Abbreviation QSA Type Charity Location East London | Formation 1867 Headquarters Bethnal Green | |
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Predecessor Bedford Institute Association | ||
Quaker Social Action (QSA) is a small, independent charity working in east London and beyond to tackle poverty.
Contents
Each year, QSA supports around 3,000 people with practical action. 25 people are employed by QSA who are led by its director Judith Moran.
QSA is not a religious charity but Quaker values and a commitment to social justice sit at its heart.
Current projects
Currently based in Bethnal Green, QSA run the following projects:
Mission
"We enable people on low incomes in east London and beyond to seek solutions to the issues affecting their lives.
"To do this we listen and respond to the needs of the community by running practical, sustainable and collaborative projects.
"We share our work with others when it is clear that it has the potential to bring benefits to communities outside of our own."
History
Founded as the Bedford Institute Association (BIA) in 1867, its original purpose was to commemorate the life and continue the work of the Quaker silk merchant and philanthropist of Spitalfields, Peter Bedford (1780–1864).
1900s
As the BIA entered the 20th century, its eight branches across east and South London worked to nurture healthy citizens. They became places of refuge from the slums of East End streets, offering activities, summer camps, and outings for unemployed men and women with children.
Welfare state
The new post-war flats, new jobs, and new social legislation gave east Londoners an improved standard of living based on rights rather than charity. The welfare state made some of the BIA's work unnecessary, but after the war, the high density housing and broken community ties sowed the seeds of problems for the future.
Need in the 1970s
In the 1970s and 1980s, economic crises and changes to welfare policy created a new, spiraling rise in social deprivation and poverty. In the late 1980s the BIA began to grow rapidly once again in response. To reflect a more modern image and purpose, the BIA was renamed as Quaker Social Action and incorporated as a limited company (as well as a charity) in 1998.
Poverty today
Today East London today still has high rates of unemployment, escalating debt and homelessness. QSA continues to work with individuals, families, children and young people, empowering them to find solutions to the issues affecting their lives.
Awards
Notable recent awards for QSA include a win for Breakthrough of the Year at the 2015 Third Sector Awards for Down to Earth'swork on funeral poverty. In December 2012 QSA was given a Guardian Charity of the Year award for Down to Earth.