WE ARE ONE NEWHAM
On Thursday 24th October, Caritas Anchor House joined many third sector organisations at the Olympic Stadium for the One Newham Conference.
The #WeAreOneNewham conference aimed to bring together third sector organisations from the borough, to inspire conversation and strategy around how we can best support our communities, as well as facilitating new and exciting collaborations.
Ensuring person centred services lie at the heart of provisions was certainly a central theme of the day’s workshops. Each workshop focused on a central aspect of holistic community outreach with themes covering ‘being young’, ‘being well’, ‘being rooted’ and ‘being creative’.
Caritas Anchor House’s team were there supporting the event, with Chief Executive Amanda Dubarry leading a workshop around what ‘being rooted’ means. Noting the high levels of transience and housing challenges experienced in the borough, the workshops focused on the role of voluntary action in supporting people to build roots and connections in Newham communities.
Some ideas that came from the day included building stronger ties across the sector in Newham to facilitate more effective social prescribing practices, and co-locating with others working towards similar goals.
“co-locating across the sector can help bridge divides”
– Jane Williams (The Magpie Project)
“To do anything meaningful and profound takes time, you have to be embedded there to build those relationships”
– Zoe Hardy (Rosetta Arts)
With the sector so often being that bridge or stop gap between public sector provision and people’s needs, the role of effective social prescribing has never been more pertinent.
Debbie Brown, a former resident of Caritas Anchor House, was also at the conference. Since Debbie moved out of Caritas Anchor House and into her own home, she has set up and now runs Amy’s Space. She said, “The team at Caritas Anchor House are amazing and have been so supportive. With their help, Amy’s Space now does fortnightly reach outs for people experiencing homelessness and isolation in the community around us, which – it’s sad to say – have a huge uptake every time.”
Reflecting on the day’s events it is clear there is a plethora of passionate social advocacy warriors in our borough. Including a wonderful mix or people young and old, service providers and service users with a range of experiences in the Newham borough. However, one common attribute of all those that attended is the enthusiasm and willingness to roll up sleeves and take the lessons learned from the day into action. So watch this space!
Caritas Anchor House is proud to be one the founding members of One Newham; a consortium of local voluntary and community organisations. Their founding mission is to secure new funding for the borough and commitment to ensuring the voluntary and community sector remain at the forefront of delivering high quality services to improve the lives of local people.
