BACKGROUND INFORMATION
The Swiss Cottage Community Centre is a registered charity and company limited by guarantee. It has an active and committed Management Committee who oversee all of the work carried out in the Centre
The Community Centre moved into its new purpose built premises in December 2004 as part of the Swiss Cottage redevelopment and it is looking forward to building upon its existing groups, services and activities.
The Centre recently secured core funding from the London Borough of Camden and it can look forward to a stable and bright future.
The new Centre has three meeting rooms, main hall, dedicated under fives area, complimentary therapy room, reception office, two office rooms and Café. The Centre is open 7 days a week and offers a comprehensive range of services. These include, under fives provision (Pre-school nursery and parent and toddler drop-in), over 60’s activities (trips, outings, Home Visiting Scheme, art classes, exercise classes, IT classes etc), language classes (ESOL, Spanish, French, Cantonese etc), complimentary therapies (Thai Massage, Aromatherapy, Reiki etc), exercise classes (yoga, belly dancing, tai chi, qi gong etc) and a host of other activities and events (see attached programme).
The Centre has full Café facilities and is used heavily by the local community. The Café is also open 7 days a week and has recently extended its hours to open in the evening during weekdays. The Café is currently run under a licence agreement.
The Centre shares the Swiss Cottage site with the Winchester Youth Project, Hampstead Theatre, Swiss Cottage Central Library, Swiss Cottage Market and, in early 2006, the new Swiss Cottage Leisure Centre. Swiss Cottage is currently going through a period of rapid improvements brought about by the redevelopment and the new Community Centre is a direct benefit of this.
The Community Centre serves an area of marked contrasts with wealth and disadvantaged sitting side-by-side. Its main catchment areas are NW3, NW6 and NW8.
The Centre has developed strong partnership working arrangements and agreements with various organisations that serve the area and the Association is committed to supporting and developing this work. Organisations that the Centre works with include WestminsterKingswayCollege, Camden Active Health Team, Winchester Youth Project, Workers Educational Association, Swiss Cottage Area Partnership, Swiss Cottage Central Library, Hampstead Theatre, etc.
We further facilitate over 150 local community organisation with a venue to operate. We remain open from 7am till 10pm, 349 days a year, on average we have 1500 users per day, occupying eight spaces oriented around a café.