A former bus depot receives £250,000 funding boost to kick starts charities building renovation!
The government’s levelling up funding is coming to a local charity based in Heanor to kick start it’s long overdue building project.
The largest capital grant Salcare has ever received, the Community Ownership Fund helps communities protect assets that foster a sense of community pride and bring people together.
Service Director, Jacqui Bell said, “We are over the moon. Salcare acquired their building in 1977 for a small furniture donation project for local people in need. Today we have developed the services to provide a Community Café, Community Pantry & Food Bank as well as providing opportunities for all kinds of people volunteer and develop new skills. For a long time, we have felt that we achieve big things despite our building, now we can begin to build a Community Hub that’s fit for purpose and offer even more space for the hundreds of families & people that use our services.”
She went on to say, “We’ve spent the last year talking to people who use our services, as well as the wider community, finding out what they want to see in the building. Now we hope to extend our café, develop our therapeutic space and build a community creche.” “First things first though – we need to fix the roof”, she said.
Salcare has supported the growing needs of people living across the district, tackling issues around food, fuel and furniture poverty as well as providing domestic abuse support services at the same site. The overall building project involves improving its Furniture Warehouse, including creating a small workshop to build a Reuse & Repair scheme. Extending the Community Hub and cafe area to sit alongside a boutique charity shop area, will allow the charities 1000’s of visitors to browse whilst popping into the pantry. The large open plan fully accessible café & kitchen will be used for cooking demos and community eating, maximising light and even growing flowers & fruit.
The team also plan to develop the outside space as a wellbeing area with space for training, workshops and group work. The area will incorporate natural materials including plants and provide a natural setting where interventions can be delivered.
Improving the exterior appearance and heritage of the building whilst creating interior community asset spaces, the charity is aiming to create a wow factor that the community can be proud of and make it their own.
ENDS
Notes to editors:
Salcare contact details
59 Ray Street Heanor DE75 7GF 01773 764562 enquiries@salcare.org.uk
Salcare was founded in 1977, we are a local, community-based charity that provides essential support services to people affected by Domestic Abuse and Families in need in our community in Amber Valley and Erewash districts in Derbyshire. Our programmes include tackling Domestic & Sexual Abuse through trained Independent Advisors, McKenzie Friends legal support, Art Therapy/Psychotherapy and Outreach Early Intervention Support for Children & Young People. We also provide practical support through our Community Foodbank, Charity Shop and Furniture Warehouse. Our mission is to help create safer & stronger communities, where families, who are moving away from abuse, feel empowered to build a new future.
Community Ownership Fund – summary
The government is providing £150 million over 4 years to support community groups in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to take ownership of assets and amenities at risk of being lost.
Voluntary and community groups can bid for funding to acquire important assets and run them for the benefit of the local community.
The Fund will run until March 2025. We intend to run regular bidding windows throughout the year for applicants to submit a full application to the Fund.
Purpose: Apply for funding to take ownership of assets at risk of loss in your community
Type of fund: Competitive
Who can apply: Incorporated voluntary and community organisations, and parish, town and community councils (depending on eligibility requirements)
Capital funding available: Up to £1 million for all asset types, but we expect that most awards will be for up to £250,000 of capital funding.
Goals:
support community groups to take ownership of assets which are at risk of being lost to the community
support community groups where the asset is already in community ownership but needs essential renovations to be sustainable for the long-term benefit of the community
strengthen community ownership across the UK
strengthen the social infrastructure that helps communities to thrive