Honouring the Past

Our journey started in 1975, when a group of young people bought an aging Routemaster bus and took up regular sites across Newham to entertain children, listen to people and give advice. Word spread, relationships were built, and the mission started to thrive.

Two years later, our co-founders, David Robinson OBE and Kevin Jenkins OBE opened a permanent base and Community Links was officially born. The organisation was based in a tiny lock-up shop in East Ham with a freshly painted ‘Community Links’ sign and a clear mission statement:

‘To generate change.

To tackle causes not symptoms, to find solutions not palliatives. To recognise that we all need to give as well as to receive. To appreciate that those who experience a problem understand it best and to help the smaller voices to be heard. To act local but think global… …To collaborate, because it isn’t some of our activities that change complex lives, but the sum of them all… …To be ambitious for the work we believe in – but to build a network, not an empire. To be driven by dreams and judged on delivery. To never do things for people but to guide and support, to train and enable.

To simply inspire.’

People have united to achieve that mission.

The result. A generation of social change has unfolded, as Community Links tackles poverty and social exclusion in east London and shares the experience by supporting practitioners further afield, influencing policymakers and developing new ideas. Endless projects and initiatives and a series of organisations have evolved, involving and transforming countless lives and reaching across the UK and globally.

Since 1991, Community Links has called 105 Barking Road our home, when the mission grew and extended beyond Newham. In 2017, Community Links merged with Catch22 – a national charity delivering public services to build resilience and aspiration in people and communities.

Over the years, Community Links has strengthened its impact locally and expanded to reach communities nationally. We’ve tackled poverty and social exclusion in east London, while sharing our learning with practitioners elsewhere, informing policy, and developing innovative approaches.

You can read more about our history here.

Planning for the Future

Now, we approach the 50th milestone in this unique journey.

To mark this momentous period in Community Links’ history, we plan to:
• Bring everyone together
• Appreciate a generation of social change
• Inspire the next

We want to reach as many people as possible and involve them in the development of the next 50 years of Community Links.

Some things to keep an eye out for:

Display – a new permanent display to be unveiled at Community Links and on the website: recognising achievements over fifty years and those involved and highlighting the action today.

Community Links Open Day – promoting all that Community Links projects are offering today, also signposting to the organisations that have grown from Community Links, its Centre or its inspiration – and inviting user aspirations for the future.

Celebration Event – thanking all those involved in leading and running Community Links projects in the past, and today – and inviting aspirations for the future.

Summit (2026) – bringing together supporters & partners, projects and the organisations that have grown from/with Community Links – in a single event – to express appreciation, to share mutual aspirations for the future, and to inspire collective achievement.

Leaders – These are people who play a key role helping move forward the ambition of the Anniversary and its initiatives. From our first offer: “We’d love to support the 50th, do let us know how that develops, and I’ll see what we can muster !!”

Technically we don’t fully celebrate until 2027/28, fifty years after charity registration and opening of the first premises. But we are celebrating all the smaller milestones on the way!

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The Inspiration Has Already Begun

Over the last few months, we have been amplifying and showcasing the work of Community Links.

• BBC Radio 4’s Any Questions? at Community Links: on Good Friday, we hosted a live recording of BBC Radio 4’s flagship political discussion programme. A local audience were invited to put questions to a panel of experts on current political and social issues. Listen here.

• Advice for the Future: an event hosted at Clifford Chance. Visioning and building Advice Services for a new future: for thriving lives and communities. Presented by Sir Stephen Timms MP, Minister for State (DWP) and focussing on the local roadmap Disparity to Fairness and on the holistic, national agenda in the Government White Paper Get Britain Working. (Summer 2025)

• Young People & the power and joy of the Arts: a showcase event hosted around Links Studios launching a new breadth of arts opportunities for impact ahead. (Autumn 2025)