Devon Community Foundation awards grant to St Sidwell’s Community Centre
Devon Community Foundation has awarded £8,053 to St Sidwell’s Community Centre to appoint a part-time worker to develop a sustainable vocational and life-skills training programme for the centre’s volunteers.
The Centre, based in the heart of Exeter, aims to build a stronger, healthier and more inclusive community by improving the physical health, emotional well-being and quality of life of local individuals and groups. They achieve this by providing a wide range of centre-based activities, learning opportunities and support services to the local community.
St Sidwell’s relies heavily on the support of its volunteers, for which their hard work received a Queen’s Award for Volunteering in 2008. The Centre welcomes new volunteers each week, offering work experience to those that are not in employment or training or are disadvantaged. With the number of volunteers growing, the centre wanted to offer its workers something more sustainable and applied for a grant through Devon Community Foundation.
The grant awarded will help to appoint a part-time worker to develop a long-term vocational and life-skills training programme for the centre. The life skills training will focus on developing self-confidence, providing workshops in creative writing and arts and crafts, as well as opportunities to learn practical skills such as basic cooking and DIY. The vocational training will support work experience at the centre with the dedicated project worker liaising closely with local education providers such as Exeter College and WEA (Workers’ Educational Association) to signpost individuals or groups of volunteers and support them to undertake relevant courses.
David Wright, manager of St Sidwell’s said: “St Sidwell’s Community Centre depends heavily on the contributions of our team of volunteers who help with every aspect of the day-to-day running of the centre – cooking and serving in our community café, tending the community garden, helping with admin; our volunteers are involved in everything we do. We were delighted to learn that we had been awarded a grant of £8,053 through the Devon Community Foundation to help us develop a new training programme for our volunteers, so that we can give something back for all their commitment.”
Martha Wilkinson, chief executive from Devon Community Foundation said, “Through our grant giving we are able to offer support to many groups across the region including Devon and Cornwall Refugee Support. The work these groups do throughout Devon is crucial and makes a huge difference to the lives of people in our local communities.”
Devon Community Foundation is Devon’s local charity for local people. They support hundreds of voluntary and community groups on the frontline who are helping local people in need build better and more inclusive communities for everyone. DCF has distributed nearly £8,500,000 to nearly 2700 projects across Devon, Plymouth and Torbay in the last eight years.
