YMCA London South West is a charitable organisation that has served the local community since 1874. Over the years we’ve moved buildings and changed our name but we’ve always strived to achieve our vision of being:
“a Christian charity where people can come as they are; be met at their point of need and come to know life in all its fullness”.
We work from four main centres, providing a range of services including supported housing, health and fitness (Y+ Fitness), childcare (Space), youth work (Room) and catering (Canteen). We are the largest provider of housing for the homeless in South West London and last year we helped and housed over 400 people, many as young as 16 years old.
As well as providing accommodation, we run a number of extra programmes, activities and courses that make a real difference. Programmes such as Life Skills that teaches practical things like budgeting, cooking and job skills. These are skills that really give our residents the confidence, knowledge and support to move back into independent living.
How Canteen Supports This Surpluses from social enterprises like Canteen and Y+ Fitness are used to fund programmes like Life Skills or to provide subsidised places on our day camps or used to buy equipment for the YMCA Music Room youth project.
So, the coffee you buy as you head for the station or the lunch you have with a friend after shopping or with work colleagues will make a real positive difference to someone in your community.