Welcome to Caxton House Community Centre

A message from Paul Furze, Centre Manager (from our 2007 Annual Report)

This has been another busy year at Caxton House and one of significant achievement, from which we can take forward many positives. Elsewhere in this report you will find details of the wide range of projects and organisations that are based within the centre, all of whom are firmly committed toward providing efficient, high quality and accessible services to the community.

In my report to last year’s AGM, I made reference to the cruel knock-back we had received in our objective to raise capital funding for the much-needed refurbishment to the building. However, we viewed this as only a temporary set back and have subsequently continued to press ahead with our efforts to raise the necessary funds. An integral part of this process has involved a period of extensive consultation with staff, projects and users of the centre. This consultation has focused not only on improvements to the building, but also obtained feedback about the sort of services and activities that people would like to see taking place in the centre. Through this process we remain committed towards involving the local community in enhancing their quality of life, by means of identifying how best to improve community facilities and services. Significantly, this process has also provided an opportunity for the local community to steer the future direction of Caxton House. The capital project will involve various improvements to the building including refurbishing the café and kitchen area, creating new office, community training and meeting space and making the centre more accessible, particularly for people with disabilities. These improvements to the existing building will provide multi-purpose areas for a wide range of community use, thereby enabling us to expand the range of services we are able to provide and help us work toward the future sustainability of Caxton House.

The past year has seen the development of a website for Caxton House. As we did with our capital programme, we once again set out to engage the active involvement and participation of local people in the steering of the project. This initiative, made possible through a kind donation from the Livingstone Trust, has involved staff and user groups working with a volunteer from the Elthorne Community Project, in the design and content of the website. In addition to providing information on individual projects, venue hire and the history of Caxton House, we have also included a news page, thereby enabling us to publicise upcoming events and activities. In conjunction with the development of a website, we have engaged a secondee from the Home Office who has been working on a marketing and publicity drive with particular emphasis on the Out of School club and holiday playschemes.

I am pleased to report that we have welcomed a number of innovative new projects and groups into Caxton House, joining as they do an impressive and diverse range of charities and organisations already operating in the centre. These new projects include the Mobile Repair Unit, Islington Council Employees Credit Union Ltd and Prosperity Outreach Service. I believe that these projects will significantly extend the scope of support and opportunities that we are able to provide to the community.

Among the many positive aspects that we can take forward from the past year has been our continuing involvement with the Octopus Community Network (OCN). This is a collaboration between nine community organisations that has been to set up to foster a network of support and to play an active role in the regeneration of deprived neighbourhoods. As part of OCN, we have played an active role in the development of new service provision, particularly in relation to employment focussed learning. In some cases this has involved OCN being commissioned to provide services, which once again reflects central governments trend to expand the role and involvement of the voluntary sector in the delivery of public services.

Throughout the year we have continued to be a vibrant and well-utilised community centre. We have been used as a venue for a variety of activities including conferences, surgeries, rehearsal space, sports activities and social events.