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History

1960s
to
2003

  • 1960s The area's community hub was the Allcroft Centre, a drinking club for its largely Irish population.

  • 1999 - Queen’s Crescent Community Association (QCCA) launches, housed in its current home on Ashdown Crescent, NW5. It has a £19,500 grant from the Pathfinder Project and effectively takes over from the Allcroft Centre.

  • It is run by a team of one staff and over 12 volunteers.

  • 2002 - QCCA becomes a registered charity.

  • 2003 - QCCA is incorporated as a limited company by guarantee.

  • 2006 - Gospel Oak resident since 1992  Foyezur Miah becomes CEO.

  • A major surge in growth sees QCCA serve 70,000 people a year across four centres; Ashdown Crescent, Fleet Community Centre, Maitland Park Sports Centre and the Allcroft Centre.

  • Services for children under the age of five begin in Ashdown Crescent.

  • The organisation has one full time and eight part time members of staff and generates £298,000 budget.

  • 2007 - QCCA launches its youth services, based out of Fleet Community Centre.

  • It has 85,000 users a year.

  • 2008 - QCCA achieves Ofsted registration for its under fives services and gains the Practical Quality Assurance System for Small Organisations (PQASSO) quality assurance mark.

  • It has 110,000 users a year and served 7,500 three course meals to the older people.

2006
to
2008

Queens-Crescent-market-entrance (1).jpg

2009
to
2012

  • 2009 - QCCA’s 10th anniversary.

  • It now has an annual budget of £500,000 and employs 30 staff, many of whom were born and brought up in Gospel Oak.

  • Begins move away from its 60 per cent reliance on local authority money. Fundraises from trusts and foundations and maximises income by renting out facilities.

  • QCCA forms a youth committee of young people between 13 and 19 to advise the charity’s decision makers.

  • 2010 - QCCA stops the closure of the Peggy Jay Centre on Hampstead Heath by taking charge of the 10 O’ Clock Club and venue hire.

  • Across its sites, QCCA revamps its IT centre, expands its gym, resurfaces the Malden Road football pitch, builds external changing rooms and a full recording studio for young people

  • Youth worker Kito Soki was shoot in the leg in Queen’s Crescent while trying to diffuse a fight outside the William Hill betting shop after work.

  • 2011 - A period of rapid development under the ‘local solutions for local people’ strategy.

  • QCCA takes over running Caversham Nursery.

  • Money is raised to buy a minibus.

  • QCCA has 40 paid staff and 60 volunteers

  • 2013 - QCCA stops operating services from Fleet Community Centre and Maitland Park Sports centre and work starts on building the Dome. It is built in partnership with local French school College Francais Bilingue de Londres on the empty Weedington Road Play Centre site.

  • QCCA takes over management of the hundred-year-old Queens Crescent Market for 18 successful months, when the number of licensed traders hits 65 for the first time.

  • Launches a business development course for young people, 14 of whom run their own market stalls as a result.

  • 2014 - A period of massive growth. Turnover hits £1.5m, employing 65 staff across seven different facilities. Annual users exceed 400,000.

  • The Dome opens.

  • QCCA starts running Holly Lodge Nursery, gaining a ‘Good’ rating from Ofsted after just three months.

  • 2015 - His Royal Highness Prince Phillip visits the Dome.

  • Management of Queen’s Crescent market returns to Camden Council and numbers of stallholders begins to decline.

2011.JPG

2013
to
2015

2016
to
2019

  • 2016 - A period of consolidation and financial re-direction, when dependence on local authority funding decreases further and nearly half of all income comes through trade.

  • QCCA develops and fundraises £255,000 to deliver Camden Health Kick project over three years.

  • 2017 - Creative collaboration begins between the Roundhouse and QCCA’s youth services.

  • New board of directors recruited to reflect the broadening remit of the charity.

  • 2018 - Charity has a turnover of £1m, only ten per cent of which comes from local authority funding.

  • Older people’s services relaunch under the ‘Forever Young’ banner, with matched funding of £154,000 from both City Bridge Trust and Henry Smith Charity.

  • 2019 - QCCA celebrates its 20th anniversary

  • Applies to extend the planning permission for the Dome youth Club

  • Launches its Business Plan for the next five years

  • 2020 - QCCA launches Fight C-19, an emergency service for food and medicinal deliveries, as well as keeping company with vulnerable older members

  • Fight C-19 reaches 62,000 meals distributed

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  • 2021 - QCCA became an official vaccination centre against C-19

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  • Youth Services ran 31 fitness sessions via Zoom, a term of whole year dance classes in 3 primary schools and a free baking course

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  • QCCA provided 46 families with laptops, to allow young members to stay digitally connected and able to participate in the activities

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  • 2022 - Healthy families program reaches 500+ members, providing family football, men's sports, women's yoga

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  • Foodbank becomes permanent facility in QCCA, over 300 Christmas hampers delivered to families

2020
to
2023

QCCA Safeguarding policy can be viewed here

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