New Family Hub advice centre to increase services for young adults up to 25
The Isle of Dogs Children and Family Care Centre in Millwall Park reopened on 15 February as a Family Hub offering new services for young people aged up to 25.
Locals who attended the centre’s opening participated in donkey rides and other activities organised by Tower Hamlets Council.
Formerly known as the Isle of Dogs Children and Family Care Centre, the hub is currently running a spring activities programme. This includes playgroups, speech and language therapy and teen socials in partnership with the non-profit Streets of Growth.
Jehana Begum, the Hub’s Child Suffiency Business Support Officer, said: ‘We want people to know it’s more than a children’s centre.’
She explained that there has been a gap in services for children between five and thirteen which the new Family Hub will address.
The centre will continue to offer its Start of Life services including antenatal classes and children’s health clinics. In addition to this, the hub will provide benefits advice, play space for children between five and thirteen during school holidays, and mental health workshops on self-care, boundaries and grief.
By combining different resources under one roof, the Family Hubs programme will be a one-stop shop for locals seeking physical and mental health support. It will hopefully ease pressure on NHS mental health services, which were contacted by three times as many young people last year than in 2016, according to the British Medical Association.
The borough’s deputy mayor, Cllr Maium Talukdar, has said the centre ‘will make it easier for families to access services and support’.
The Family Hubs programme is run by the Department of Education and currently operates free of charge in 75 boroughs across the UK.
In Tower Hamlets, it is divided into four localities. The South East area includes Blackwall, Cubitt Town, Poplar and the Isle of Dogs. Two more Southeast hubs operate at 115 Three Colt Street and 45 Kerbey Street.
For more information visit Thfamilyhubs.co.uk
For more local news, read our piece about the re-opening of The Queen’s Head, a traditional community pub in Limehouse