The Invisible Café has launched! As a member of the Invisible Café, you will receive discounts on health, beauty, fitness, food, hair and exclusive access to a very special online designer vintage store. Some upcoming events are shown below, but there is much more to come!

Thursday 22nd, 11.30pm – Pilates Class

Sunday 25th April – Coffee morning 

Take a look at the website and join up as a member!

theinvisiblecafe.co.uk

Membership | The Invisible Café

Civil Society have reported that The Fundraising Regulator and Chartered Institute of Fundraising have published new guidance on fundraising in the coronavirus environment, as some lockdown measures have started to ease. Read the article here.

Civil Society have reported that JustGiving has launched a free donation processing service for its charity customers, enabling them to collect direct donations via their own website. Read the article here.

The Charity Commission have set out their response to the most commonly asked questions about what to do during the Covid-19 pandemic. Find out more here.

North West London Collaboration of Clinical Commissioning Groups is currently in the process of developing a maternal mental health service aimed at new and expectant mothers who have been affected by complex birth-related trauma and birth fear (tokophobia); and who cannot benefit from current care provisions.

Please see flyer for more details.

Flyer

The Grove Neighbourhood Centre is delighted to announce that from the 12thApril, in line with the Government’s Covid roadmap, we have re-opened for Support Groups, Children’s activities and Therapists.

In May, we hope to extend activities to a wider range of indoor classes including Pilates and Yoga. These will be compliant with social distancing rules.

From the end of June, we hope to be able to offer our full range of services including Children’s parties. We expect high demand for these so please book as soon as possible.

For details of Hall and Room hire, prices and availability, please call 020 8741 3321 or email gnc@groveneighbours.org.uk.

Be assured that at all times the GNC building is Covid secure.

We would like to thank everyone for their support during this difficult time.

AY Group Community Services CIC is a charitable organisation focused on serving and improving the lives of people in our community. When the UK went into Lockdown in March 2020, Shop and Donate was born. From the food donations we receive, we create food parcels which we send on to local elderly and vulnerable residents, NHS staff and other food banks who support thousands of people in need. Shop and Donate is also an online shop, where we sell a variety of fresh fruit and vegetables.

The proceeds from this go into sustaining and improving our growing services! Together with our sister organisation AY Group Community Services CIC we have been very successful in supporting disadvantaged individuals within our community and across London.

Click here to find out more

Click here to view our timetable

Click here for our Loyalty card

Website links: https://ay-group.org https://shopanddonate.org

 

Tackling health inequalities through facilitating discussions within the community of North West London (NWL) has provided a pathway to re-design and create dialogue that began from multiple approaches that include from a grassroots perspective.  The aim is to hear from communities – local, frontline staff and system leaders of the experiences and to understand the challenges that would inform and develop health initiatives.

Community Voices North West London programme is made up of a collection of individuals from across the Public and Voluntary Community Sectors of which Sobus is part of with representation from Community Organiser, Sharon Tomlin.

Since lockdown Community Voices NWL has progressed and have gained some useful insights from communities across NWL that has led to this approach being recognised nationwide.

For more information, Community Voices North West London can be reached through https://twitter.com/CommVoicesNWL?s=20

Sobus recently published a research report looking into BAME Mental Health in Hammersmith & Fulham. This was a culmination of over 2 years work in partnership with Young Hammersmith & Fulham Foundation and BAME led organisations Nubian Life, People Arise Now and others. The research looked at data over a 3 year period from statutory service providers. In addition local survey of voluntary and community sector organisations was also carried out. Some of the findings make grim reading and highlight the urgent need to address these issues which include:

  • The over-representation of BAME individuals under the care of mental health services
  • Lack of appropriate support for BAME individuals facing mental health issues
  • General lack of mental health service providers compared to most other boroughs in London.
  • BAME communities not engaging with mental health services
  • Lack of support for young people facing mental health issues

A BAME Mental Health group supported the research and is also working towards supporting recommendations made in the report. It is hope that this will help transform the service to a more responsive, preventative and community focused model. This does mean a more collaborative and partnership approach between statutory mental health services, local authority and the voluntary and community sector.

To read the full report click here

Ramadan for 2021 will start in the week commencing 12th April. This is considered the holiest month by Muslims. Apart from fasting the month usually involves communal prayers, social and family gatherings particularly when breaking fast. There may be some restrictions to all these activities in the current COVID 19 pandemic.

Guidance for keeping safe and making the most of this holy month for Muslims under Covid 19 restrictions is available from the following sources

The Muslim Council of Britain has comprehensive guidance on their website through the following link.

https://mcb.org.uk/resources/ramadan/

Some more local places of information and guidance include:

West London Islamic Cultural Centre and Mosque : (Fulham)

https://wlicc.org/

Shepherds Bush Mosque & Muslim Cultural Centre and Mosque (Shepherds Bush)

https://www.shepherdsbushmosque.org/

Al Manaar Muslim Cultural Heritage Centre and Mosque (Ladbroke Grove)

https://almanaar.org.uk/