M&S Romford

Building communities and strengthening families

Wisdom House act as an umbrella organisation for Wisdom Community Centre and Wisdom House College. Wisdom Community Centre is a community resource centre offering diverse services for individuals and families. We work with those who are need of services that are not easily accessible for them. We advocate and work in partnership with these individuals. Services include: free holistic counselling and advisory services to victims of domestic violence and individuals in crisis, youth mentoring, debt management workshops, and family conflict resolution.

- Education/training - Children/young people - Provides services Based in Peckham, South East London, we are an after-school music training hub. Salem was established in 2004 to make instrument music training accessible and affordable to young people (YP), especially but not exclusively, to those from disadvantaged, underprivileged, and underrepresented. We also provide a haven for YP to interact, socialise, discuss different social topics, and have a healthy meal. We give planned mental health training with professional practitioners. Classical, Jazz, and Praise music are purposely chosen as our repertoire, as they are particularly effective in lowering stress and anxiety levels in YP. As YP play and listen to these genres of music over the years, it helps them become more focussed and therefore more productive. Through our regular ABRSM exams, we help our learners build points towards entrance into grammar and boarding schools. Our intermediate and higher grades exams help build UCAS points towards university placements. Over 97% of our learners end up going to university. Some of our past learners have played with the BBC Concert Orchestra and Chineke Orchestra. Some have studied music at universities and now have full-time careers in music. We start our trainees from as young as seven years old and many stay with us until they leave for university. Some return after university to either help out voluntarily, or continue their own personal development. We collect surplus food donations from various outlets. Some are cooked on-site and given as meals to our pupils/learners, parents, teachers, volunteers, and the local community. Others are taken home by the same groups of people. Volunteers do all our food collections, cooking, feeding, and distribution. We do not charge for food consumed on the premises or taken away. No foods are resold.