City Gateway is a charity dedicated to bringing hope to the local communities of Tower Hamlets - we run youth & women’s projects, working in partnership with neighbouring businesses.

This month the Rt Hon. Stephen Timms MP, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, invited us to host a reception at 11 Downing Street to celebrate our 10th anniversary. The event was an opportunity to share some of the insights into third sector delivery, private sector partnerships and NEET provision that we have learned through our work. Read more about it online here.

We were delighted to be able to share the evening with representatives from a number of the firms that have supported us over the years, as well as using it as an opportunity to build connections with a number of new partners - our only disappointment was that we couldn’t invite all 600 guests who came to our Community Showcase earlier in the year.

We also launched our new ‘Working in Partnership’ video highlighting some of the ways firms are currently supporting our work as well as new opportunities for others to be involved.

The reception was an opportunity for us to feed into, and engage with, government policy. Half a dozen MPs attended the event and we promoted the continued priority that must be given to equipping and supporting third sector organisations.

“Working with organisations such as City Gateway we’re not only able to directly support a solution to local problems, but we’re also able to encourage private sector organisations to recognise the responsibilities they have to the local communities they operate in.” Rt. Hon. Stephen Timms MP.

Our approach involves a strong focus on individual needs, clear progression routes, sustainable enterprise and the use of corporate links to break down many of the specific barriers our service users face. Our message to politicians is that the third sector is often best placed to deliver and mustn’t be overlooked in their own community planning.

We are keen to continue building wider community partnerships to share resource and experience on a local and national scale to meet the real needs communities face. We’re also committed to our own process of learning and would love to hear more from other charities’ work.

It has been great to use our anniversary to look back at what we have achieved over the past decade. If you haven’t looked at it already our 10th Anniversary Review highlights a handful of the individual success stories we’ve had in recent years.

The reception also saw us launch a new ‘Working in Partnership’ booklet and a 2 minute video showcasing the diversity of our work, all of which has been put together by our successful Gateway Media social enterprise - they’re well worth checking out if you have media needs you’d like to see met in a professional but socially beneficial way.