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Our Services
- A Drop-in centre: weekly, every Tuesday, offering clothes and refreshments
- A Van: free pick-up and delivery of larger furnishings
All are welcome
All Lee Oasis goods and services are provided without charge by volunteers from across the community and newcomers are always welcome. Please join us.
We receive referrals from resettlement hostels, supported housing services, health visitors, women's refuges, refugee workers, Connexions and the disability group DPI.
About us
Lee Oasis was set up 14 years ago by members of an Ecumenical Justice and Peace group, who decided they wanted to do something practical about social inclusion. With £50 donated by six churches in Lee SE12 they opened a drop-in in a nearby community centre, open for anyone who fancied a free cup of tea or a bowl of soup. Pensioners came, and homeless men and rough sleepers, and soon the volunteers were taking appeals back to their churches for warm clothes — particularly socks. Over the years the project adapted, as needs locally changed; furniture runs began in a small way to help people leaving resettlement hostels, but expanded rapidly when the Bosnian conflict brought a flood of destitute refugee families to Lewisham.
Nowadays, Lee Oasis is a flourishing community association with 74 volunteers from across the borough; it has a van team, running twice weekly collections and deliveries of donated furniture, and a weekly drop-in - sorting and rehoming about 4 tonnes of donated clothes, bedding, toys and household goods a year. Together, we helped about 500 people around the borough last year, many of them children and most of them referred by the hostels, health visitors, and social or care workers. We delivered basic furniture, baby equipment, and reconditioned cookers and fridges to some of the most vulnerable households.
Lee Oasis is still free to all in need, and still manned only by volunteers. We do not proselytise and we do not have paid staff. We are funded by small charitable grants and private donations.
Grants and donations
Lee Oasis is supported by grants from the Hatcliffe Trust, the Merchant Taylors' Company, the Church Urban Fund, the Faith in Lewisham Fund, the Network Fund for Children, Churches Together in Lee and private donations.
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