BACKGROUND BY CHAIR

Some of us will still remember the old St. John’s Church that stood on this site. It had served the local community faithfully for many years but time and vandalism had taken its toll! Thanks to the vision of that small, mostly elderly, but imaginative and determined group of members, a metamorphosis has taken place – and new life and hope has sprung from the old. The St. John’s Centre was established as a result of a partnership between Newlands (SRB), St. John’s United Reformed Church and the local community. The church was demolished in order to build five new houses specially adapted for people with disabilities and to construct a major community facility to meet needs within the local neighbourhood.

In order to construct a building that could meet a wide variety of community needs, extensive consultation took place between the project team, the local community, local authority, Newlands (SRB) and voluntary organisations working in the area.

The result is an extremely flexible building, totally accessible for the disabled with excellent childcare facilities. Once the building was completed in September 2001, the St. John’s Community Development Project was established in order to deliver programmes to meet the variety of needs that had been ascertained from the surveys undertaken.

 

INTRODUCTION BY CENTRE COORDINATOR

Over the last 18 months the Centre has flourished and now holds a wide range of activities: from Bingo to Writing (that’s the closest I could get to A-Z).

Many thanks go to the Centre volunteers who have been both stoic & diligent in their duties. The volunteers now number 13; with a further possible volunteer that we hope will join us in the very near future. We would like to achieve 20 at some point this year, which would allow us to have 2 volunteers on during each session and allow cover on those occasions where people can’t make it in.

The Centre has employed its first paid staff members; the Centre Coordinator, and the cleaner. Visitors to St John’s regularly comment on the cleanliness of the Centre, which both contributes to its welcoming atmosphere and gives us a building to be proud of.

Very shortly we will be installing a wireless computer network within the Centre, courtesy of the Newlands IT Project & ComB, and it is hoped as soon as BT’s Broadband facility is available at the Idle exchange we will be able to connect to the outside world and offer a facility for people to come and carry out research using the World Wide Web, order their groceries via supermarket web sites, indulge in on-line chat, or e-mail relatives who may now be living in different parts of the world.