If you take a quick look at the websites and calendars of some of the community centres around the UK you can find an amazing range of classes and activities and at bargain prices.
Community centres can provide a great solution for child care, often providing crèche facilities for younger children and fun, after-school care for older kids. Some even provide day care for elderly citizens, giving their usual carers a day a week to relax or attend to other business.
There are also groups and clubs to attend such as book clubs, parent and toddler groups, sewing circles, chess and bridge. Classes include adult education, music for toddlers, T’ai Chi, various forms of dance, art lessons, lectures on nearly every subject you can think of, discussion groups and debates, while sports include everything from cricket and football, to badminton, to darts.
Some community centres run local projects to improve the local area and environment, or competitions, such as “beautiful front gardens”.
The type of services will of course reflect the focus of the centre. For example, this month at the Jewish Community Centre for London, apart from the normal weekly classes and activities, you can attend a Social Action Sunday giving you a chance to support the destitute asylum seekers of London by volunteering to provide medical or legal assistance, or drop off second-hand clothing and disposable nappies. Later in the month there are a number of different performances of Jewish dance and theatre, book discussions, sewing groups for beginners and experts, and talks by holocaust survivors and experts on global warming.
Meanwhile over at the Camden Chinese Community Centre there’s a Chinese New Year fundraising variety show, a women’s group which meets regularly for activities such as health talks, day trips, cookery sessions, swimming classes, IT training course, and celebrations of Chinese and English festivals, English as a Second Language classes, volunteer groups to help members of the community, as well as a work experience scheme for local school students to spend placements working within businesses in the community.
Community centres can provide a great solution for child care, often providing crèche facilities for younger children and fun, after-school care for older kids. Some even provide day care for elderly citizens, giving their usual carers a day a week to relax or attend to other business.
There are also groups and clubs to attend such as book clubs, parent and toddler groups, sewing circles, chess and bridge. Classes include adult education, music for toddlers, T’ai Chi, various forms of dance, art lessons, lectures on nearly every subject you can think of, discussion groups and debates, while sports include everything from cricket and football, to badminton, to darts.
Some community centres run local projects to improve the local area and environment, or competitions, such as “beautiful front gardens”.
The type of services will of course reflect the focus of the centre. For example, this month at the Jewish Community Centre for London, apart from the normal weekly classes and activities, you can attend a Social Action Sunday giving you a chance to support the destitute asylum seekers of London by volunteering to provide medical or legal assistance, or drop off second-hand clothing and disposable nappies. Later in the month there are a number of different performances of Jewish dance and theatre, book discussions, sewing groups for beginners and experts, and talks by holocaust survivors and experts on global warming.
Meanwhile over at the Camden Chinese Community Centre there’s a Chinese New Year fundraising variety show, a women’s group which meets regularly for activities such as health talks, day trips, cookery sessions, swimming classes, IT training course, and celebrations of Chinese and English festivals, English as a Second Language classes, volunteer groups to help members of the community, as well as a work experience scheme for local school students to spend placements working within businesses in the community.