It's not every day that the Prime Minister and his wife pop into the cafe...
13 April 2010
Last Thursday we were honoured to welcome the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, and his wife Sarah to the Bromley by Bow Centre. It was an unexpected visit that very few staff knew about until the car pulled up outside the health centre gates!
The Prime Minister and his wife were at the Centre for over an hour and met with staff, patients and many of the local people who come to the Centre for classes, advice and the numerous workshops and activities. There was plenty of time to sit in the café and informally chat to the staff and customers. The Prime Minister was particularly keen to see for himself the progress that the Bromley by Bow Centre has made in developing it's social enterprises and responding to the new opportunities that the 2012 Olympics will bring to the local area given that the stadium is only a few hundred yards away. He also spoke to our employment advisors about the challenges of tackling long-term unemployment and the barriers to work for local people.
One of the highlights of the day for many Centre staff and users was meeting Sarah Brown. She took a deep interest in the work of the new Pollen project which focuses on using social therapeutic horticulture to support people with long-term health needs. She listened intently as people described their experiences of how the Bromley by Bow Centre has supported and enabled them to gain confidence and get back into work. Sarah was also keen to hear about Green Dreams, our landscaping social enterprise, which builds new innovative playgrounds for young children. She was particularly interested in how playgrounds challenge children to be more adventurous, drawing on her own experience as a mother of two young children!
Sarah Brown posted a very interesting blog at the end of the day, reflecting on her visit to Bromley by Bow....
"Gorgeous spring sunshine was the perfect beginning for day three and while Gordon was up at dawn (as ever!) preparing for interviews and press work, I was reading about the Bromley by Bow Centre which I last visited a few years ago and which has changed a lot since then.
When I first went it was a pioneering community centre with innovative volunteering programmes and new social enterprises, but it has expanded massively in the past few years and now includes a health centre, a beautiful community garden and new play equipment for children.
In the green gym (the inspirational garden that provides solace, space and skills to vulnerable adults seeking a fresh start) I met Lisa Cunningham - she started as a client, volunteering a few hours a week to help her through a period of depression, and she's now the manager of the whole green gym. I also met the group of ladies who tend the vegetable patch and was able to swap tips with them from my own experience with grow bags and veggie pots in our Downing Street urban garden.
In the Enterprise Hub we met people doing a whole mix of things; graphic designers, playground toy designers, a duo running a bike hub and a mentoring organisation inspiring creative talent by providing the tools people need to experiment with different ways of expressing themselves. And finally legendary Mums Salma and Flossie who run the café and serve more than 150 lunches every day. I headed home to serve lunch to two customers of my own, and had an afternoon with the boys before another evening of speaking to voters on the phone."
