Stifford Centre
Empower people to lead healthy and prosperous lives
Our History
overview
The Stifford Centre is a registered charity (Current Registration no. 1140716, previous Registration no. 1089302) and Company Limited by Guarantee (No. 07321910), and community hub, in the Stepney Green neighbourhood of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. We serve an area of high social deprivation, the wards we primarily serve are (St Dunstan’s & Stepney, Whitechapel, St. Katherine & Wapping and Shadwell), all being amongst the 10% most deprived in the country. We have a proven and proud track record of tackling deprivation/exclusion and delivering a range of services to local people in key areas such as employment, skills, advice and life experience opportunities. We have had great success in addressing unmet community need and improving outcomes for local residents. In particular, we engage socio-economically deprived and people, through our programmes, which address their multiple and complex needs on health & wellbeing, welfare, housing & debt advice, study support, Women’s, Older & Youth provision, education, training and employment.
The Stifford Centre operates in an area with deep rooted, complex and multiple social problems. One needs to appreciate the scale of those problems to understand the broad range of local social needs and the importance of the services that we are delivering. For instance, there are high rates of unemployment/benefits dependency, a skills deficit, poor educational attainment, child poverty, serious housing issues and massive local health inequalities. Since 1997, the Stifford Centre has delivered a range of community services that aspires to meet that social need. The organisation grew out of a tenants group on the local Stifford estate and the observation that local needs were not being adequately met and that the best way to address it was to establish an effective local community organisation. We are now making an impact on national objectives and our youth work and legal aid work has been extended to London and Essex. Thus, we were established with grass roots, community ethos and a profound belief in serving communities in the best and most effective way possible. For us, the best measures of our success and effectiveness is the enduring linkage with local people and the trust that they place in us. This is reflected in the representative nature of our service user monitoring data and the positive responses to periodic satisfaction surveys. We have our finger on the pulse of the local community, we are trusted by local people and we have consistently received positive feedback from stakeholders, partners and funders. Taken together these key indicators all point to the effectiveness of the organisation and its service delivery.
As a community centre the services provided primarily target deprivation and economic inactivity issues faced in the western ward of Tower Hamlets. The services/projects are offered to the whole age spectrum in the community from young children to elders. The main aim is to give local people irrespective of age, sex or religious belief the opportunity to combat the deprivation faced in one of the most underprivileged boroughs in London.
BACKGROUND
Stifford Centre was established in 1997 by the local community to benefit residents by providing education & training. The centre mission extended to a wider format ‘Advice & guidance, Education, Training and Health Advocacy’ to support activities and services that tackle deprivation and social exclusion.
The London Borough of Tower Hamlets (LBTH) allotted three abandoned shops to Stifford Centre with funding secured from the Council & ERDF to convert the derelict shops into a modern community centre.
A board cross reference of objectives was built around this development that focused on partnership, collaborative interagency projects, gaining funding to effectively tackle local issues and the establishment of social enterprise projects to promote social cohesion and foster a more sustainable community.
Initial project to start at the centre were the Supplementary School which provided cultural education to the children within the local community. The centre spent the next few years building up new projects such as the Elders Luncheon Club, Women’s Project, Study Support Class, ICT Classes and the summer project.
In 2002 , the centre made a huge breakthrough in obtaining funding from Jobcentre Plus to setup an Advanced ICT programme for the unemployed. This pioneering project brought fresh vigour to the Centre as it brought in ‘new blood’ as well as partnerships with other organisations.
In 2004, the success of Advanced ICT Programme was built upon 2004 as a new Learning & Skills Council (LSC) and European Social Fund (ESF) funded Advanced ICT, Accounting & Management project was set up.
In 2006, In order to extend its services, the centre management decided to extend the centre through erection of a pre-fabricated building adjacent to the centre and installed the pre-fabricated building consist of a Modular Building extension to the current premises, approx 75 Sq meter of development.
In 2007, Stifford successfully obtained a Health Trainers Project in partnership with the NHS Primary Care Trust (PCT). The acute need of the community has meant that this project has been taken up very well.
In 2009, Stifford continued to grow its portfolio in health by successfully submitting a bid for “Health in Schools Project” aimed to tackle low levels of physical activity, poor diet and significant issues around smoking and chronic illnesses, by working in partnership with the PCT and other partners to target young people in local secondary schools and promote healthy lifestyles.
Health Champion Project: Health Champion is another unique Department of Health Initiative to tackle health inequalities. Health Champions are an additional tier to the Health Trainer project to deliver health promotion and awareness to the local communities in conjunction with the team of Health Trainers, who are qualified to help, support and motivate people to build healthy lifestyles.
Bhalo Ranna Project: Funded by the Department of Business, Innovation & Skills and NIACE, this project was targeted at Bangladeshi mothers aged 45 Plus and focussed on teaching healthy cooking particularly Bangladeshi cuisine via informal learning.
In 2010, Stifford Centre has achieved the Investor in Volunteering (IIV) and Special Quality Mark (SQM) quality marks.
In 2011, we were commissioned by the Council to deliver the “Overcoming Barrier” pilot project to provide employment readiness support to Bangladesh women- a unique project that paved the way for engaging with a target group that had remained largely ignored in the past.
Stepney Green Fair: This year marked Stifford Centre’s first Summer Fair to promote further community cohesion. It has evolved over the years to bring together communities from across Tower Hamlets and beyond.
In 2012, Stifford Centre has achieved the Investors in People (IIP) quality mark, the standard for people management.
Youth Employability Project Funded by Trust for London for 2 years towards an employability support for young people. Considering the high number of unemployed people in London Borough of Tower Hamlets, the project would make a long-term impact in supporting young people to take up employment or further education.
In 2013, the name of the Organisation has been changed from Stifford TJRS-TRA Community Centre to Stifford Centre Limited (working name stiffod centre) by a resolution approved by the Board of Directors and respectively, the Name Change has also been approved by the Charity Commission and the fresh Certificate of Registration has been issued to us.
In 2015, started Digital Inclusion Project, funded by Tinder Foundation to deliver a new flexible digital training and support programme for local residents.
In 2016, secured Big Lottery Fund for Women’s Empowerment Programme (WEP) to act as a means for local disadvantaged women including carers and single parents of Bengali, Somali and BAME heritage with limited English language, confidence and secondary education for formal and informal community learning.
In 2017,Stifford’s Health Trainers have assessed the health needs of over 8,000 residents since 2007. Trinity College Registered Exam Centre