Providence Row

tackling the root causes of homelessness to help people get off, and stay off, the streets
Providence Row works with more than 1400 homeless and vulnerably housed people a year in East London, offering an integrated service of crisis support, advice, recovery and learning and training programmes.

9 GoodGymers have supported Providence Row with 2 tasks.


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Previous sessions
King's College LondonGroup run
Francesca WicksteedSiying JiaRemoved UserChristopher O'DriscollAlyx Murray-Jackman

We don't take Monet, we just Louvre good deeds

Tuesday 8th May 2018

Written by Alyx Murray-Jackman

Despite a scorching evening, five GoodGymers made it out for an evening run and a spot of doing good.

We welcomed Amanda to the crew - so everyone please give her a cheer! She chose a long run and a hot evening as her way into using her runs to do good, great work.

With a long run ahead of us we set off quickly and spoke about our favourite ice creams en route - I hope you're all enjoying one on your way home. After passing through the city we made it to Providence Row - a lovely charity that help the homeless with learning new skills (such as art, cookery and music lessons!). Our task this week was to clean the art room floor, which after years of use by community groups and the several PR art and music groups, was covered in paint and other marks.

Armed with our brooms, mops and scrubbing sponges we got straight to work and 30 minutes flew by. There were still a few marks left that were a bit too tough for us to remove, but overall the floor was clean and sparkling!

For our run home we had two options: get the tube and get back on time, or do a lovely Thames path run back with a slightly late arrival time. We stopped at tower hill so those who wanted to get the tube could do so, and the rest of us ploughed on down the Thames.

Racking up 8km on a very hot evening is a great feat - so fab work everybody!

See you next week for more doing good, and hopefully a slightly shorter run!

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King's College LondonGroup run
+2
Michael KiddAmyLoubna GarrettRebecca IlettStephanie HynesKatrien Steenmans

Broom with a view

Tuesday 1st May 2018

Written by Alyx Murray-Jackman

We had a brand new task this evening, with a slightly longer than usual route planned, to Providence Row, a charity that tackle the root causes of homelessness to help people off the streets.

With a long run ahead of us we had a very quick introduction, where we welcomed our two new runners Lizzie and Becca (give them a cheer for coming to their first group run!), heard about the Free GoodGym Long Run and the social in Penge. We did a quick warm up and spoke about all the wonderful things that Spring brings to London and then headed off down the Thames.

After dodging lots of commuters, we made it to Providence Row in quick time, and met Olivia there who showed us up to the roof garden. It was up lots of flights of stairs, so we got a good leg workout en route, and were rewarded with a view of some of the city and a lovely looking roof garden. They use their roof garden to grow food that they use in their kitchen to teach their kitchen apprentices how to cook. The garden is being displayed in a garden show soon, so our task was to scrub away the moss on the deck, to make it look as lovely as possible! We grabbed our handbrushes and brooms and got stuck straight in.

Whilst working Michael thought of not just one, but two puns for the run report, so I had decide between the two and we hope you like it!

We stayed for about 45 minutes, incorporating our fitness session into the task as it was such a good arm workout! We finished scrubbing the moss from one big area of the garden, but may have to go back another time to finish the job in some of the other areas. We waved goodbye to Olivia and made our way back to King's to do some stretches and talk about next week's task. We are heading back to Providence Row to give their art room a good clean and tidy. You can sign up here.

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