By Harrison Galliven, Local Democracy Reporter
A charity for people experiencing domestic abuse said it is struggling to provide the quality of service it strives for, since being forced to give up a space in Norbury High Street last May.
Croydon’s Cassandra Centre charity (CC) offers confidential advice and counselling support to some of the borough’s most vulnerable people, who are directly or indirectly involved in abusive relationships.
CC founder Jennifer McDermott believes this work is vital, considering Croydon often has the capital’s highest number of domestic violence cases.
Alongside its domestic violence work, CC’s work has also expanded to providing men’s support groups and lunch clubs for elderly people.
In 2001, Ms McDermott lost her 19-year-old daughter, Cassandra, after an ex-boyfriend brutally attacked and killed the teenager in her own home. The Cassandra Centre was established 10 years later in Cassandra’s name.
However, CC has been without a dedicated space to conduct its services since its previous space in Norbury High Street was sold last May. This has meant CC is now fragmented and even has to venture out of the borough to provide its services.
Ms McDermott said: “The rental market is well above what we can afford. Given we are not funded by the council, whatever money we get is donations or budget funds. It makes it difficult to actually go on the market and rent.”
“We don’t just do counselling, we work with young people, older people and men. So where do we find a place that serves all of them? It’s about having a safe space, especially for young men who don’t want people seeing them going in for therapy.”
Jennifer McDermott running the lunch club at St Paul’s (Picture: Harrison Galliven)
The charity runs an over-50s lunch club at St Paul’s Church, Thornton Heath, for which it pays £500 a month and holds staff meetings at a Costa coffee shop in Norbury.
“At the moment, we have to hold things in storage,” Ms McDermott said. “It’s all over the place, everything is fragmented. We’re accustomed to working in one place. We need everything in one place for it to work well.”
CC have now hosts some of counselling sessions online, or at workspaces scattered across neighbouring boroughs.
Michael Woodruff, a Norbury resident and friend of the CC, said: “This charity is doing such a fantastic job and they don’t have a place, a safe space to help those women who have experienced violence. They now talking about going to the other boroughs, which would be such a loss.”
One lunch club member, Krishna, said: “In Norbury, there’s nothing. There’s no community centre anymore. It used to be for ordinary people but now they doubled the rent and its not being used by anyone anymore. They could do something, they have got two empty halls and nothing goes on there.”
While those in Norbury have struggled to attend, the CC’s services still remain in high demand. The group recently held a Christmas dinner for over 50s at St Paul’s, which saw a hundred volunteers and over 50s packed into the hall for an afternoon of festive food and entertainment.
Pictured top: Jennifer McDermott runs the Cassandra Centre’s events with help from volunteers like Melissa Gordon (Picture: Harrison Galliven/LDRS)
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