At Cripplegate we worked with a local design company to create a new space where we can welcome more local community organisations free of charge.

For many years the Cripplegate Foundation’s aim has been to support residents in Islington and Cripplegate Ward. We do this by funding local grassroots, community organisations working with residents across the borough. We work to bring about change that will transform the lives of our most disadvantaged residents, whether that’s setting up football sessions for children and young people to theatre workshops or mental health support

In addition to direct funding, we are also delighted to be able to offer support through our shared office. We are located in the heart of Angel. Our office is a very generous space, consisting of a main office, a few small offices that we rent to other community organisations, and a large shared  boardroom. We  have been sharing the boardroom with the community, free of charge for several years. Since 2013 we have hosted countless hours and many groups in our boardroom. This, in turn, helped us to understand how we could redesign our space to use it more efficiently and so that it served the community better.

We wanted work with a company that would understand where we come from and what we do so that they could  design a space that would suit our needs.  Islington based K2Space stood out immediately. They were very engaging and understanding from the day one. Instead of submitting any general proposal, they wanted to meet andto see us. We found out that we shared more than a location, their values were very similar to ours. K2Space was selected and given the task to redesign our space.

At the beginning, we were invited to see their new office that had many features we wanted for our space. A bit of a colour, less corporate look, more friendly/funky place where people can feel at ease, a place to share ideas, enjoy lunch but also host formal meetings. Not a minor point for us was also to create break-out areas that were attractive for young people from Islington Giving’s Young Grant Makers programme while at the same time being a workspace too.

Another important point for us was to have more offices for 2 or 3 like-minded organisations as well, as we had had a great experience= sharing our office with Help on Your Doorstep from the very beginning.

The team at K2Space came up with amazing ideas and also accommodated many small ones that we came up with. They were really understanding to the request of reusing as many original features as possible, in order to not create larger carbon footprint, as well as getting new features that were eco-friendly.

The result of all of this effort is an office space that is better than imagined. Both Cripplegate and Help On Your Doorstep staff loved the new designs from the first moment.

Now, that the teams of The Blagrave Trust and BIG Alliance have joined us at the newly created offices, we have finished our plan and are looking forward to reconnecting with each other, getting back to office and welcoming new organisations into our boardroom.