Glenis Leitch - Our impact is in their success

Community leader shares her work inspiring the next generation

The Gradual Inspired Learning Centre or GIL Centre was born a little over ten years ago from the mind of OBV graduate Glenis Leitch, a civil engineer graduate, chartered surveyor, turned community leader, who has been volunteering in her community for over 35 years.

When the centre first opened in the area of Forest Hill in southeast London, Leitch and two other volunteers, Tehseen Udin and Emmanuella Uchi gave supplementary classes on Saturday mornings. Today, the GIL Centre has become much more than just a centre for complementary education; and as Leitch says:

it has become a place that truly serves the community by trying to create that family life within the community. ”

Over its ten years of existence, the GIL Centre has grown whilst staying true to the characteristics that make it unique. The centre has maintained its commitment to quality supplementary education by keeping the number of children they see on Saturdays small. They only work with 12-15 children at a time, depending on the number of volunteers, aged 5 years through to adults. Moreoever, not only do they focus on academic education, but also form therapeutic relationships with the children in order to help their emotional development and empower them in the process.

We believe in quality not quantity so that we can look at the child as a whole unlocking their unique potential and not just focusing on one aspect of the person,”

Leitch proudly explained. The families of each child contribute £15 per session three hour session at Saturday school for the first child, and £5 for any child after, and this is used to cover the overhead costs of the centre.

However, the centre has also expanded its activities to events that can engage the entire community and foster unity among them. This has been made possible by the support of several volunteers from all walks of life; some work with the children and others work behind the scenes to help make the community events that the GIL Centre puts together possible. No one in the team receives a payment for his or her services, so this is truly a labour of the heart.

Although the GIL Centre can’t give them a monetary compensation, the payoff these volunteers receive comes in the form of personal development, mentoring and coaching form Glenis, and the networks that the volunteers can create with the organisations that collaborate with the centre. The GIL Centre is always looking for volunteers that can contribute their unique skills to their team; all they need to have is a desire to help.

The impact that the centre has had can be seen most clearly in the children. They have grown and developed with the centre and even after they leave the centre, they still want to give back to it. Some of the children have become leaders in their community, and others have moved on to enrol in universities. The community also values the work that the centre does, because as Leitch mentioned,“word of mouth has kept us going.”

Nonetheless, the work of the centre is not done and Leitch wants more years of success for this organisation, She wants to see

more GIL Centres all over the place run by both paid staff and volunteers so that more people within the community can benefit from what we are doing; and that more people can live their dreams and aspirations, be the best that they can be, and become leaders in the community."

But she wants this to happen without compromising characteristics that are integral to the uniqueness of the GIL Centre.

Leitch with the support of many have also extended the network of support of the centre by forging ties with other organisations, such as the British Museum, the local libraries, OBV, and even the Saint Joseph’s Children’s Centre in Kenya. She graduated from the first OBV Lewisham Civic Leadership Programme in 2010 and has had close ties with our organization ever since. Being in the programme allowed her to meet like-minded individuals, be exposed to their ideas, and establish ties with them.

Through OBV, Leitch was able to meet Eli Anderson JP, a graduate of OBV’s Magistrates Shadowing Scheme and spoken word artist. He has collaborated with her and GIL Centre and he will hopefully be one of the speakers at the Centre, anniversary gala.

To celebrate its tenth anniversary, the GIL Center will be having a formal evening gala at the current base at the Albrighton Centre, East Dulwich on June 7th. Leitch says:

“The reception is really about the old and the new fusing together so that we can create a fantastic future.”

The reception will also celebrate the achievements of the Centre, thank those who have worked with and for the Centre, and recruit more volunteers. This event will consist of a few words by a number of speakers that have helped the Centre, a sit down dinner, entertainment, and a raffle. Tickets will be sold at £15 and everyone is welcomed to attend.

If you are interested in volunteering for the organisation or attending the anniversary reception, feel free to email Glenis Leitch at gil.centre@gmail.com or on 07534116945.

Angelica Encinales