E X P A N D I N G

O U R

P R O V I S I O N

In September 2018, the organisation acquired 47 Bridge Street (the building adjacent to our existing centre) for the purpose of expanding our provision and extend it to provide new services to our users and the wider community; provision that is needed more now, than ever before.

The organisation, in seeking to strategically focus its provision, identified that each and every young person whom we engaged was working their way through various stages of transition - moving from one state/condition into another [ie family separation/divorce, addiction, faith, relationships, mental health, bereavement, conflict with the law, pregnancy/parenthood]. Such transitions can be difficult to navigate in isolation, and lead to an individual feeling increasingly confused and lost as they attempt to make sense of a multitude of experiences, feelings and pressures.

As a result of this approach we have sought to engage children, young people and young adults through a variety of activities, including our drop in provision - leading to 164 users engaging in our centre provision between September 2021 - December 2021. While this is amazing progress, in spite of the impact of Covid-19, this uptake in new registered users has highlighted our need for additional space to accommodate a diverse group of children and young people for a variety of activities.

The current layout of the property accommodates much of our needs without having to make substantial alterations. The main work required is to remove a number of walls on the ground floor to provide a larger, open-planned space and replace the currently inadequate stair which gives access to the first floor. Relocating the stair to the rear of the property will provide an opportunity to open the ground floor space, as well as resolving the issues of fire escape access, which will arise in the change of use.

This new building will allow us to expand our services and offer multiple sessions at one given time. This creates an additional space for:

  • Ground Floor Multipurpose Space

  • Computer Station

  • Dedicated Counselling Room

  • Group Work Room

  • Office space

It is our hope that this refurbishment project will complete in 2022.