This beautiful tree was drawn by one of the members of MECS Meetups, the social group set up for refugees and asylum-seekers in February this year.
Dear friends,
We understand this is going to be a difficult festive season for many, but we continue to hope for peace, warmth and better times for all throughout the winter period and beyond.
We have continued to face huge demand on our services from people across London who are struggling with their mental health.
Huge thanks go to all our counsellors, supervisors and office team of staff and volunteers for their hard work, care and dedication in 2022. We would like to extend our immense gratitude to all our supporters and funders for your generosity this year. With your support we are able to make a crucial difference in people’s lives at the time when they need it most.
We hope you enjoy reading our news and updates from these last few months…
Annual Report 2021-2022
We are pleased to share with you our Annual Report for 2021/22 which is now available on our website, click here to view
Fundraising Update
We are so grateful to have been supported by the above fantastic organisations over the past year, as well as The Swan Mountain Trust and The Leigh Trust. We thank them all for making our work possible.
Huge thanks to the Orange Tree Trust who recently awarded us £20,000 over the next two years for our work with refugees and asylum-seekers, and to the Chapman Charitable Trust for their grant of £2,000.
Q2 Impact Report (July – September) Impact Report
Partnership with Statista
In October Frazer & Edoardo from Statista ran the Royal Parks Half Marathon in aid of Waterloo Community Counselling. We want to say a huge well done to the lads for finishing, and a massive thanks to them for their hard work and commitment to WCC.
From donations on JustGiving they managed to raise over £560 which will go towards supporting at risk & vulnerable people with vital mental health support.
Not only did Statista run a half marathon in support of WCC, they also donated beautiful chairs and sofas which have transformed our waiting area. Thank you to Ella, Katie, Lodovica and all the team! We look forward to continuing our relationship with Statista in 2023.
Social Groups & Activities
On a wet and windy morning we visited St Johns Waterloo, the historic church on the Waterloo roundabout. St Johns have recently reopened after a long period of renovation and we were shown around their refurbished church and community space underneath. Thank you to Abigail and all the kind people from The Bridge at Waterloo for making us feel so welcome. We were given a tour around the space, and even managed to sneak a peak at the South Bank Sinfonia who were rehearsing. After a tour, and a bite to eat, we enjoyed a handicraft / art session from Najlaa and Chris who were both on hand to help.
St Johns have made a wonderful, welcoming space and are opening their doors on Tuesdays from 10 – 3 for people who want pop in for a cuppa, use their Wi-Fi and have a chat.
Laptop Donations
Thank you to Currys for donating 6 Macbook Air laptops to us to some of our distribute to digitally-excluded clients.
Many refugees and asylum-seekers face digital exclusion which limits their access to support, as well as making contact to family and friends more difficult. Thanks to Currys, we are able to do our bit to challenge this.
We have received some lovely feedback from service users, see one example below: