The Abbey Centre: building an inclusive and resilient south Westminster community
- Borough: Westminster
- Organisation: The Abbey Centre
- Topics: civil society, community life, older people
Who we are
The Abbey Centre is a community hub in south Westminster, that brings together residents and organisations to improve the health and wellbeing of local people, especially those experiencing the greatest health and wealth inequalities.
Since 1948, our projects support the development of a cohesive community, where people of different ages, cultural backgrounds and parts of our community come together.
We want to see a community that feels healthier, happier and fully supported.
Bringing the community together
South Westminster exhibits a large disparity in terms of wealth, with a mix of affluent and deprived areas. Our mission is to support a healthy and cohesive community in south Westminster by providing the space, services and opportunities to the people who need it most.
We offer a breadth of programmes, activities, information which grows and adapts to meet the demands of our community. From primary school children at our After School Club, through to over 90s at our Young at Heart project, we cater for all ages and a variety of different needs.
During 2023 we supported nearly 7,400 people. You can see the wide range of services and support we offer the community in our film.
Playing this video will set cookies from YouTube/Google
Our programmes include a Community Pantry (helping people with affordable food and essential items), an Elderly Group (support with loneliness and social isolation), an After School Club, Free Hot Meals for homeless people, refugees and asylum seekers, information and advice, access to free legal advice, employability coaching, life skills trainings (sewing classes, ESOL, digital inclusion, financial literacy), healthcare support, physical activities, carers support group, supported volunteering, training courses, community outreach and wellbeing services.
Each of our programmes represents a gateway to another service. We empower our service users by encouraging them to provide feedback on the programme they attend, and to shape the programme’s content to their needs.
Generating income through social enterprise model
We also run social enterprise services (room hire, catering, and a café) that generates around half of our income. Our café provides members of our community and office workers with daily freshly cooked meals at an affordable price.
The café premises are a lively place where local people can drop in to engage in free social activities such as boardgames and card games, or to enjoy the company of others, in a safe and warm environment.
The changes we would like to see
We would like to see more collaboration and information sharing between Voluntary and Community Sector organisations with others providing community support (for example NHS, local authorities) to ensure that people who suffer from social isolation and loneliness or are in need of support are identified and provided with the assistance they need.
Find out more
Get in touch
If you have any questions you can get in touch with The Abbey Centre at [email protected] or Adam Greenhalgh, Head of Community Programmes, at [email protected]
Need a document on this page in an accessible format?
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of a PDF or other document on this page in a more accessible format, please get in touch via our online form and tell us which format you need.
It will also help us if you tell us which assistive technology you use. We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 5 working days.