Ten Noey is one of 22 Brussels community centres. Our catchment area is Sint-Joost-ten-Node and Brussels Leopoldswijk. Ten Noey's history goes back 50 years, in the early 1970s, when Dutch speakers felt increasingly oppressed in a predominantly French-speaking context. Dutch is still the main language in the house, but we readily switch to French, English, Spanish, Arabic, Turkish,... We see language as a unifying medium and not as distinctive.
Even though we are well aware of the meaning and significance of the past, we try to provide the best possible answers to the environment as it is today (with a perspective on the future). And that is a multilingual, hyper-diverse society where you can find the whole world on a handkerchief. That is the daily challenge: how do we connect individuals and groups beyond difference?
And because many ask us: What does Ten Noey actually mean? It is the Brussels corruption of Ten Node, the original name of Saint-Josse-ten-Node before there was a church. And Ten Node in turn means as much as: in the valley (of the Maelbeek. But it has been neatly underground for decades).
