Likewise works alongside adults experiencing complex challenges, including mental ill health and social exclusion. 

We were founded in 1988 as the Holy Cross Centre Trust, to support the marginalised, socially excluded communities around Kings Cross. The simple vision at the start was to address the need for companionship, support and a place to meet to have essential human contact. The intention was to create a community space for all people to be safe to be themselves, where nobody attempted to ‘work for’ clients, rather to be alongside them.

The threads of working alongside people in an informal environment, prioritising relationships, being human, and creating a meeting place for people experiencing mental ill health and social exclusion are all continued by Likewise today. Our clients range in age from 18 to 80+, with an average of 42-44 (the average age of a mental health diagnosis in Camden is 37) and are in line with NHS Camden’s serious mental illness demographic data, with most also experiencing multiple, complex issues. The percentage of people with a serious mental illness is almost 83% higher in the most deprived population quintile compared to the least.

An increasing proportion of our clients have particularly complex needs. As we have become renowned for our capacity to work with complex clients in a way that other services cannot, we receive increasing numbers of referrals from mental health teams and psychiatrists who know that we can build strong relationships with clients that have struggled to engage elsewhere in the system.Our core values of learning, doing and belonging run throughout our three streams of work: - 1-1 independent living support - learning programme- community programmeThese interconnected, interdependent strands of work towards our two main aims: - To help people finding life difficult (emotionally and practically) to better navigate it, feeling a sense of acceptance and belonging.- To influence change in the health and care system so that organisations and services become more human, adaptable, andresponsive to people’s lives.