan, Josh and Gigi are studying marketing, banking and finance at colleges in the US including Purdue and the University of Mississippi, and they took the opportunity to spend 8 weeks studying in London and interning at St Hilda's East. They have made a great contribution to our marketing and social media, as well as supporting the areas of HR and finance. We are grateful for their energy and commitment and are always happy to welcome interns, from both home and abroad.
Looking forward to the end of this month, the Brave Girls group is working hard on their upcycled fashion designs, inspired by their visit to CLC in March, and we’re looking forward to seeing them on show in Shoreditch!
Finally, we’re sorry to say goodbye to Jim Chirm, our Head of Operations, who is leaving next month. Interviews for his replacement take place at the beginning of August and we’d love to hear from anyone who is interested in applying for the role, which can be either full or part time depending on their areas of experience. Details are available on our website: https://sthildas.org.uk/job-vacancies-at-st-hildas/.
Wishing everyone an enjoyable summer!
With kind regards,
Kate Simpson (CLC 1980-1985, Sidney Lodge/Elizabeth)
Trustee / Chair
Tel: 020 7739 8066
kate2@sthildas.org.uk
www.sthildas.org.uk
JUNE
Dear Guild Members,
We were delighted to welcome our new Director, Lucy Bingham, at the beginning of May. Despite inheriting a daunting list of challenges, Lucy has made a strong start, and the recent Guild Reunion/AGM provided an excellent opportunity for her to meet Guild members and members of the CLC staff. The warmth of the welcome, strength of support and desire to be of help clearly demonstrated the significance of Guild’s relationship with St Hilda’s East, and many connections were made. Lucy also participated in the ‘Those Who Dare’ careers event the previous evening to share her experiences of a career in the charity field; it would be lovely to think that this may have lit a spark in someone who had not previously considered how rewarding a career in that field might be, and what a CLC education might bring to the sector.
Not least of Lucy’s challenges is attempting to balance a budget in the face of rapidly escalating costs and a diminishing donor landscape. Funding for some of our key programmes – namely the Food Co-op and the advice service - will expire in September, so the immediate priority is to secure grants to keep them running. Fundraising will be a real focus as the year progresses.
The day centre at Sonali Gardens, purpose-built for Bengali elders, has been an important part of the work of St Hilda’s East since the 1990s. As the service users age and their needs and the costs of meeting them escalate, it is becoming increasingly difficult to deliver quality service within the funding provided by the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. We are anticipating a new tender for the service provision in the next couple of months which we hope to win at a funding level that will help to reduce the current deficit.
While the financial landscape is grim, there have been some really joyous moments in the past few months. Following the Brave Girls’ visit to the Upcycled Fashion Show at CLC, planning is under way for the Shoreditch version in July, with the support of some CLC students who will act as mentors to the SHE girls. It is hoped that this will be the first of many such collaborations and the support and enthusiasm shown by CLC staff is hugely appreciated.
Other highlights have included a thrilling performance of ‘Mendoza Mania’ from the Brave Girls, and a very well-attended energy saving event in partnership with Cadent Gas, where free slow cookers, carbon monoxide alarms and warm packs were made available to the community. Last but not least, our Boys Group launched in May and we look forward to seeing what they will achieve.
The team at St Hilda’s East is hugely grateful to the Guild and CLC for the ongoing support and looks forward to doing more to work together moving forward.
With kind regards,
Kate Simpson (CLC 1980-1985, Sidney Lodge/Elizabeth)
Trustee / Chair
Tel: 020 7739 8066
kate2@sthildas.org.uk
www.sthildas.org.uk
APRIL
Dear Guild Members,
The past few weeks have been much quieter due to Ramadan and Easter, but there have been a couple of real highlights.
The first was a trip to CLC by our Brave Girls from Virginia Primary School to see the Upcycled Fashion Show; an inspirational trip for a group of nine 11-14 year olds who were excited and engaged from start to finish (including the bus ride back to London where they sang all the way up the motorway). It was a really impactful experience which could have been very overwhelming for them, but they were made to feel so welcome, and CLC girls gave a wonderful tour of College which made our group feel at ease. We are immensely grateful to Eve for giving the visit her blessing, and to Vicki Brandon for making us feel as though we were the most important people there, when in reality we were a tiny part of her enormous day. We can’t wait to see what the Brave Girls come up with as a result of their experience!
The work of St Hilda’s East is continually evolving to meet the changing needs of the community, and to that end we held a Taster Day for the Over 50s Feeling Good, a National Lottery funded programme that aims to reduce isolation by focusing on wellbeing, through social, practical, and emotional support. Activities offered for Tower Hamlets residents to try or learn about included Tai Chi, Strength Training, Collage Making, Painting, Carpentry, and Jewellery Making, as well as information on Gardening and a Walking group. Participants voted for activities they would like to see regularly offered, and those based around physical movement as well as craft, creativity and working with hands were the clear winners. One participant commented “you know, when everybody's laughing - making you happy - it makes you want to do things”; a reminder that what we do is less important than how we do it and how we make people feel.
As well as looking forward to celebrating Eid next week, we are also excited to welcome our new Director Lucy Bingham who starts on 2nd May. She will face several sizeable challenges as she starts her new role, not least of which is the ongoing challenge of securing funding in the current economic climate; however as the past few months have clearly demonstrated, one thing she can rely on is the support from not only the incredible team at St Hilda’s East but also its wider family, which includes the CLC community of staff, girls, parents and Guild members. Lucy and I will be at the Guild reunion weekend in May and we look forward to meeting some of you there.
With kind regards,
Kate Simpson (CLC 1980-1985, Sidney Lodge/Elizabeth)
Trustee / Interim Chair
Tel: 020 7739 8066
kate2@sthildas.org.uk
www.sthildas.org.uk
MARCH
Dear Guild Members,
The first quarter of 2023 is almost over and it has been a busy one. Our existing projects are going from strength to strength as new team members settle in, and new projects are being launched, notably the return of our Boys Group which has not been run for a couple of years but is returning in April.
Our Brave Girls have been especially busy, participating in International Women’s Day, getting very excited about attending the Upcycled Fashion Show at CLC this week, and rehearsing for a performance at Club Row at the end of this month. We are thrilled to give them the opportunity to attend the fashion show and can’t wait to hear the ideas they will bring back to Shoreditch, as we are hoping to stage a similar event this summer with the involvement of College girls. More details to follow!
International Women’s Day was celebrated at St Hilda’s East with a lovely event spanning the generations, from students at our local Virginia Primary School to service users from our Women’s Project and the Sonali Gardens Day Centre. A lively discussion on whether an international women’s day is needed (conclusion: it is) was followed by delicious food provided by our partners Oitij-Jo Kitchen who run the community café in our building, and the afternoon concluded with a beautiful dance performance given by five members of our LinkAge Plus group (choreographed and directed by our partners from Sadler’s Wells).
Sadly we learned that a large funding application to repair our leaking roof was not successful; however we continue to explore other potential funders and avenues to raise the money we need.
Finally, I am delighted that dialogue with the CLC Parents’ Society Committee is taking off, and excited to see what we can achieve in the next quarter. Huge thanks to those who are so ready to assist with new initiatives and ideas to help us expand what we do to make a real difference to those in our community.
With kind regards,
Kate Simpson (CLC 1980-1985, Sidney Lodge/Elizabeth)
Trustee / Interim Chair
Tel: 020 7739 8066
kate2@sthildas.org.uk
www.sthildas.org.uk
FEBRUARY
Dear Guild Members,
The first month of 2023 flew by, bringing with it new team members, new equipment and a renewed sense of energy and purpose for the new year.
The restructured Programmes team, under the vibrant leadership of Jemma Bicknell, welcomed three new team members in January. Kay Kelleher is our new Older People’s Project Manager, overseeing the LinkAge Plus and Feeling Good! programmes across both of our sites, Club Row and the day centre at Sonali Gardens. Rachel Keogh has joined as Adults and Community Programmes Manager, responsible for the Food Co-op, Women’s Project, Advice Service and the Legal Clinics, while Ruki Hashi (who joined St Hilda’s East last year as Project Manager) has been promoted to Children and Young People’s Programmes Manager, overseeing the Brave Girls and Stay & Play projects. All three have settled in quickly to their new roles and are already making an impact.
We were also delighted to promote long-serving team member Joynul Hoque into a more senior role at Sonali Gardens where he is now the LinkAge Plus Coordinator, as well as continuing his work as an outreach worker for two days a week.
A second and unexpected Christmas came in January in the form of a new, capacious fridge for our Food Co-op. Very kindly donated by our friends at Saira Hospitality (a non-profit which partners with hotels to provide local communities with the skills they need to build a career in hospitality), it is making a huge difference to the Food Co-op team.
Activity on the funding team never stops; currently a major priority is to raise funds to repair the roof as water ingress is impacting several areas of the building and affecting our ability to use the space. We await decisions on several recently submitted bids.
Last but most certainly not least, I am delighted to announce that Lucy Bingham will be joining us in May as our new Director. Lucy brings 30 years of experience in the non-profit sector, having successfully led and developed several charities delivering a wide range of services in multi-cultural inner-city environments. We are excited for her to start, and look forward to introducing her to College and Guild members at the earliest opportunity!
With kind regards,
Kate Simpson (CLC 1980-1985, Sidney Lodge/Elizabeth)
Trustee / Interim Chair
Tel: 020 7739 8066
kate2@sthildas.org.uk
www.sthildas.org.uk
JANUARY
Dear Guild Members,
Happy New Year! The end of the old year and the start of the new have brought changes, opportunities and celebrations at St Hilda’s East.
We are very grateful to the team from Cheltenham who worked so hard to collect and wrap Christmas gifts, and ensure they were delivered in time for the party, despite the train strikes! Due to the industrial action the party had to be scaled back from the original plan, but a good time was had by all who were able to get there. We are fortunate to have a great partnership with the iconic Tea Building in Shoreditch who hosted us, and it was a joy to see a broad cross section of our beneficiaries young and old celebrating the season.
We were finally able to draw the long-awaited 130th Anniversary Raffle at the Christmas event, and all the lucky winners have been informed. Fourteen out of the twenty-nine winners are current or former College staff, and we hope they will be delighted with their prizes which are being delivered to College.
At the end of last year, our Director Matthew Band left St Hilda’s East to relocate to York to support his parents. Matthew had joined us at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 when the country was going into lockdown, and inherited some challenging issues. The trustees have been very appreciative of his efforts to bring the charity’s finances into a healthier position, and of his work on administrative structure, organizational design, governance and marketing strategy. Please join me in wishing Matt all the very best as he starts his new chapter in York. Recruitment for a new Director is under way and we hope to have identified a replacement by the end of this month.
The new year has started with an exciting development in the form of a Community Café operating in our Club Row building. We are delighted to partner with the Oitij-Jo Collective, a ground-breaking social enterprise run by British Bangladeshi women, to offer homemade, healthy, authentic and affordable Bangla home-style recipes to visitors to St Hilda’s East. If you are in the area Tuesday-Thursday do drop in and try some – it’s delicious!
Without a Director in place the next few weeks will undoubtedly be challenging, but since stepping into the role of Interim Chair in December, I have been encouraged and supported not only by the passion and commitment of our board of trustees, but also by the strength and dedication of our team of staff and volunteers. Their work with those in need in the community of Tower Hamlets is truly inspirational and it is a privilege to work alongside them as we face the challenges of a new year.
With kind regards,
Kate Simpson (CLC 1980-1985, Sidney Lodge/Elizabeth)
Trustee / Interim Chair
Tel: 020 7739 8066
kate2@sthildas.org.uk
www.sthildas.org.uk