City Gateway is a charity dedicated to bringing hope to the local communities of Tower Hamlets - we were set up by a group of City workers keen to support the community around them.

In July we’re celebrating the wonderful British summer and looking ahead to August’s rather unconventional timetable – with our normal delivery taking a bit of a holiday it’s a chance to launch our annual summer programme and redecorate two of our centres!

The school holidays are a key opportunity for us to connect with a wide range of young people and get them engaged in positive activities. From art competitions to football tournaments we’re running something for everyone this Summer, including a new accredited sports leadership award.

The summer programme is a great way for teams of volunteers to get involved so if you or a group of your colleagues would be interested in coming down to the centre to help out one day during August e-mail Jerry!.

Demand for our women’s project’s courses is now so great that we’re spreading out some of our English classes to a new centre, in partnership with St Paul’s Shadwell Church. The new classes are just one of a range of new schemes to improve English levels – look out for the launch of a new ‘Literacy Lunch’ volunteer scheme in next month’s newsletter.

Our main centre at Lansbury Lodge is also taking a much needed break for a couple of weeks but we’ll be using the brief pause to respond to the women’s feedback about the centre and complete a refurbishment project there – plenty of volunteering opportunities included!

Our main youth training also takes a break for the summer but the team will still be busy supporting our wider summer programme and also working closely with our latest graduates to ensure they’re progressing on into work. Over the academic year we’ve seen 60 young people take on our apprenticeship programme, a number we hope to see double next year.

The down time is also an opportunity to complete the redecorating work that volunteers from HSS started a few months back – with support from a number of teams of volunteers we’re looking to tackle the corridors and public spaces at the Montefiore Centre.

Flavour Gateway now sources the freshest possible ingredients as locally as possible, including a co-operative fruit and vegetable firm and even our own garden plot at our women’s centre. The team have been learning new techniques to minimize the levels of sugars, salt and fat whilst at the same time maximizing flavour - a gateway to good health and enjoyable eating!

If you are involved in a corporate/community football team and would like to get involved in an upcoming league Gateway Media will be developing please get in touch! For the latest news on Gateway Media check out their own newsletter online now.