Romsey Mill is a charity committed to overcoming disadvantage, challenging injustice and promoting social inclusion with young people, children and families. Each year, we work with over 2,000 individuals and families, from Cambridge city and across areas of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, including:

• young mothers and fathers
• young people on the margins of society who may be involved in risky or anti-social behaviour
• young people struggling to engage fully with education
• families with pre-school children
• young people with an autistic spectrum condition.

Our work is long term, relational and needs-led. We work with participants to develop their skills and to enable their progress towards training, work and positive involvement in the community.

Romsey Mill began in 1980, through the vision of five churches in east Cambridge to meet the needs of young people on their streets. The project was led by Peter Phenna, the late vicar of St Martin's Church, Suez Road.

Queues of young people snaked the street when Romsey Mill opened, offering large drop-in youth clubs. The work remained church-based, with worship services every month. Highlights in the early years included the Romsey Mill Roadshow, which featured at Greenbelt Arts Festival and toured Northern Ireland. Under-5s groups quickly became an important part of the provision, as did schools-based work.

By the late 1980s, project-based groups had replaced large drop-ins, giving opportunity for development work with individuals. Several different programmes emerged, in response to needs perceived and expressed by young people. The Young Parents programme began in 1998, Transitions in 1999 and Aspire in 2002.

In 1997 we were approached by Ridley Hall Theological College to become partners in courses running under the umbrella of their Centre for Youth Ministry. The subsequent availability of trained youth workers from CYM made it possible to begin the Social Inclusion Programme in 1999, initially with unemployed young men.

The old Methodist chapel that houses Romsey Mill has seen several developments. The Jordan Bar was opened in 1992. In 2002, a legacy from the Martin family allowed the charity to the purchase of the building and there followed an extensive redevelopment to create more space for programmes and for staff.

Romsey Mill's work now covers all those parts of Cambridge considered to be 'multiply deprived' and extends to cover similar areas in south Cambridgeshire; and since 2017, Hampton in Peterborough.