Norwood welcomes Gateways to the Kennedy Leigh Centre

Independent charity Gateways is becoming a tenant at Norwood’s Kennedy Leigh Centre in Hendon.

The two organisations both offer support to children and families facing challenges and Gateways will operate out of their own self-contained space at the north London hub from September.

Norwood is working with other partner communal organisations to best focus its resources in a challenging economic climate.

Gateways is an organisation for young Jewish people struggling in mainstream schools, providing bespoke academic and vocational courses. Its team of professional child and adolescent psychotherapists currently offer therapy delivered by Norwood’s psychological therapies team.

Norwood Chief Executive Naomi Dickson says she is delighted the organisation is able to offer “valuable workspace to Gateways at such a pivotal time in the organisation’s evolution”.

Noting the difficult time, “not only for charities, but for children and their families facing challenges in our community”, she adds that “it is more important than ever before that our communal charities work cohesively where we can to serve the collective need.”

Dickson describes Kennedy Leigh as a “vital community facility” and welcomes the Gateways team to “our special hub and to working collaboratively to signpost our individual tailored programmes of support so we can continue to reach as wide a cross section of children and families in the Jewish community as possible.”

Laurence Field, Gateways Founder and CEO says the charity is “very excited” to open the doors in Hendon in September and have Norwood and their “essential Children and Family Services as our neighbours”.

He adds that Gateways is currently designing their new home as an independent specifically designed space in the Kennedy Leigh Centre, to “accommodate the needs of young Jewish people struggling to remain in mainstream education. These 14-to-25-year-olds are referred to an alternative education provision due to a range of mental health challenges. Our new home will allow us to continue where we left off over at JW3 – where we flourished during our 8 years as part of their core social action programme, before becoming independent this coming Autumn term.”

Field says a huge advantage of being located in such close proximity to Norwood is “the prospect of nurturing our relationship with Norwood’s exceptional therapy services which we have used for a number of years.

“This is just one of the additional support services Gateways offers students. We very much look forward to continuing our relationship with Norwood as we develop and plan our newfound independence and grow our essential alternative education provision.”