It's our 40th birthday!
Dear Friend,
Today we are 40!! It seems quite incredible that 40 years ago the young homeopathic doctor, Brian Kaplan, ran our first clinic in the Letchworth dining room of the late Vera Roth.
Such a lot has happened over these years!
We grew to recognise the importance of teaching people ways of keeping themselves well – and began our then ground-breaking programme of classes which we called ‘Stressbusters’.
We won 3 national awards for our contribution to the community – one of which was conferred by one of Prince Charles’ own health foundations.
We partnered with Marie Curie Cancer Care and, locally, with North Hertfordshire College...
We were made an Associate College of Thames Valley University...
We ran many grant-funded wellbeing programmes over the years – developing our Positive Movement programme for older people with mobility problems – which, in 2018 came top in the Prevention category at the prestigious national Complementary Therapy Awards.
Our Mindfulness programmes during the pandemic were delivered in every primary and secondary school in Letchworth and Hitchin (we had pioneered Mindfulness in the community back in 2003)… We were commissioned to run an NHS Health & Wellbeing Coaching Service… and Growing People (providing horticultural therapy for people living with serious mental health issues) became part of our own charity.
Over the years many, like you, have been drawn to the Centre – drawn by its underlying ethos – which is still, even after four decades, in the process of being ‘made flesh’… Never, back in March 1984 would we have imagined what would be involved!
Over the remainder of this year, we will be commemorating this milestone – culminating in a gala event on the weekend of 13th - 14th September.
We hope you will join with Jenny and me in spirit today in celebrating the Centre and its achievements!
Sending good wishes for its next four decades,
Bobbie and Jenny
Centre Directors
We moved to the Settlement – and partnered with the Letchworth Garden City Corporation to run our classes… We became a registered charity...
The wonderful Sir Nigel Hawthorne became one of our patrons, advising us and helping us design marketing campaigns.
We relocated to the old Water Board House, a 3-bedroom building (derelict at the time) standing in its own grounds opposite the North Herts Leisure Centre on the Baldock Road.
And then, in 1988, faced with the threat of imminent homelessness when our building was needed for redevelopment, we moved once again to the equally derelict and vacant Rosehill Hospital. Four hundred panes of glass and innumerable other donated items later, we began a nationally acclaimed programme of education for doctors, nurses and other health professionals.