A Camberwell-based after-school club, which was formed 37 years ago for single parents to be able to work, is facing closure.
Camberwell After-School Project (CASP), was founded in 1985 by local mother, Carmen Lindsay and has provided affordable childcare to thousands of children ever since.
Carmen explained it was a way for single parents not to have to choose between working or not, after being faced with that choice herself. “I was a parent in the community and back then in the ’80s, I was working for a predominantly male-run firm that didn’t have the option for part-time work. So when I had kids I was forced to quit my job. I found that lots of other single parents were facing the same problems.”
At the after-school club, there are activities, games, and art and on Wednesdays, they get taken to the park to play. The kids also get dinner and help with their homework.
CASP also have a nursery and a club during the holidays, which offers free places to kids who receive free school meals as part of Southwark Council’s Food and Fun programme.
Parents told us it is a ‘lifeline’. Shereen Chung-Blake, who has been bringing her son to CASP for a year, said, “It really is the difference between being able to work and not working, and being able to support a family. It’s a lifeline.
She said she has worked as a teacher in Camberwell for seventeen years and said the service means so much to the community.
Another mum, Abi who works as a mental health nurse, was visibly shocked when she heard the news. She said: “It’s affordable compared to other local clubs. The kids really enjoy it – it’s helping me because I’m working longer hours.
“They treat them like their own kids here, they feed them as well.”
If the place had to close, Miriam, a single mother from Camberwell who has been working at CASP for a year, would lose her job and her childcare all in one. “When I had kids, it was so hard to find a job a allowed me to work around my children. This place is great. They go to school, then they come here, and then we all go home together.
She added that they have been told to look for new jobs.
“It’s going to be really hard for me. I used to have my own shop but I lost it in the pandemic.”
“I would have to go back to the drawing board – no idea what I will do.”
Zakiya, who goes to John Ruskin School in Camberwell said she enjoys going to CASP. “My parents are still working so I would have to go somewhere else if it closed,” she explained, “but I like coming here. Especially going to the park on Wednesdays. We have a lot of fun.”
They recently had to close their breakfast club due to the lack of funds. But now, Carmen said the cost to run their whole operation is just unachievable.
The council told us CASP had not been in touch to request help and invited them to do so. They said they would assess the situation and see whether it would be possible to help.
In the meantime, the charity is fundraising to stay open. They are on a mission to raise £50,000 which Carmen said would fund them for a year, adding: “It will allow us to restructure CASP so we can ensure we will be able to continue providing affordable childcare for years to come.”
Click here to donate to the charity to help keep it open.