Supporting the Westminster Community

Encompassing 39 one- and two- bedroom homes, Chimes is our much sought-after community located in the heart of Westminster. The renowned London borough is also home to a wide range of important voluntary organisations including One Westminster, which is making a big difference to the community.

We recently spoke to Jackie Rosenberg, CEO at One Westminster, to find out about the work they do and how locals can show their support.

Hi Jackie, can you tell us about One Westminster and the services you offer?

One Westminster is a charity whose role is to support the charity and volunteering sectors across City of Westminster.

We are the Volunteer Centre for Westminster where we introduce people to volunteering and find volunteers for local charities. We run several volunteering programmes including a befriending service for older people, a Wellbeing Chat support service, and an Employment Support service. In all cases we recruit, train and support volunteers from the local community or from local businesses and then match them with someone in need who would benefit from their input and a friendly voice.

We also offer a number of business-led services, including providing local charities with advice and information on topics such as fundraising and governance and supporting charities to come together to network with each other and with key partners such as Westminster City Council, the NHS or local businesses. 

We also run a volunteering programme for Adults with Learning Disabilities supporting them into volunteering opportunities. Last but not least, we also manage a service linking patients referred by their GP or other health professional into community activities and support them through our link workers and our Social Prescription Programme.

How has the pandemic affected One Westminster? Have you had to overcome any challenges to continue operations successfully?

We had to move all our services online and all staff members moved to remote working from home. All our networking meetings have been conducted through Zoom since the pandemic. . Nevertheless, we’ve managed to set up three new services during the year – including Wellbeing Chat and Employment Support.  We produced many more editions of our regular e-bulletin (which goes out across the charity sector in Westminster) and used this to ensure everyone was as up to date as possible with Covid news and information.

How can people get involved with One Westminster?

We are always looking for volunteers to sign up to help with our projects and volunteer to support others in need. If you are interested in volunteering, please simply contact us via our website www.onewestminster.org.uk and someone will talk you through all the ways in which you can give a few hours a week to help someone in the community.

We are particular in need of people who are happy to ring people for a chat, take people out and about and support people as they look for work.  We can also direct people or companies to other local charities looking for support, make introductions and set up projects.

For more information about One Westminster, visit www.onewestminster.org.uk.

---

To find out more about our beautiful Westminster homes, call the Chimes sales team on 020 7980 8700 or email [email protected].