Space and Voice: A groundbreaking Westminster partnership to meet health needs

In a groundbreaking collaboration aimed at empowering vulnerable women and young people in Westminster, four organisations—Greenhouse Sports, Place2Be, Marylebone Project, and Munch in Marylebone—have come together to launch the pioneering ‘Space & Voice’ project.

Space & Voice is a new holistic approach to wellbeing, aiming to tackle rising health challenges—like social isolation, poor mental and physical health—faced by many in the Westminster community. Situated in Church Street Ward, which ranks among the top 10% most disadvantaged wards in the country, the area has been significantly impacted by the pandemic and the escalating cost of living crisis.

Led by Greenhouse Sports, partner organisations will each offer their unique expertise to the project:

• Greenhouse Sports, a sport for development charity with its Centre based in the heart of Marylebone, will serve as the project’s operational hub, providing free expert sports coaching and mentoring, alongside community engagement opportunities.
• Place2Be, a leading provider of comprehensive mental health support services for children and young people, will collaborate with Greenhouse Sports to integrate counselling and support into their sessions, ensuring holistic wellbeing for participants.
• The Marylebone Project, a dedicated organisation delivering life-changing services for women overcoming homelessness, will provide beneficiaries with access to inspirational coaching, mentoring, nutrition education, and community building.
• Munch in Marylebone, a social enterprise specialising in homemade food for local businesses, will empower women at the Marylebone Project through catering training while providing healthy snacks and nutritional workshops for participants.

Greenhouse Sports CEO, Don Barrell, said: “We’re thrilled to be leading this project. At Greenhouse, we believe in being a team for life, uniting passionate people to create opportunities for young people to thrive. With Space & Voice, we expand on this, welcoming our local community and partner organisations to join our team for life. Together, we’re making a lasting impact on people in our community.”

Cllr Nafsika Butler-Thalassis, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care, Public Health and the Voluntary Sector said: “The Healthy Communities Fund exemplifies how serious we are about reducing health inequalities in Westminster. The Fund is about supporting our voluntary sector to improve the health and wellbeing of our residents in collaboration with the local authority and other partners. Support from the fund will ensure that projects like this one are able to deliver for a number of years.

Partnerships like the Space and Voice project are perfectly placed to help vulnerable women, young people and children and show that when voluntary organisations come together they can achieve so much more than the sum of their parts. I hope that we will see many more collaborations like this across the voluntary sector in the future.”