Castlehaven is no ordinary community centre. It’s premises, just to the west of Camden Lock, do serve local people, but to think ‘village hall’ is to start at the wrong end of an evolutionary journey of almost 37 years that has seen Castlehaven Community Association (CCA) grow from a small building based service provider into a dynamic agency for social change constantly searching for new more effective ways of alleviating social problems old and new.
What are these problems? Parts of CCA’s catchment area are defined (nationally) as being in the 6% most deprived in terms of multiple deprivations, it’s immediate environ is a typical densely populated inner city area, where large blocks of high rise social housing crowd together the problems of poverty and social disadvantage. Hence, many of those living in the Camden Town Ward are:
What has been CCA’s response? These problems are all moving plates that constantly slide together and cause fractures in both families and society, pitching young against old, ‘haves’ against ‘have-nots’, leaving people isolated and divided along lines of ethnicity, postcode, age and culture. CCA, an independent charity with a mix of public and private funders, has responded by designing & delivering new approaches to these problems that, whether building or community based, bring people together, growing new social links and acquaintanceship to replace those lost or needed. A long list of such initiatives includes:
Castlehaven belongs to a new breed of community centres, not just a building but more an entrepreneurial force within the community, devoted to promoting social cohesion and bringing about change.