What is a Community Interest Company?
A CIC is a UK legal structure for businesses that exist to benefit a community rather than to enrich owners. Three things make a CIC different from a private business:
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Asset lock: Profits and assets can't be paid out to directors or shareholders for personal gain.They must be reinvested in the community purpose or kept inside the business.
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Community benefit test: The CIC has to demonstrate, every year, that what it does benefits a defined community.
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Annual reporting: The CIC34 report is published publicly and the Regulator of CICs reviews it.
What this means for you as a client: every booking you make with us directly funds wellbeing services for people in our community who can't otherwise afford them. Your care extends beyond yourself, by design.
Our Community Programmes
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Free 1:1 Wellbeing sessions for refugee women in East London, delivered in partnership with refugee support organisations.
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Community wellbeing events: Free or low-cost, run periodically across both locations.
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Community yoga class in Hackney: Accessible-pricing class (£3) designed to remove barriers to attending.
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Subsidised access for people on low incomes: Case-by-case basis, no formal application required.
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Wellbeing-day retreats for groups of refugee women: Six women per retreat, fully facilitated, food provided.
What makes us different
For every £2,000 a year a company spends with us on corporate wellbeing, we organise one well-being-day retreat for six refugee women. Your team's care funds someone else's.
Individual bookings work the same way, every membership you book funds free 1:1 sessions for people we couldn't otherwise reach. We don't separate these accounts. The work is one work.
Everything else booked with us is still a big help: to run the business, to pay the overheads, to invest back and grow more. Abuelita’s is still run by a solo social founder, with the help of wonderful volunteers, and the amazing team of therapists and practitioners who are here to care for you and the community.
Where we're going
Our medium-term work is building toward formal social prescribing partnerships with NHS PCNs and ICBs, particularly around the conditions we already support: chronic stress, burnout, chronic pain, hypermobility, perimenopause, postpartum recovery.
We're also partners with Social Enterprise UK and we hope soon with Plunkett Foundation around social franchise models that would let our integrative care reach more communities.
Who are we supporting?
We’re proud to partner with MamaSuze CIC, a women-led arts organisation empowering survivors of forced displacement and gender-based violence. Their weekly creative workshops offer a joyful, welcoming space to build resilience, confidence, and community.
Complementing their mission, Abuelita’s Wellbeing provides integrative therapies and self-care education. Together, we merge creative art with integrative wellbeing to offer a safe space for women to rebuild confidence, find community, and thrive.
How to Support Our Mission
Book a Session
Every booking funds community work.
Corporate Wellbeing
Bring corporate wellbeing to your workplace, multiplier effect for community impact
Donate
Donate directly to help refugee women
Run for Abuelita's
Join the annual foudraiser
Volunteer
We're always open to skilled volunteers in marketing, content, admin, or community work
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