Founded by Sat Singh, Renaissance Foundation has been supporting vulnerable young patients and carers since 2006 through its three-year programme which focuses on helping these young people attain their educational, employment and personal development goals despite their challenging personal circumstances. We deliver more than 70 activities per year to the c. 80 young people we currently have on our programme and want to do more.
In January 2020, we were preparing to kick off the process to move to an unusual space – the crypt of a St Botolph’s without Aldgate Church! The Hub as we decided to call it was going be Renaissance Foundation’s first permanent home – providing a safe, welcoming, and consistent space for our teens.
Fast forward to three months later and Covid-19 brought everything to a crashing halt. We moved into firefighting mode ensuring all our services moved online so we could continue to support our young people who needed us more than ever whilst schools and other support services were closed. Shifting our services online was great and we will continue to offer this for those young people who for health or caring reasons can’t always join in person.
We are so grateful to the Cherry Family Foundation for supporting our vision and helping make our first ever space a reality
Ultimately we are looking forward to moving back to our usual model of work where we host face to face visits, drop ins, workshops, and experiences – over summer 2021, we were able to host several in person visits which showed the value of being together so as soon as we could we started the legal process again to enable our move.
Funding from The Cherry Family Foundation
This is why we were so delighted that the Cherry Family Foundation supported us with a grant of £20,000 towards this exciting project – as a small charity with a turnover of £300,000 PA, a grant of this size is transformative. The application process was easy, and we submitted our first ever video bid for the funds which featured our programme coordinator Corey. Below you can see some artists impressions of the Hub and a timeline for its development. We are so grateful to the Cherry Family Foundation for supporting our vision and helping make our first ever space a reality – we are so, so grateful and look forward to welcoming the Trustees to our Hub when it is open!
Why St. Botolph’s?
The location of St. Botolph’s within the City of London boundary, next to Aldgate tube station is ideal for our work as most of the young people we support live in Tower Hamlets or surrounding areas.
Our own space will offer us flexibility, security, and permanence. The young people we support have hectic and sometimes chaotic, difficult lives through no fault of their own. A Hub – a place they can call their own; decorate and enjoy will be a big bonus for our young people.
Young people will experience a reduction in the isolation they feel by meeting other young people experiencing similar issues and circumstances.
Being in the heart of the city makes attendance easier as public transport links are good – we will become more accessible. We are also close to potential corporate partners to support with fundraising and volunteering thereby helping make RF more sustainable.
Timeline
Lease and legals sorted – Feb 2022, followed by Public Consultation (4 weeks), wet works begin (March 2022, Fit out of the rest of the space (April 2022), Snagging (May 2022) and moving in June 2022.
Find out more about Renaissance Foundation and their work.
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