60 years of supporting people with learning disabilities and their families
News and Events
Follow Centre 404's building progress here on our new blog!
Centre 404 has moved to new offices in Holloway road
NEW Groups and Activities for Adults and Children with personal budgets
Sign the Petition: Don't let disabled children pay the price for welfare reform
Jean Willson is awarded an OBE
Marcus Raven raises over £1000 in 24 hour Rollerblading Challenge
Volunteer Joseph Greene raises over £200 for Centre 404
Greater London Volunteering Charter Mark
Centre 404 has moved to new offices on Holloway road
Centre 404 is now based at the Resource Centre in Holloway Road while the building work is in progress. The Resource Centre is next to Waitrose. Clubs are held at the Daylight Centre. Click here for a map to our new office and for more information.
NEW Groups and Activities for Adults and Children with personal budgets
We have new groups and activities available for people with personal budgets. The groups are open to any age and any support needs.
Ice-skating Group: Thursdays from 10am - midday - now available This is an accessible group open to all. Wheelchair users are welcome.
Women's Group: Wednesday mornings
Football Fans Club: Saturdays
Costs depends on your support requests. Prices start from £18 per 3 hour session or from £6 per hour.
We can also create new groups depending on your interests. If you would like more information, join a group or to discuss a new group, please contact James on 020 7697 1323 or email jamesh@centre404.org.uk
Petition: Don't let disabled children pay the price for welfare reform
The Government have announced plans for a substantial cut to welfare support for disabled children under the Universal Credit. The new system will result in many of these children losing up to £1400 per year (£27 per week) compared to the current system - by the time a disabled child reaches 16, this could cost the family £22,000. The Government estimates that 100,000 disabled children would lose out under this change - other estimates suggest the number could be considerably higher.
Financial support is crucial to help families with the costs of raising a disabled child and manage their extra caring responsibilities. £27 is more than half the average family’s food budget - enough to mean the difference between a family meeting their child’s basic needs, and being left simply unable to cope.
We have a one-off opportunity to make a real and important change for disabled children and young people; together we can make a difference.
Please sign this petition and promote it on your Facebook, Linked In and Twitter accounts.
Jean Willson is awarded an OBE
Our Acting Chair and family carer, Jean Willson, has been awarded an O.B.E in recognition of her 40 years of work with people with learning disabilities and their families. Jean was very proud to accept this award and said that it was an acknowledgement of all the work that family carers put in that often goes unrecognised.
The news of the O.B.E was announced at our garden day on 11th June with volunteers, staff, Jean's family, Lyn Cecil (our secret millionaire) and her family in attendance.
Marcus Raven raises over £1000 in Rollerblading Challenge
Speedy Marcus rollerbladed 215 miles in just over 13 hours in the La Mans Roller Endurance Race - a great feat indeed! He raised £550 to go towards Centre 404 and came 4th in the race in the Duo catagory.
If you would still like to donate towards Marcus' fantastic feat, please click here
Volunteer Joseph Greene raises over £200 for Centre 404
A big thank you to one of Centre 404's most dedicated volunteers and regular service users, Joseph Greene, ran in the BUPA 10k on 30 May recently. As part of his sponsored run, Joseph managed to raise over £200 for Centre 404 to go towards our clubs and building refurbishment this year. He made good time finishing in just over 2 hours. Joseph said he had a brilliant experience and will be again next year. He hopes more people will join him for the run in 2012. If you would like to join in, please call Carla on 020 7607 8762. Entry fee is around £30 - more information here
Our Secret Millionaire
In October last year we were approached by a Channel 4 film crew to do a programme about older people volunteering in the community. Lyn Cecil was filmed taking part in the Juniors Club, the Garden Project and she met some of our family carers involved at Centre 404 including our trustee, Jean Willson. Lyn and Jean struck up a friendship as Jean showed Lyn the ropes and introduced her to Centre 404’s people. Lyn showed enormous kindness and patience and really took the time to get to know our family carers and learn more about the work that Centre 404 does. Lyn showed great enthusiasm and interest in our work and wasn't afraid to get her hands dirty at our gardening session or at the Juniors club. She was particularly impressed by Centre 404's work with supporting our family carers, who Lyn recognised as women ‘living on the edge.’
The final day of filming Lyn met up with Jean to give Centre 404 a cheque for £20,000! Lyn donated £18,000 to go towards funding the Juniors Club and £2000 to go towards our work with family carers who met Lyn. It was a lovely surprise to find out that we had been filmed for Channel 4’s Secret Millionaire and to receive such a generous donation from Lyn! We are very pleased that this money will continue to fund our Juniors Club for the next year and that some of it will also go to providing a special event for our family carers.
A very big thanks to the wonderful Lyn Cecil for her very generous donation and the Channel 4 production team who made it all possible!
Charities are all facing difficult times for funding at the moment and we are always appreciative of donations to go towards helping us continue to support people with learning disabilities and their families. If you would like to make a donation to the club featured in the programme, please click here
Greater London Volunteering Charter Mark
We are proud to announce that our Volunteer Programme received a Greater London Volunteering Charter Mark in February 2011. This Charter Mark recognises that Centre 404 is committed to good volunteer management. Greater London Volunteering was also impressed by the level of volunteer management and number of volunteers at Centre 404 (85 since April 2010) and said that Centre 404's Volunteer Programme is well advanced.
JLS Visit Centre 404
JLS, who support the Children In Need appeal, came along to meet our young people and to see some of the great work that Centre 404 does with our Youth Group. The band spoke to our club members and saw first hand the difference the club makes to the lives of the young people who attend them. The visit was a wonderful surprise that we will remember for a long time to come. For the full story and more pictures click here.
