Alternatives Trust East London

27/05/2026

Wishing a blessed Eid Al-Adha to all who are celebrating.

01/05/2026

A big thank you to Primark for this wonderful donation! 🙏 It will make a massive difference to our hard-pressed mums and their children. We love local support!

29/04/2026

This week Alternatives celebrated our volunteers, with crafts, treats and certificates. Thank you so much for all you do!

18/04/2026

Playing, interacting, learning ... Alternatives' Family Hub makes a real difference to preschool children who don't always have much space at home. We're grateful to BBC Children in Need and others for funding this vital work.

15/04/2026

In Newham, the equivalent of 6% of all households are living in temporary accommodation – the highest rate in the country and more than ten times the England average. This is the experience of lots of families at Alternatives. Ahead of the local elections on 7th May, Trust for London is asking candidates to commit to providing them with five basics: cooking facilities, laundry, Wi-Fi, storage, and clear information. That's not much to ask.

74,000 households in London are living in temporary accommodation. Many are placed somewhere without a kitchen, a washing machine, Wi-Fi, storage, or clear i...

11/04/2026

Thank you Lizi! Lizi Oni stepped up as CEO of Alternatives in 2023 after two unsuccessful recruitment rounds for the post, and filled the role magnificently. She created a joyful therapeutic environment at Alternatives where staff, volunteers and service users all flourished. We wish her well as she pursues a new direction in Art Therapy.

10/04/2026

We love Tinder Sticks CIC! They have provided some fantastic outdoor learning sessions for families. And their Wander Women programme boosts mums’ mental health through nature, while Alternatives’ childcare staff take care of their children.

09/04/2026

Important News
In November 2025 the trustees took the difficult decision to look at winding up Alternatives Trust East London during 2026. This decision was formalised, with heavy hearts, in January.
The charity lost a lot of reserves over the move to new premises in 2023, which has been impossible to make up in the current climate. With the resignation of our beloved CEO Lizi in November 2025, trustees could not take the risk of trying to recruit with less than a year of funding left for this role.
Alternatives is continuing to deliver all its services in full until the end of the summer term in July. We are also using the time to find new sources of help for our service users, to support staff and volunteers into new roles, and try and launch a counselling CIC we're calling Project Seed.
We’ve used a branching tree as the logo for Alternatives for many years, and we hope that this might be a little seed from that tree that can grow again, into something more sustainable.

08/04/2026

“75 per cent of charity workers have either personally experienced burnout or witnessed colleagues struggling with it in the last 12 months”, according to a survey of 140 London voluntary organisations.
But it doesn’t have to be this way! Alternatives offers professional coaching and counselling for hard-pressed frontline workers - and leaders- in these challenging times. Get in touch with Sharon to support your team.

05/04/2026