A charity may lose its headquarters after requests for more appropriate buildings has been ignored by Hackney Council, says the charity’s CEO.
Children With Voices, a charity providing education and food for underprivileged young people and families, must raise £25,000 in the next five years to retain its current headquarters in Fawcett Estate, Clapton.
The charity has supported more than 100,000 families across Hackney and distributed more than 300,000 meals through their Community Food Hub.
Michelle Dornelly, founder and CEO of Children With Voices, said that Fawcett Estate is currently too “small” for them to provide help to more children in the borough.
She added that the charity’s Community Food Hub, based in De Beauvoir, “needs a bigger space” for its operations.
Dornelly said that the charity “have been begging, pleading, and doing all [they] can” to source appropriate buildings in the borough from Hackney Council, but “to no avail”.
“We’ve been asking the council for the longest time,” she said. “[They have] sent clients to us, [they] know who we are. Can we have a bigger space? And it’s just ignore, ignore, ignore.”
Cllr Chris Kennedy, a Cabinet Member in Hackney Council, said: “We recognise the vital role community groups like Michelle’s play in Hackney, which is why we’ll invest £20m in voluntary organisations in the borough this year.”
Cllr Kennedy added that, although they have allocated a subsidised space for Children With Voices, the council “recognise that these premises aren’t ideal,” and is “continuing to support them to find something better that suits their needs”.
Dornelly, who won the Mayor of Hackney Civic Award (2021) and the Pride of Britain Award (2022), said that this recognition has not resulted in financial support from external investors or the council.
Maeve Godwin is a student journalist, studying MA Newspaper Journalism at City St George's, University of London.