Introducing Alsager Community Support Centre
Alsager Community Church is pleased to announce that our new building, funded by the Sentinel Lottery Fund, is nearing completion.
Alsager Community Support Centre is a modular building on land owned by and sited next to the church, with access directly off the main Alsager car park in the centre of the town. After many frustrating delays in the planning stages, it is hoped to open the centre on a limited basis by the middle of November.
Liz Pinkney will manage the building on behalf of the church, using her local knowledge and ten years’ experience of working for CVS Cheshire East (Community & Voluntary Services), in volunteer recruitment and support for local voluntary groups. Liz recognised that there are many groups working hard to offer people help and support in times of need, but often the people who might benefit do not know about their existence and the excellent help that is available to them. By providing a central point of contact for the public to ask for help and make enquiries, we can bring together organisations and new clients, and hopefully find them more volunteers also.
The Support Centre will act as a resource centre and point of contact for many groups and organisations, where members of the public will be invited to call in or telephone and seek help or advice in confidence from trained volunteers, who will be able to direct them to whichever service is most appropriate to meet their particular need, whether it be problems with health issues, disability, finances etc. There will be a reception area filled with information about local and wider sources of help, including a CAB self-help information kiosk. Notice boards will be provided to advertise volunteering opportunities in and around Alsager.
Also in the Community Support Centre, will be a fully equipped small meeting room, which will be available to local voluntary groups and other organisations at very low cost. It will also be used for training volunteers.
An informal private interview room will also be bookable in advance, both for regular drop-in sessions or individual appointments. By providing a free space for advisors from different organisations, we hope to save many local people the cost and inconvenience of travelling to Crewe or Congleton or even further afield for the help that they need. The CAB are hoping to provide a service for Alsager residents once again, after an absence of two years, with a regular paid advisor attending for one half day per week from January 2015.
At the rear of the new building is a large room for AlsagerFoodbank, providing them with good facilities for storage and bagging of food, as well as fridge and freezer space to enable them to expand into supplying fresh and frozen food.
If your organisation is interested in using the new facilities, or supplying us with information leaflets or posters for our reception area, or linking with this exciting new project in any way, please do get in touch.
We are keen for our team of volunteers to gain knowledge about all the different organisations which can provide people in Alsager with assistance in many different circumstances, and we would appreciate your help with this. We shall be organising some informal open days shortly, and an official opening event early in the New Year. We aim to open 5 mornings per week in the first instance, from mid-November, and would be happy for you to call in and see us if you are in the area, although it would be helpful if you could contact us in advance to arrange a more formal visit.
Supplies of leaflets and posters can be delivered to Alsager Community Support Centre, 5A Lawton Road, Alsager, ST7 2AA, or if we are closed they can be dropped off at the Community Church or at the church coffee shop next door.
Please email if you require more information.