The Stepney Community Trust (SCT) is a community-led charity with a long history of self-help actions, working for justice and equality, and supporting residents to access good quality services. It was set up in 1982 as the St Mary’s Centre – a housing, welfare and resource project that responded to the area’s severe housing conditions and social deprivation. It initially drew its name from the St. Mary’s ward. But after the political boundary changes in the London Borough Tower Hamlets, the ward was renamed Whitechapel, prompting the organisation to change its name to Stepney Community Trust in 2002.