Community Directory: Charities

If you’re planning to refurnish a room the right piece might just be there waiting for you at the Barnet Furniture Centre. This valuable local asset is at the top of Colney Hatch Lane in Friern Barnet (4 Queens Parade Close, N11 3FY – tel 020 8361 6802) and should be much better known.

BFC is a Reuse and Recycling charity (No 1140541) set up in 2011 under what’s called the Third Party Reuse/Recycling Initiative. Last year it recycled just over 100 tons (c £200,000 in sales) of good quality donated furniture and household goods that would otherwise have been thrown away into landfill. That’s the contents of around 200 three-bedroom houses. This year the total will approach around 250.

Stock’s constantly changing - you can see latest arrivals on weekly videos and photos at facebook.com/barnetfurniturecentre. BFC can also arrange to collect your unwanted furniture of good standard. Because they are generally very busy they do ask that you supply pictures of unwanted items for appraisal.

Two-tier prices help those on benefits. In addition, BFC has helped many volunteers who have come under local Help-to-Work schemes back into employment. Out of around 40 since 2011, just over half have ended up working for BFC or gone to other jobs. So it has a valuable dual role in the community.

Really worth a visit. Readers of Palmers Green Community can claim 20% discount on their first purchase by quoting RECYCLE123.

Open 9am-5pm except Sunday and Bank Holidays.

Please see full details at: www.barnetfurniturecentre.org.

Last updated: February 2021

The welcoming and friendly drop-ins provide an opportunity for people living with cancer to relax, access support, information and meet others who understand how cancer can affect you. Taster sessions of complementary therapy are also available.

Last updated: January 2021

CAPE is a group of carers and parents (and relatives) of adults aged 18 years and over with learning disabilities in Enfield.

CAPE offers:

• ​Support and Friendship
• Advice and information
• Voicing Carers' issues

Last updated: January 2021

Citizens Advice Enfield is a charity that offers free, accessible,quality advice to anyone who lives in Enfield. We can help with all kinds of problems whether they are housing, employment, benefits, debts or immigration issues for example.

Aims & Principles

The Citizens Advice service provide free, independent, confidential and impartial advice to everyone on their rights and responsibilities. It values diversity, promotes equality and challenges discrimination

Our Service aims:

• To provide the advice people need for the problem they face
• To improve the policies and practices that effect people’s lives

History

We have been providing advice in the London Borough of Enfield since 2nd September 1939. We started in tiny offices in Fore Street Edmonton, staffed by a handful of volunteers. Today, most of the people you will meet at our current offices in Ponders End are still volunteers, but they are supported by a small team of paid staff.

Last updated: July 2018

Our mission: To support, empower, and enrich the lives of Older Members in the Community.

Last updated: January 2021

Enfield Carers Centre is a local charity offering support and advice for all unpaid carers in the borough of Enfield. A carer is someone of any age who provides unpaid support to family or friends who could not manage without help. This could be caring for a partner, relative or friend who is ill, frail, disabled or has mental health or substance misuse problems. 1 in 8 adults are carers.  We offer social activities, opportunities to meet with other local carers, relaxation sessions for some 'me time' and practical advice and information.

Last updated: October 2014

We are a small charity with big ideas based in the London Borough of Enfield. We provide services and social events for the local community, in particular those of Caribbean descent.

Enfield Caribbean Association (ECA) was established in 1986. We work to eliminate racial discrimination and for an inclusive, fair and equal community, in which people of Caribbean origin can develop their full potential as visible, positive contributors and participants in the life of the Borough of Enfield.

Last updated: January 2021

Enfield Disability Action (EDA) is a pan-impairment organisation run by and for disabled people of all ages. EDA works to, and promotes, a social model of disability.

As an umbrella organisation for local disability groups, EDA shares training, policy development and best-practice guidance to facilitate the development of this section of the local third sector.

EDA works strategically with Voluntary and Statutory partners, provides input to local planning and consultative mechanisms, conducts research, enables project development, sources funding, provides a core organisational infrastructure, facilitates quality-assured practices and hosts the following services:

• Advocacy & Community Forum Project – for groups and individuals
• CancerLIFE – also offers Cancer Awareness and Healthy Living sessions
• Challenging Abuse and Tackling Hate Crime
• Deaf Project – working with Deaf people who use British Sign Language, and with deafened and hard of hearing people who do not use sign language, including those who have caring responsibilities
• Udirect- formerly known as Direct Payments Support Service
• Disability Information & Advice Project
• Enfield Advice Plus Partnership Project
• Independent Living Project - including Enfield Wheelchair Users Forum & Self Directed Assessment

Last updated: October 2014

Enfield Mencap helps adults with a learning disability to improve their quality of life and move towards independence and a fulfilled lifestyle, working with them and their families through a person-centred approach to life planning.

We provide a range of quality services both at The New Opportunity Centre in Edmonton and out in the community.

All services are developed around an individual service user’s needs and aspirations, identified through regular planning meetings and person-centred reviews. Service users are encouraged to take a holistic view of their lives encompassing leisure, work, education, social and home life.

Last updated: January 2021

EVA provides a wide range of services for voluntary sector organisations and for individual volunteers, including training courses,  advice on setting up, running and developing voluntary groups and a detailed list of volunteering opportunities in the borough.

EVA's Volunteer Centre helps individuals find volunteering tasks and prepare for them.

Last updated: October 2014

Previously known as Enfield Parents & Children

Every Parent & Child (formerly Enfield Parents & Children) is a registered charity working for the benefit of children, young people and families in the London Borough of Enfield and surrounding areas. We offer services to children, young people and their families to support with advising on accessing educational provision for Special Educational Needs and Disabilities, applying for school places, young people’s mental health and wellbeing and skills and confidence building.

Our Mission is to offer children in our community opportunities to learn, develop and thrive.

Services

SENDIASS - Special Educational Needs & Disability, Information Advice & Support Service

"My Time" - Child Counselling Service and Volunteering Service

Last updated: January 2021

Hands On London, a registered charity with the Charity Commission, was founded in 2010.  We are the local affiliate of the global umbrella organisation, Hands on Network (HON), which is headquartered and registered in the United States. Hands on London (HOL) strives to be the first point of contact for individuals in London who want to be involved in community service. Using an international model of volunteerism that has been utilised successfully in over 250 locations in the US and 14 other countries, HOL acts as an intermediary between volunteers and charity/community groups.

Mission

• To help charities, not-for-profits, and community organisations meet their volunteer needs.
• To help individuals and organisations to give back to the community in a meaningful way.

To accomplish our mission, we partner with local charities/community groups to develop volunteer projects, then recruit, train and manage volunteers and the  projects. We organise a range of volunteer projects including activities with children, assisting in soup kitchens, helping to improve the environment, helping the elderly, helping people with disabilities and animal welfare projects.

Last updated: October 2014

Middlesex Association for the Blind was founded in 1922 to provide support to people with a visual impairment across the Middlesex region. Today we provide a range of services to people living in the London Boroughs of Barnet, Brent, Ealing, Enfield, Harrow, Hillingdon, Hounslow, Haringey and Richmond.

Last updated: January 2021

A charity founded to support cancer sufferers in Enfield

The Nightingale was formed in August 2002 to support people in the London Borough of Enfield affected by cancer. The fast-growing population of the borough and the strain on NHS funding meant that many people were not receiving additional support beyond their cancer diagnosis and NHS treatment. The Nightingale was formed to fill these gaps in the lives of people living with cancer.

The Nightingale is a registered charity (Charity number 1094435) and is a company limited by guarantee. (Company number 4515844). The charity is governed by a board of trustees with a range of skills of experience including ‘but not limited to’ medical, finance, HR, marketing and communications.

Counselling and support services both for patients and their families have been at the heart of the Nightingale’s mission right from the start.

The criteria for support has always been those who live, work or receive their treatment in the borough.  We serve all those living with a cancer diagnosis, their families and partners.

Last updated: January 2021

At Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice we help families make every precious moment count.

We help seriously unwell children and their families make the most of the special time they have together. The majority of babies and children we support are unlikely to reach their 18th birthday. Our staff and volunteers provide clinical, emotional and practical support to families across North and Central London and Hertsmere.

We make sure children and families have access to the support they need, where they need it: in their homes and at the Ark, our state-of-the-art children’s hospice building in Barnet.

Last updated: January 2021

North Enfield Foodbank is located at 2 Lumina Way, Enfield, EN1 1FS (off Lincoln Road).

How a foodbank works

Food is donated.  Schools, churches, businesses and individuals donate non-perishable, in-date food to the foodbank. All food given out by foodbanks is donated.

'Supermarket Collections' are one of the main ways that food is donated: These are food drives held at supermarkets where volunteers give shoppers a 'foodbank shopping list' and ask them to buy an extra item or two for local people in crisis.
Food is sorted and stored

Volunteers sort food to check that it's in date and pack it into boxes ready to be given to people in need.

Frontline care professionals identify people in need. Care professionals such as doctors, health visitors, social workers, CAB and police identify people in crisis and issue them with a foodbank voucher.

Clients receive food. Foodbank clients bring their voucher to a foodbank centre where it can be redeemed for three days emergency food. Volunteers meet clients over a cup of tea or free hot meal and are able to signpost people to agencies able to solve the longer-term problem.

Donations for North Enfield Foodbank are accepted every Saturday morning at Palmers Green United Reformed Church, Fox Lane.

Last updated: December 2015

North London Samaritans covers the London Boroughs of Barnet, Enfield, and Haringey.

North London Samaritans have been based in Bounds Green, London N11 since 1975. We are a Charitable Incorporated Organisation with around 100 volunteers and no paid staff.

That means that all the things that keep the service running – managing the rota, routine administration, overseeing branch finances and premises management, recruitment, selection and training, fundraising, keeping the Centre clean and stocked with tea, coffee and biscuits – are carried out by our volunteers. All our costs must be covered by our own fundraising. This is a dynamic and friendly Samaritans branch, with volunteers who are just ordinary people, carefully selected and trained.

In late 2018, we moved into a new, purpose-built Centre, which houses both our call centre and a community hall that we also use to host our training sessions.

Every year, this branch alone provides emotional support to more than 10,000 callers, a large proportion of whom are experiencing profound feelings of distress or despair; some are suicidal. People from all walks of life contact us, mostly from across the three London Boroughs of Enfield, Haringey and Barnet, but also from other parts of the UK or overseas.

If you would like more information about volunteering at North London Samaritans, please click here. If you would like to support our work in other ways, please click here.

Venue Hire

North London Samaritans owns and manages Shaftesbury Hall, Herbert Road, Bounds Green, London N11 2QN. The hall is now open for booking from £25/hour (£15/hour registered charities), and is ideal for community events, local groups, school activities and private functions. It's equipped with:

• Sprung wooden dance floor
• Fully-fitted kitchen
• Projector and PA system
• Various seating configurations for up to 60 guests

To find out more about Shaftesbury Hall or to enquire about making a booking, please visit www.shaftesburyhalln11.com

Last updated: January 2021

We offer information, friendship and support to local people with Parkinson's their families and carers.

We also organise regular events and social activities, such as drop-ins, bowls, pub lunches and outings. Join us - and meet other people affected by Parkinson's in your area.

Last updated: October 2014

Solace Women’s Aid is an independent charity working across London, with a dedicated team of staff and volunteers, providing life-saving support to more than 11,000 survivors of domestic and sexual violence a year. Solace Women’s Aid works to empower survivors to rebuild their lives through a holistic range of specialist services including refuges, advice, counselling, advocacy, support groups and family & children’s projects enabling them to live their lives independently, free from domestic and sexual abuse.

The charity recognises that breaking free from domestic violence or escaping sexual abuse is only the start. This is why they not only provide practical advice and a safe space to live, but also help women and children recover emotionally and build a future free from abuse.

It doesn’t happen overnight and takes courage and determination but, with Solace’s help women will continue to be able to develop the confidence and independence they need to rebuild their lives.

One Solace service users sums it up “Your bruises go away and your bones mend. But it’s the despair, being hopeless. It’s a very dark place to be. Solace has given me hope.”

Visit www.solacewomensaid.org  to find out more about Solace Women’s Aid services in Enfield and see how you can get involved to make difference to the lives of women and children.

Solace Women’s Aid’s confidential helpline FREEPHONE: 0808 802 5565

Last updated: June 2020

 Soroptimist International is a leading global women's voluntary organisation. It has close to 90,000 members in more than 3,000 Clubs in over 100 countries around the world and for the last 90 years has sought to raise awareness of issues facing women locally, nationally and globally.

At the core of all our work is Programme Action which consists of a number of projects locally, nationally and internationally.  This year the projects that the club is working on are:

Internationally

We are fund raising to support our Birthing in Gambia (BIG) project which provides training and equipment to ensure that women facing complications in pregnancy and childbirth can access appropriate medical help.  This is being undertaken in partnership with Material and Childhealth Advocacy International (MCAI), the government of Gambia, several UN agencies and local communities.

Within our Federation

Members are gathering information from a range of sources to support the Prison Reform Trust as part of their 3 year project.  The project is to reduce the short term imprisonment of women for minor crime and increase the provision of centres based in the community where women can be supported to address the issues that led them into crime.

Within our club members are

1. Raising awareness and gathering signatures for the petition to support the Purple Teardrop Campaign to ban ‘sex for sale advertising’ as part of the overall Soroptimist campaign to combat violence against women.
2. Collecting regularly for the local food bank.
3. Spearheading a regional project which is raising funds to support the training of a nurse, currently working as a carer in a Respite Unit called Othandweni (place of love) in South Africa.  This unit provides care for people in the advanced stages of AIDS.

Last updated: October 2014

The "Stroke and PAT" programme is a collaborative project between the national charity Pets As Therapy, founding Director Sallie Bollans​ and the Ruth Winston Centre​.

Having introduced Animal Assisted Interventions to the multi-disciplinary therapy programme within neurological rehabilitation at a local hospital in 2004, Sallie witnessed first hand the positive effects that occurred when stroke survivors were given the opportunity to interact with dogs during therapy sessions. Working alongside Pets As Therapy volunteer teams, regular visits were arranged for those patients wishing to participate, utilising the dog as a focus when working towards a range of rehab goals.

Frustrated by the limitations and restrictions that inevitably occur when working in a large organisation, but empowered by the testimonials of participating stroke survivors led to the vision, and consequent birth of the community based Stroke and PAT project.

Last updated: November 2014

Studio 306 Collective CIC is a group of skilled Arts and Craft practitioners, who have come together to form an exciting Community Enterprise. At Studio 306, we specialize in designing hand-crafted, high quality Ceramics, Jewellery, Textiles, and Screen Printed products.

The aim of the studio is to empower disadvantaged local individuals. We offer a creative space for people who are recovering from mental illness, where they can rediscover forgotten skills, develop new ones and boost their confidence.

All of the designing and making happens in our lovely North London Studio, located on the 3rd floor of an old chocolate factory.

Studio 306 is a not-for-profit organization, so all of the pennies we make from the sale of goods go straight back into the collective.

All products are available direct from the Studio - Please email us for more details

Please watch our short film to hear all about what we do in our members' own words.

Last updated: February 2017

The Big Choir is a group of enthusiastic singers who fundraise for research into 200 different types of cancer.  We are singers of all ages, abilities and backgrounds and welcome anyone who just loves to sing.  We're not a choir for people who are affected by cancer, but sadly most of our members have been affected either personally or have lost loved ones.  That's why they are so happy to see their monthly subs going to such a worthy cause.  Our donation goes via Cancer Research to the scientists at www.crick.ac.uk, a new biochemical research facility for pioneering research into all cancers.  Apart from the fundraising, we have a very good time together, both during sessions and socially.  We really are one big happy family and we'll make you extremely welcome if you'd like to join us.

All our rehearsals are open to the public and to potential new members, so why not pay us a visit.

Choose between four locations for rehearsals:

• East Finchley - Monday evenings
• Enfield - Wednesday mornings
• Winchmore Hill - Wednesday evenings
• East Barnet - Thursday evenings

Get in touch if you'd like to come along.  

Last updated: March 2019

More than 10 million tonnes of food is wasted in the UK each year. At the same time food poverty is a huge and growing problem, with 1 in 10 children in the UK living with parents who struggle to put food on the table. This means an estimated 870,000 children in England go to bed hungry because their parents are unable to provide the meals they need.

Free of charge, the Felix Project collects good quality food from suppliers. We check it’s fresh and then deliver it to charities so they can give vulnerable people a healthy meal or snack. Put simply, we’re saving food and changing lives.

We have warehouses in Enfield and Park Royal where we use daytime volunteers.  Evening volunteers work from a number of van and courier collection points in various parts of London.

Last updated: May 2018

The Shane Project is a charity for African/Caribbean and Ethnic Minority People living with MS, their families and carers. It was founded in April 2002 by Norma McFarlane, whose two sons were diagnosed with MS. It is named after her eldest son Shane who was diagnosed with Primary Progressive in 1993 but sadly passed away in December 2003. The lack of available support, which was further compounded by isolation, prejudice and stigmatisation that she and her family endured from the local community, prompted Norma to set up the Shane Project.

Last updated: November 2014