About this Community

Cowley is a vibrant neighbourhood on the southeastern edge of Oxford, home to people from a wide variety of cultural and socio-economic backgrounds. While Oxford is renowned for its university, research, and technology sectors, Cowley reflects some of the city’s sharpest contrasts: families living with financial and emotional challenges, limited opportunities, and generational cycles of disadvantage.

Local children often grow up coping with instability at home, poor physical and mental health, and anxiety from an early age. Many parents face similar struggles, lacking access to practical life skills such as financial literacy and consistent employment support.

Despite these challenges, there are signs of hope and renewal, with growing faith-based initiatives and community efforts seeking to build stronger connections, provide support, and empower residents.

Our Work: The Jungle

Our ministry is based around a physical space called the Jungle Art Gallery. The Jungle is a place of beauty, fun, and creativity. Decorated in our jungly theme, people often wander in to admire the art, by local changemaker - Micah Hayns, and find themselves connected to resources they didn’t realise were available to them, and everything is always free. The community, in a Clear Signal evaluation, has expressed their top three needs: these are 1) Financial pressures 2) Loneliness & Isolation 3) Low Self-Esteem

Every programme in the Jungle is designed to meet these needs, relieving financial pressure, connecting people in friendship, and building confidence in themselves and each other. With the ways of Jesus at the centre of all we do here, the Jungle is growing to become a place of friendship, equipping and empowerment. A neutral, no-shame space to facilitate and develop programmes from us, as well as organisations, churches and people of peace in the community of Cowley. As well as afford people, who might not otherwise ever enter a church, the chance to experience Jesus’ love through our dedicated Jungle Team - a mix of both One Collective staff and local changemakers.

Current Projects Include:

Storytime - twice a week, parents come and bring their preschool children, we read them stories, have toys and a bubble machine, while their parents chat over coffee and tea. We have found parents and carers connecting in ways that are building community resilience as they build connection and help one another with life and practicalities. Again we are tackling loneliness and isolation.

Time for Tea - a senior social time with plenty of free tea and biscuits. Social isolation and loneliness is a huge problem for this population; we now have a group of loyal seniors who take care of each other, and us, by gathering twice a week to just spend time in each other’s company.

Men’s Ministry - A developing project dedicated to fostering community and spiritual growth. We gather every Friday morning for prayer, and every three weeks for a Saturday morning breakfast. Our goal is to create a space where men can connect, feel safe, explore faith, and support one another through relationships and prayer.

Jungle Art Gym - through a partnership with Activate Learning we have launched our Friday Art Gym. From watercolours to charcoal to oil pastels and more, this is a space where we hope to break barriers to creativity by providing free art supplies to create whatever your heart desires. More importantly, it helps people to access a place of connection and vulnerability, so that friendships form more deeply and transformation through God’s love is already beginning to take place

Jungle Mentors - through a partnership with Redeeming Our Communities (ROC) and Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, we gather local community members who have a desire to give back in a very real way. They are each trained and paired with an individual or family to help them set goals and achieve those goals. A Jungle mentor is a reliable friend to walk alongside anyone who is doing it tough in our community.

Lioness Rising - Our Women’s empowerment course, designed for women to build their self esteem. Through engaging activities and open discussions, we'll delve into self-discovery and cultivate skills for self care, relationships and life. Although we had in mind and in our prayers, women who may have suffered abuse, this course is open to any woman in our community who wants to grow their confidence. We will be introducing women of the bible to this content of this course in the next cohort.

Jungle Boxes - Hygiene Packages. Once a month, families in the community can come to the Jungle and receive free household goods such as shampoo, beauty products, diapers, wipes, and cleaning supplies.

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