What does Community Links do?

Community Links has been generating change and improving lives in east London since 1977. Our Mission is to support people in coming together, overcoming barriers, building purpose and making the most of the place they live in. From our base in east London, we apply the learning from our local work to influence and achieve positive change. We work across youth and employment, health and advice, responding to crisis where necessary but also helping people to take control of their lives, discover their own strengths and move on to a positive destination. Our Vision is Ready for Everything Communities, who support each other to overcome problems, prevent them from occurring again and help each other to thrive and achieve their goals.


What does this service do?

Community Links’ main activities include:

Advice: Specialist services providing guidance on issues related to debt, welfare benefit sanctions and housing, plus offering help for those in crisis.

Health: Early Action cancer programmes designed to increase screening participation and early diagnosis of bowel and breast cancer amongst populations who are less likely to take part, or have ‘low uptake’.

Youth and Employment: services that enable people to realise their potential by removing barriers to success, building confidence and improving life skills, such as Talent Match, an innovative youth-led solutions to unemployment to help young people find a fulfilling career; and Create Your Future, an employment programme targeting economically inactive BAME women. More than Mentors: a programme which builds young people’s emotional resilience and self-confidence, improves their attendance and attainment at school and offers a preventative approach to mental health.

Social Enterprise: Links Event Solutions, event management and hire company delivering and supporting events across London.


What information do we collect?

At Community Links each service collects different information depending on the need and use of this information.

Below is an example of the type of the data that we may process in the course of our contact with you:

  • Full name
  • Date of Birth
  • Address
  • Offence history
  • Email address (Email Newsletter)

Why do we require your information?

We require your information in order to fulfil the aims of our ‘Ready for Everything’ aim that we agreed with donors/funders.  Each service has different donors, therefore each service will require your information for different reasons. When you contact the service they can inform you of these specific reasons.

This information will be shared in compliance with legal obligation(s) and/or for your/others vital interests.


Where did we get your data from?

As mentioned above, each service has a unique need and use for your information. When you use one of our services you will be asked whether you agree to share information with us. In some instances this will not be necessary.


Who will we share your information with?

We will only share your information with other organisations, partners or donors or agencies with your agreement.  Where this requires your consent, you can indicate Yes/No – please bear in mind that if you choose No, then this may have implications for you – your Community Links contact will be able to give you more information.

As Community Links is part of the Catch22 group your information may be shared with them.


How long will we hold on to your information for?

Because each service at Community Links differs depending on our client’s needs, each service has a different policy on the retention of your information.  Importantly your information will be stored securely for no longer than is necessary for the reasons the information is processed. Each service will be able to inform you how long your information will be held for.


What happens if the information in the records is wrong?

You will need to be specific about why you think the information is wrong and what you think we should do to correct it. If you can prove the information is incorrect, we will change it. If we cannot amend your record in the way you would like, we will explain the reason for this. You will be able to see a copy of your amended record.


What rights do you have over the information that we hold on your behalf?

You have several rights over your data that we are required by law to uphold. You have the following rights:

  • The right to access your data
  • You have the right to request a copy of your data provided that your request is not unfounded or excessive. We are required to provide you with this within one month of your request. In order to request your data, please contact info@community-links.org and DPO@catch-22.org.uk
  • The right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioners Office (ICO)
  • You have the right to make a complaint to the Information Commissioners Office (the body that regulates Data Protection) if you feel that we have not processed your data correctly and in accordance with relevant law. Please feel free to make us aware of any concerns that you have, we will look to fix any issues quickly and efficiently.

Please visit https://ico.org.uk/ or call 0303 123 1113 in order to lodge a complaint with the regulator.


Email newsletter

If you subscribe to our newsletters you will receive regular communications relating to Community Links work. These mailings will be facilitated by a third party provider, either Dotmailer or Mailchimp (marketing platforms). You have the right to unsubscribe from the E-newsletters at any point. We will treat your consent as valid for two years, in the event that we would like to continue sending you updates we will approach you to ask if you would like to continue receiving them.

If at any point you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list please click the unsubscribe link on the latest email or contact dpo@catch-22.org.uk to ensure that you do not continue to receive the newsletter. We will need to continue holding onto your details after you have unsubscribed to ensure that we do not send you further communications.

Community Links processes your contact details and sends you newsletters following your freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous consent for the processing of your personal data for this purpose.

For more information, please see the Dotmailer or Mailchimp privacy notices as appropriate.

Use of data processors

Data processors are third parties who provide elements of our recruitment service (Midland HR) and marketing automation platform (Dotmailer or Mailchimp) for sending on Community Links newsletters. We have contracts in place with our data processors. This means that they cannot do anything with your personal information unless we have instructed them to do it. They will not share your personal information with any organisation apart from us. This will hold it and retain it for the period we instruct.


Talk to us

If you have any concerns about the way in which your information is used when working with us, please feel free to contact Catch22’s Data Protection Officers on the following email address DPO@catch-22.org.uk.