Off Centre is a counselling, therapy, advocacy, advice and psychosocial service for young people aged between 11 and 25 who live, work or study in Hackney. The services are free, confidential and aimed at helping Hackney’s young people to have greater control over their lives. 

Since 1974, Off Centre has been supporting the young people of Hackney.  Throughout this period Off Centre has remained true to the original mission - to serve the needs of the young people in Hackney aged 13-25 years old.  In the 12 months January 2009 to January 2010, 1227 young people accessed an Off Centre service. From August 2010 Off Centre has lowered the age of the service users from 13 to 11 years.

Off Centre has survived in the increasingly competitive voluntary sector for the same reason that this Charity is set to grow: Off Centre listens and then responds to what the young people tell us.  Every service that they provide or new project they set up is a response to an identified need.  This is why in the last year Off Centre got a call from the Big Lottery to say that they had been awarded £500,000 for a new four year project.  

Long before it was a fixture on national and regional agendas, the Off Centre steering group (made up of professionals and young people in the borough) had spotted that the most difficult time in a person's life is making the successful transition from a child to an adult. Off Centre continues this targeted work and has a strong therapeutic service in place - providing counselling, art and drama therapy sessions - to support young people.