Tour of Lewisham’s voluntary sector

Ever wanted to find out more about Lewisham's voluntary sector but were too afraid to ask?

We often get asked to conduct tours of the voluntary sector as a way of giving professionals a better idea of the diverse work of local voluntary organisations.

Our next tour will be on Monday 23 January. Contact Mark (details below) if you wish to attend.

Our first tour was held in August when 14 of us – a mix of people from Lewisham Council, NHS SE London, SLaM and the voluntary sector – went on a tour that predominantly focused on health and social care providers. Those who were hoping to escape Catford for the day were to be somewhat disappointed – as the seven projects we went to were all in the SE6 area.

Projects we visited included those delivering services to a range of different client groups, including:
• Physical disability
• Older people
• Mental health, and
• Learning disabilities

The seven projects we visited were:
Lewisham Disability Coalition
www.ldcadvice.co.uk
Age Concern Lewisham and Southwark
www.acls.org.uk
St Laurence Centre
http://www.stlaurencecatford.org.uk/wherearewe.html
Turkish Elders Club
www.turkisheldersclub.co.uk
Voluntary Action Lewisham
www.valewisham.org.uk
Family Health Isis 
www.familyhealthisis.org.uk
Youth A.I.D Lewisham
http://www.youthaid.org.uk/
Lewisham Nexus Service
www.nexussupportservices.org

One recurring theme on the tour was that participants said that they had walked past many of the projects every day on their way to work and yet they knew little about what the projects did.

Inevitably, there was a compromise to be struck between how much time we spent walking and the length of our visit to each project. With hindsight, it might perhaps have been better to spend longer at a smaller number of projects. Although, that would have made for a shorter tour.

A map, below, roughly outlines the route we took. There is further information in the attachment below.

We've had some great feedback on the tour. Some of the comments from participants include:

“Thanks for arranging this. I found it really useful as I'm sure others will.”

“Very good, I really enjoyed it. Thanks for organising it all.”

 “Thanks for organising today’s tour. I found it very interesting and it was nice to get the chance to find out about some of the important work that third sector organisations are doing locally.”

In future, we hope to hold further tours, following different routes and taking in other themes. If you are interested in finding out more, please contact Mark on 020 8314 9841.