Features / Bristol Charity Advent Calendar 2025
Bristol Charity Advent Calendar 2025, day 24: Eastside Community Trust
Eastside Community Trust is a community-focused charity that connects people in Bristol through places, activities and opportunities.
Set up in 2020, the trust was created after a merger between Easton Community Centre, Felix Road Adventure Playground and Up Our Street.
Each of these three organisations has for years shared similar values and aspirations, which they now envision to be realised together as Eastside Community Trust.
Meriam Ababo runs an Ethipoian cafe Ababo’s Cuisine at Eastside Community Trust – photo: Evoke Pictures
Working with residents of Lawrence Hill and Easton, the community charity calls these neighbourhoods a great place to live with “creative, resilient, unconventional and community-minded people”.
Following a positive response to the merger between 2020 to 2024 from communities in these neighbourhoods, the trust said: “We have made a strong start and already implemented significant changes since the merger in 2020.
“Over the next few years, we aim to maintain the high quality, consistent level of services and range of activity across our neighbourhood that is so valued by respondents of all ages in this evaluation.
“We will continue to be relevant and responsive to identified needs, and developing our equity, diversity, and inclusion initiatives is key.
“We will always focus on maintaining and improving our well-used and much-loved buildings, namely Felix Road Adventure Playground and Easton Community Centre.”
The trust is governed by a team of voluntary board members, who meet regularly to ensure their charitable goals are met and that the trust is effectively responding to the needs of residents in the area.
Based at the community centre’s premises on Kilburn Street, the trust offers something for everyone in the community.
Eastside Community Trust now also looks after the Felix Road Adventure Playground – photo: Eastside Community Trust
From dance clubs, festive parties and yoga classes to logo clubs, advice sessions and more, the centre is always buzzing with the hopeful chatter of locals.
The trust is also home to a cafe called Ababo’s Cuisine and a nursery. Other than that, they also provide spaces in the building for hire so people can host their own little community events.
All work by the charity is grounded in its mission statements, which include ensuring its neighbourhood’s children are healthy and have the freedom to play, communities are informed, connected and empowered, and there are inclusive and sustainable projects for the wellbeing of everyone.
Main photo: Evoke Pictures
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