Last Thursday City Gateway Women’s Project played host to 70 children and their families for a Christmas Party. A good time was had by all and we’re excited by what 2012 will hold for our families work.

The staff at City Gateway Women’s Project in Poplar wanted to hold a Christmas Party for school children in the local community as part of the launch of their Children and Families work.  The afternoon was a treat for the children with all sorts of activities to do from badge making, to playing pass-the-parcel and Santa even paid a visit. The parents weren’t left out of the fun either, with massages and beauty treatments on offer exclusively for them. The party was very well received by local families, one woman even said, ‘this party left me speechless!’. It is clear that offering families a place to play and be themselves has a big impact on this community.

The party was a wonderful opportunity for several different groups from City Gateway and beyond to do something together. Flavour Gateway, our catering arm, provided first-class refreshments for guests; Beauty Gateway, our beauty therapy enterprise, provided massage and henna treatments for the parents and several of the corporate team donated their time and expert services as puppeteers. We would also like to take this opportunity to thank Rothschild who supported us in this venture, providing us with the resources to party in style. It was great to join together in bringing hope to Tower Hamlets in such a joyous fashion at this time of year.

This party was run to launch City Gateway’s families work and an after-schools clubs for families in Tower Hamlets. The response was overwhelmingly positive, with parents enquiring about the possibility of clubs with ‘bits of fun, but also learning’ for their 5 -11 year olds; covering subjects as diverse as nutrition and English and Maths, sport and crafts.

So in the New Year we will be doing just that, providing a local after-school club that entertains and educates children, and supports parents in raising flourishing children. We are still looking for help resourcing these events, both in terms of volunteer support and funding for materials. If you would like to help us provide support to women in Tower Hamlets, please get in touch.