The East Twickenham Neighbourhood Association (ETNA) Community Centre was set up in 1985 by residents with the simple aim of improving community life for the benefit of everyone who lives or works in the area. Today, it continues to provide space for all members of the community to meet, whatever their age, gender, politics, or religion.
Our Centre is at the forefront of addressing issues of social isolation, community cohesion, environmental sustainability, and the physical, mental health and wellbeing, in our local area. Open 7 days a week, over 1,000 people (30% of which are retired) come through our doors on a weekly basis to take part in an extensive range of activities, including regular classes, workshops and one-off events, in subjects as diverse as Art and Zumba (and everything in between - see our website for full details.)
A Nursery for preschool children runs daily, followed by a wide range of after-school activities including dance, karate, computer coding and Kumon. We also have a wide range of life-long learning, fitness, health and wellbeing activities for adults.
At the heart of Twickenham, our lovely Victorian building has a hall, another large room and small kitchen on the ground floor and four rooms on the first floor available to the community for hire.
We let out office space for small local charities, which would struggle to afford the commercial rental rates available elsewhere in the area. Acting as a local charitable hub, (Arts Richmond, Crossway Pregnancy Crisis Centre, Environment Trust for Richmond, Richmond Good Neighbours, South-West London Environment Network, Street Invest, The Conservation Volunteers), share rooms, equipment, skills and good practice. We benefit by being able to tap in to a talented pool of partners and extend our reach further in to the community.
The Centre also provides a base for local self-help groups (including AA, Al-Anon, SLAA and CODA) and 1:1 counselling (20% of users), for people struggling with mental health and well-being challenges.