Christmas Bazaar at Goldsmiths Community Centre

Come and enjoy some festive celebrations at Goldsmiths Community Centre. If you are able to offer help in the form of donations for raffle and tombola prizes or volunteer help with stalls and serving tea or helping setup on the day please contact the centre on 020 8698 3741

Merry Christmas!!

Whitefoot Assembly 21 November 2013

Local assemblies are open meetings where you and others who live, work and study in your ward decide how to improve your area. Could you make a difference, by getting involved?

 

The next meeting is on Thursday 21 November from 7-9pm at St John's Church Hall, see details below.

 

Whitefoot and Downham Community Food + Project

Whitefoot and Downham Community Food + Project is a voluntary community based project to support people or families who are experiencing hardship and issues relating to poverty. There is a growing need for the provision due to the welfare reform act, increase in food and fuel prices. The project is available to local residents and can provide a level of food provision, housing support, health advice, employment advice, debt advice, family support, early years support and access to a Local Councillor.

The founders are six local churches from three different denominations, a social enterprise, public health and Local Councillor. They are the Catford (Southend) and Downham Parish. Brook Lane Community Church. Whitefoot Lane Christian Church, Pastor David Brown from LWCC, Eco Communities and Janet Daby the Local Councillor for Whitefoot Ward. The main partners are Public Health, Phoenix Community Housing, Parent Support Group (PSG), Downderry Nursery Services, Local Health Centre and Eco Communities. The partnership continues to grow and develop.

The project takes place every Thursday from 7pm - 8.30pm at  Whitefoot Lane Christian Centre. There are approximately 50 volunteers who enjoy serving and offering their support to the community.
 
How you can help

 
We need ongoing support with donations of food. If you feel you can help in some way feel free to contact the chair of the project Local Councillor Janet Daby at  janet.daby@lewisham.gov.uk

Keep the Lights burning at Goldsmiths Community Centre

Our lovely old community centre (75 years young next year!) in Downham needs your help and support. The community centre was the largest in London when it was constructed, with funds from the Goldsmiths Company, in 1939. It has seen many parties, events and activities, and generations of families have used it in its long history. To learn more about its history visit the community centre website.

 

The community centre needs some serious tender loving care, and we have embarked on a programme of upgrading the electrical infrastructure and improvements. This work has already started thanks to a generous donation of over £18,000 from the Goldsmiths Company Charity, but we still have a long way to go and are fundraising towards the target of over £100,000.

 

We are holding a Christmas Bazaar on Saturday 30 November at 12 noon and would love you to come and join us to help us raise money and have a good time. If you can help on the day or donate goods to aid our fundraising efforts even better!

Please come and support us!

Goldsmiths Summer Festival update - more photos!

Thanks very much to Donald Daby for these great photos from 2o July. Please come along to the Goldsmiths Community Association Annual General Meeting on 21 September from 3-6pm where more local talent awaits to entertain you. Will it be a BBQ, or pizzas from the Earth Oven? Watch this space...

MC Janet Daby

Manuela sings Suzie Quattro, with Goldsmiths Dance Academy

Queue for the face painting

Gospel Choir

Gospel Choir

Heidi Alexander MP announces the raffle prizes

Tim busy at the bbq with Chris taking the orders - and the money!

BB Queue - they were very good

Brunel Bannister on guitar

Chris plays rock guitar

Cllr Mark Ingleby plays jazz piano

Joshua and friend (and another little friend)

Last but not least DJ Granty G, the rapping plasterer, with DJ Cobra and Stevie G

Lloyds TSB volunteer day at Goldsmiths Community Centre 26 July 2013

For the second year running a team from Lloyds TSB volunteered at Goldsmiths Community Centre for the Our Day to Make a Difference programme. Arranged through Employee Volunteering, 35 volunteers from the Loan Credit Risk team were tasked with painting and decorating, weeding, digging and pruning! Many thanks to Kristen Keith, Project Manager at Employee Volunteering, for visiting the centre, communicating so clearly and sending us these photographs from the day, and to Jo Thomas the supervisor and all the volunteers for working so hard and cheerfully on the tasks. We hope they will come back next year - there is always plenty to do!

What did we ask them to help us with? 

Painting and decorating - before and after

One of the main tasks we asked the team to do was to redecorate the two corridors with magnolia paint. I think you'll agree it was very effective!

Remedial work in the corridors - painting over the eggy yellow!

Afterwards - what a difference

Light, bright and airy - and all the same colour

A splendid job, well done

The Gardens - before and after

At just under an acre, the community centre grounds need a lot of tender loving care to keep them looking nice. We have a static community payback team that comes every Sunday to help keep the grounds under control, but even in the space of a week the brambles and bindweed take hold again! We asked the team to dig out the brambles once and for all and prune the pyracantha behind the sports cage, a very prickly job. Some of the brambles have been there for 40 years, and their roots go deep.

Getting ready to tackle the brambles

A clear path created behind the sports cage

In the George Green Hall gardens, the team were asked to prune and weed, and sand and paint the benches. The gardens here are divided into separate plots; there is a Forest School, an allotment garden, and the main garden which is used for outdoor events such as the Goldsmiths Summer Festival,  outdoor play and private functions like weddings and parties.

Pruning and shaping the rose arch

Before and after photos of the allotment garden

Painting the outdoor benches, with a smile!

Roundtable discussion with team members

Four Lloyds TSB team members kindly agreed to join a roundtable discussion about the community centre. Like many voluntary organisations in the current economic climate, the Goldsmiths Community Association is struggling to meet rising costs and falling revenues for this venerable and very large (over 16000 sq ft) building. The utility bills for the centre alone can reach £20,000 per year, particularly in a cold and prolonged winter. It is harder to 'square the circle' as the Association aims to keep the cost of activities affordable so that local people are able to participate regardless of income.

The team were full of ideas for investment into the centre, marketing and activities that we hadn't thought to offer and gave us much food for thought. We had a very productive session, then let them get back to work! These ideas and plans will be shared with our new members, and the general public, at the Association's Annual General Meeting on Saturday 21 September.

Lloyds TSB, you are welcome at the centre any time and our grateful thanks go to you for all your hard work - it was indeed a day to make a difference.

Lloyds TSB volunteers in a roundtable discussion about the community centre

Goldsmiths Summer Festival 20 July 2013

From dancing and singing to live musical performance, smoothies to home made cakes to allotment produce to BBQ, the Goldsmiths Summer Festival on 20 July at Goldsmiths Community Centre was a great success. Funded by the Whitefoot Assembly and supported by Phoenix Community Housing and the Pre-School Learning Alliance Lewisham, the event was well attended and enjoyed by the local community, and the weather couldn't have been better. A stage was built in the George Green Hall garden for live performances by local people, to complement the stage in the hall.

With many thanks to the organising committee, the sponsors, the performers, all the people who volunteered their time on the day and to Donald Daby for the photos of this memorable event. Most of all, to the local people who came along!

Janette and Smita greet the guests, and sell some raffle tickets at the same time

Brunel Bannister on guitar and Councillor Mark Ingleby on keyboard

The fabulous Police Cadets, endlessly helpful, endlessly cheerful!

Chris and Brian the dynamic caretaker duo

Stave - remember you saw them here first!

Performances on the George Green Hall stage by Tamil Dancers

Councillor Janet Daby with the Tamil Dancers

Mr WillHe WontHe entertaining the children

Stevie G, DJ Cobra and friend

Face Painting - you can't see the huge queue

George from the Community Safety Team with Elwood, acting Chair of Goldsmiths Community Association

Hard selling to potential members of the Goldsmiths Community Association 
- would you like to join?

Janet on the sharing table (including raspberries, redcurrants and gooseberries picked that very morning from Kendale Allotments)

Sue, Treasurer of the Goldsmiths Community Association, wearing 'two hats'

Representatives from L and Q and Denne explain the imminent regeneration of the nearby Excalibur prefab Estate

Angela, health trainer on the NHS stall

Some frantic pedalling produced these lovely drinks from the ever popular Smoothie Bike

Fruit chopping for the Smoothie Bike!

Steve Hurren and colleague on the Phoenix Community Housing stall

Heidi Alexander MP, Sally Cross, Goldsmiths Centre Manager, and Councillor Janet Daby

Jonathan Slater, Heid Alexander, Sally Cross, and Janet Daby. Sally has been centre manager at Goldsmiths Community Centre for 22 years, and retired on Friday 26 July.We hope she takes with her many happy memories of the centre and wish her well for the future, in her retirement!