On Thursday 12th October we enjoyed a busy, bustling morning celebrating the official launch of our weekly community services drop-in! A morning of coffee, croissants and chat, the launch provided an ideal opportunity for attendees to meet other Lewisham residents whilst discovering the variety of services now on offer. We’re especially grateful to the Lewisham Irish Community Centre for hosting us, and for providing this precious weekly space where we and our partners can join together and serve the community.
Since relocating this spring, it’s been inspiring to see our drop-in grow steadily in size and scope. Regular attendees now come along each week to enjoy some friendly company, and boost their wellbeing through fun, creative activities like painting, writing and board games. Others come along for one-to-one appointments with our friendly, knowledgeable team, who help them explore and access what’s available in their neighbourhood. This might be anything from social clubs and exercise classes to adult education courses or financial advice services. Whatever the need is, we do our very best to help Lewisham residents find what they’re looking for and start tackling issues like loneliness, social isolation and/or economic hardship.
The spacious building we now occupy has allowed for a whole host of partner organisations to begin working alongside us each week! Last Thursday’s launch event celebrated this in style by bringing them all together under one roof. We had taster sessions in seated Zumba (a weekly fixture at the Irish Centre), sewing tutorials from Make Mee Studio, and a range of information and advice stalls led by our growing roster of specialist partners. To date, these include Lewisham Local (volunteering opportunities), Together for Wellbeing (mental health support), CGL (drug and alcohol support), Brook (sexual health), SELCE (energy advice) and Imago (support for carers). We’ve also been pleased to welcome other Age UK Lewisham & Southwark services, such as our Information & Advice team, and low-cost toenail cutting service ‘Happy Feet’.
A great morning all in all, which we hope will spread news of our drop-in to many more residents who stand to benefit. Don’t forget, we are there every Thursday from 10:30am-12:30pm. It’s completely free and open to all Lewisham residents aged 18+ (no appointments needed!).
Read further at our Drop-In page, or stay updated by following us on social media.