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The Mary Ward Charity

Empowering people to enrich and transform their lives

The Mary Ward Settlement is a medium sized multi-service charity founded in 1895, focused on supporting the efforts and achievements of people in the communities it serves through adult education, access to welfare and social justice and community services.  Mary Ward’s work is focused on empowering people to enrich and transform their lives, in a welcoming and inclusive atmosphere.  Advancing equality and diversity remains at the heart of Mary Ward’s practice and policy and continues to reflect our founder’s concept of ‘equalisation’ and original vision for adult learning which remains to open up the pleasures and opportunities afforded by education to all.  Mary Ward works with Londoners to help create opportunities for them to reach their educational, social and economic potential, enabling them to learn not only practical skills but to feel part of a community.

Our Purpose and Ethos

The Mary Ward Settlement empowers and equips people to learn, enrich and transform their lives, to deal with obstacles to their hopes and aspirations, and to find support, common interests, inspiration, and friendship within the wider Mary Ward community. Working together with individuals, communities and partners to continuously improve wellbeing, our work is diverse, dynamic and culturally varied, and our atmosphere uniquely welcoming and inclusive.

Our Values

  • We put the needs of our students and service users at the heart of everything we do
  • We believe in the importance of building strong communities for the good of all
  • We believe in the value of learning in and of itself, as a tool to improve quality of life and to combat disadvantage
  • We believe people’s rights have no meaning without the means to enforce them
  • We value our staff and volunteers as our key asset
  • We strive to advance equality, eliminate discrimination and promote inclusion amongst all of our users and staff
  • We are open, honest, accountable and take a fair approach in all of our work  

Other Services

Click on these links for further information about our legal services and community services.

For more information about our adult education community outreach programme click here. Community Outreach works in partnership with other voluntary and community organisations to ensure that those facing the most disadvantage are able to access learning.