Jewish Care shuts Stamford Hill centre

Jewish Care is to close the Brenner Jewish Community Centre at Raine House in Stamford Hill in April to divert the money into outreach services for the local area.

In plans announced this week, the charity said changing demographics and a decline in the number of visits to the centre had led it to reassess the needs of the local community.

It will now run a day-centre service every Tuesday, allowing the expansion of outreach services such as meals-on-wheels, befriending and transport for members to the Stepney Community Centre, which will operate extended hours from April, including weekends and evenings.

The much-loved Stepney centre, which will be renamed the Brenner Centre at Stepney, will become the communal hub through which all services to East London are provided, the charity said.

The Hackney Community College and adult day services, run by Kisharon, will continue to operate from there, after Kisharon signed an 18-month lease to take over management of the building from Jewish Care. Neil Taylor, a director at Jewish Care, said: “It became apparent to us, after a member-led consultation, that we needed to make changes to meet the differing needs of the ageing East London Jewish community.” He added: “These changes will enable us to invest more into outreach services and extended day-centre opening whilst reducing the deficit we have in East London,” where he said there was a “shrinking yet ageing community”.

The charity confirmed staff working across East London had been informed of the changes and the impact it will have on them.