As well as delivering education within our primary and secondary schools, our overall vision is for a community, where everyone is included, making a contribution and reaching their God-given potential no matter their background. With that at the heart of what we are doing, our community work involves empowering people to make change for the better, to transform their neighbourhood into a safe, supportive environment full of opportunity and inclusive of all. We work with our communities. Whilst the majority of our Hubs are connected to one or more of the 52 academies in our family, we have also developed a wide variety of other community building projects and initiatives through our Oasis Hubs across the country.

So what are Oasis Hubs?

Our academies are just one part of Oasis Hubs, which provide an array of services aimed to meet the needs of local people. Our Hubs specialise in everything from foodbanks, to adult literacy courses, to football teams, health projects, church, city farms and so much more. The Oasis Hub model focusses on education, youth work, empowerment, housing, advocacy and support, personal development and health across 40 communities in England. Each community is unique, and therefore each Hub hyper-local and context driven, but equally committed to building relationships and creating lasting change. Find out what your local Hub is up to by visiting the community pages of your academy website, or read up some of the bigger projects on the OasisUK website.

What has been the impact?

This last year has been like no other, with new challenges and uncertainty ahead of us every day. Whilst it’s been tough on us all, the difficulty of the pandemic has also highlighted and strengthened just how incredible the communities we work in are. It has reminded us all of the need for a compassionate, inclusive approach to life, and the power in a movement towards community cohesion and transformation in the darkest of times.

In 2019-20 we had over 700 volunteers throughout our Hubs working across 209 projects and services. Because of their hard work, and the leadership of our Hub teams, over 43000 people were able to access support from an Oasis Hub.

This work didn’t look like what we had planned, and volunteers had to find a new and safe way to work together (even if that did mean stepping back for a while), but the response has been incredible. In the summer months alone, almost 6000 children were supported, 1379 families looked after, and almost 27000 meals provided. In person sessions that could be delivered virtually were moved across to a digital platform, emergency vouchers were distributed quickly and effectively, and resources/tech delivered to those vulnerable to isolation.

It’s been incredible to see 85% of children accessing the Hub feel their life has improved in at least one aspect (ranging from feeling like they are making a difference, to their education, work, choices, hopes and wellbeing). Over 30,000 adults were supported in 2019-20 through advice and tailored programmes on areas like health, debt advice, family support and advocacy services. Fatima’s story is just one example of this.

People and community are at the heart of everything we do, so if you’re not sure if can help you, reach out. If you want to help others, we love hearing from you, and if you’re interested in finding out more about the impact the Oasis Hubs have, you can read more here.