Community Centre Business Plan Summary

The aim of our £1 million project is to increase the capacity of our community centre meeting rooms by 30%. The need for this increase in our town centre site is fivefold:

·         The dramatic government-designated population growth in and around Aylesbury.
·         A shortage of affordable town centre meeting venues for community use.
·         Our inability to meet all the space and access needs of our present users.
·         The continuing and unfilled community needs identified by our users’ research.
·         The need to modernise, remodel and extend our mainly 1920s building.

Our church Mission is to serve God by serving others.  This includes the youngest to the oldest, irrespective of their beliefs or personal circumstance and especially those in greatest need.  Thus our activities and partnerships include:

Babies toddlers and parents, with parenting courses, parent and toddler group and a baby café for breast-feeding mums
Children and young people, with brigades and youth clubs.
Families, with the Aylesbury Child Contact Centre, adoption agency interviews, listening service by trained specialists and Cruse bereavement counselling.
Recreation, with choral rehearsals, various concerts, handicrafts and a Toastmasters public speaking group
Health, with an Asian women’s medical drop in facility, blood donor sessions and close liaison with local surgeries on parent, baby and toddler needs
The mature and elderly, with our six days a week morning coffee bar and two day care centres for referred clients, many of who have dementia.

Our ability to manage the project is demonstrated by our long track record of community involvement, support of our partners, local politicians and the media including a BBC two-hour outside broadcast on the work at our centre. We have a sound organisational structure and extensive management experience. In evolving the final scheme the Steering Group has conducted a user survey, appointed architects and considered options from rebuild to simple refurbish and developed this best value option to ready for tender stage. This has included making a £200,000 reduction on the original detailed costing whilst still meeting the design brief.

Funding will be from local church members, other Methodist sources and external:

 

Local funding (£000’s)	500	390 local and 140 ‘other’ already promised -  (75%). Plans are in place to raise the rest within the 5-year period Methodism requires.
Other Methodist funding	205
External funding	350	This is now being sought without over-dependence on any one source.
Total £000’s	£1,050

 

Given the enthusiastic response we have had to our scheme, we are confident in our ability to find the £705,000 of Methodist money.  Whilst this money will fund a much more modest scheme that will meet the needs of our church organisations, such a scheme would not meet the needs of our existing or future community partners. To make the £1,050,000 scheme viable, we need to raise the remaining £350,000 from external capital grants. These grants will make a huge difference by both enriching the lives of individual centre users and by strengthening Aylesbury’s town centre infrastructure with a suite of accessible, attractive and affordable community meeting venues that, as now, will be self-funding.