The vision for the Project
The Project to build a community centre for Whitwick is being spearheaded by the Directors of Whitwick Community Coffee Shop, all of whom are local people involved in the community.
Regenerating relationships – in the past people used to meet when they walked around the village to do their shopping, today we rarely meet our neighbours. A place for all generations to meet will help to counteract this trend.
Bringing Jobs to the Community
Providing Training places in our village
Bringing the Vision into reality
Whitwick Community Coffee Shop has been given the funding for a feasibility study into plans for a new community centre in Whitwick. The idea has been around for some time, but became a real possibility when this funding became available from ‘CommunityBuilders’..
The ‘Communitybuilders’ fund is managed by the Social Investment Company and aims to support community anchors. Community anchors are local groups that aim to meet a variety of needs in the community and work with lots of other local groups. Whitwick Community Coffee Shop has been recognised as a community anchor by the Social Investment Company been given funding to carry out a feasibility study to see if the idea of a community centre in Whitwick will work. The idea is to provide a viable, functional and sustainable community space in Whitwick that can be utilised by local groups, clubs and societies as well as providing space for parties, functions and conference facilities.
The study is looking into all the details of the building, including planning and architectural matters, research into user groups and how they would utilise the centre, community consultation, where local people are informed of the plans and are able to have their say and finally the financial viability of the project.
The community centre will differ from other centres in that it will be run as a ‘social enterprise.’ The aim of a social enterprise is a business that makes sufficient income to subsidise the community use. In this case the building will offer many different facilities, as well as attracting government contracts for things like Welfare to Work and Social Care.
Plans for the new centre have strong support from both Leicestershire County Council and North West Leicestershire District Council, and if after the completion of the feasibility study a need for the project has been proved, the project will go ahead when finance is secured.