Providing – Supporting - Developing

A Short History of the Road Community Project

1993 to 1997 - The Beginning

Boothferry Road Primary School, having just celebrated its centenary, moved down the road, to a newly built more educationally suitable structure.- leaving a large imposing Victorian building with apparently no future plans for its use.

At that time Boothferry Council for Voluntary Service (CVS) was pro-actively expanding the number of voluntary and community groups - many of which needed an office and somewhere to meet. There was a need for a community centre or ‘village hall’ which didn’t have. Many people simply didn’t want to lose such an important building when so many features of this Victorian company town were disappearing.

These were certainly the drivers identified at a well-attended public meeting in May 1993. The CVS undertook a survey to identify need and possible income generation to ensure a sustainable future. A group of local people started working together, and the Boothferry Road CommunityProject was formed “establish or to secure the establishment of a Community Centre and to maintain and manage the same”.

By March 1995 it had become a Company Limited by Guarantee and a Registered Charity; was raising money and awareness; whilst identifying more significant sources of large-scale funds.

Between 1995 and early 1997 , the Project had applied to the Secretary of State for Education to allow Goole Town Council to buy the property for a third of its market value (£120,000) as long as it was “for community use; it had persuaded Goole Town Council to buy it and lease the building to the Project for 99 years at an annual cost of £200 with a 25 year review clause; it had attracted nearly £1million from various sources; it had appointed an Architect; supervised the tender process for the building works – and renamed the building “The Courtyard” to reflect the new central design. It was a very busy time!

The first occupants of the ‘offices’ moved in on 5th November 1997 whilst the builders were only just moving out. Such a simple statement covers a great deal of unseen and unforeseen work which still provides the foundation for much of what we do today.. 1998 to early 1999 – Settling In

These were the years in which we got used to being in the building; filled all the offices including welcoming the then MP; began to market the facilities and begin to think about “what next?”.

The centre was ‘open all hours’ with CVS staff, office users, Trustees and their families, with a growing band of other volunteers staffing reception, organising bookings, making refreshments – in fact doing everything that needed doing. During that period it was the CVS which took responsibility for delivering the Project.

In early 1999 the final part of the jigsaw was achieved when the Project received a three year grant from the lottery to employ a full time Centre Director with two other part time posts to cover caretaking and reception. This gave the Project sufficient ‘headroom’ and capacity to start earning sufficient income to cover those posts in the long term. This indeed set the policy of securing grant income to develop projects to the point that either the need was satisfied or the income generated was sufficient to continue beyond the end of the grant. 1999 onwards – Growing and Developing

The Business Model identified in 1993 of generating income from users of the ‘public rooms’ and rent from the ‘offices’ is still the key to our sustainability. However, we did not forsee the growth of income from catering which contributes significantly to our income. We also identified other sources of income that complemented our ethos - for example we registered one of our public rooms for civil weddings. We became, and still are, the venue of choice for many diverse activities such as consultations, training, conferences, business meetings, exhibitions, dancing and events from children’s parties to Christmas Fayres. Being close to the motorway system and having parking widened our appeal beyond the town of Goole.

However, within a short time we were being asked to provide more than just high quality facilities. We moved from just providing a space to developing services which met local needs. In sodoing there has always been a key policy. The Board of Trustees decided it would always work with other groups and would never duplicate services and therefore be in competition with other voluntary and communty groups.

So in 2001 we started a Parent and Toddler group, school holiday “Wacky Workshops”, and growing from that we ran an After School Kids Club for five uears collecting children from five schools. Unfortunately in 2010 , we realised that we could not afford to continue to subsidise this activity so with the schools not able to help we closed it.

From 2006-2009 we ran a lottery funded “Making a Difference” which enabled us to support volunteers, run new activities including ‘taster’ sessions to estimate interest and need and begin to support groups related to ‘long-term health conditions’, This led to our identification of real need to focus, with public sector partners, on activities with an improving health remit. So, from 2009-2012 we delivered another lottery funded “Healthy Futures” project starting and supporting groups for people affected by health problems such as Parkinson’s, Osteoporosis, Diabetes, C.O.P.D. (the Breathe Easy group) and an A.D.H.D. group supporting parents.

Food and catering has always been important to us, as access to good food improves our health, so over the years have been involved in a two-year “Local Foods” project, ran a Farmers Market for over five years, and delivered the “World Food Café”,featuring international food, across East . Of course, we have also developed a café in the cloister area – now the Courtyard Coffee shop – with high quality coffee. Increasing our in-house catering service has both provided a quality service to users of the building and a valued income stream. 2010 Physical Expansion

During 1999 the Project became aware that the former head teachers house – then used by Goole Town Council as a community centre – may be sold in order to fund the Junction Arts Centre. Having negotiated ‘first refusal’, the building and most of the car-park was purchased in August 2010. This building – now called ‘The Annexe’ – was transformed and opened in that October.

This purchase not only provided more space immediately but also allowed for building an extension. The Project ran an architectural competition and now has plans for building over the car-park should considerable significant funds be found! And Currently

The Project continues to meet local need. In addition to our regular activities, such as the weekly IT club hellping people understand computers and the Parent and Toddler group, we are delivering the Time of Your Life Project (2014-2018) aimed at enabling the over 50 years old to be involved in activities which have a positive impact on physical and mental health. The range of activities is simply amazing!

Having identified the need both to support the significant numbers of workers coming from primarily Eastern Europe and to form a bridge with the local community, with three one-year contracts from the local authority we developed a project employing three staff. Building on this success we have just recieved a three-year lottery grant for a “Courtyard Communities Together” project which is aimed at building social cohesion within our multi-cultural community.

In addition we are actively seeking to refurbish The Annexe so it too can provide good quality accommodation for our ever growing need for space!

So, we continue to host and deliver an amazing range of activities – all with the theme of meeting need and bringing people together. The Courtyard and its Annexe is a place where people can feel at home, meet other people, find support and have fun.

July 2015