Our History

The Centre Project was started in 1982 by St John’s Church in response to the Moss Side riots. A handful of volunteers opened the hall for unemployed people to come and share their skills, enabling them to gain confidence, feel valued and meet with others in a similar situation; in many ways similar to how we work now.

St John’s Centre went from strength to strength, became a Registered Charity in 2011, and in 2022 we celebrated the 40th anniversary of opening our doors!

We now have a full-time manager and eight part-time members of staff and are supported by over 60 fantastic volunteers.

As a charity we generate income from a range of sources including hire of the building, supplemented by charitable donations and grant funding. We also have some individual donors called ‘Community Funders’ who generously give to support our work.