Hartlepower Community Trust has used a £3,000 grant from the Newcastle Building Society Community Fund to upgrade its facilities for local charities.
The Trust aims to prevent or relieve poverty by providing grants, items and services to individuals, charities or other organisations working towards the same goals.
Three years ago, it took over and upgraded the 150 year-old Energy Hub in Stranton, to give the local community a new location they could use.
The Energy Hub is now home to more than 30 different tenants, including charities, community interest companies, health services, a range of small businesses and a community café.
To continue providing great facilities for its tenants, the Trust has used the grant to refurbish one of the rooms at the Energy Hub, including a full redecoration, fitting new windows and carpets, and building a partition so that occupants can use the room in private.
The newly refurbished room is now home to local social enterprise Pets4People, who support young people and adults with disabilities and mental health issues with the help of animals. They are expecting to extend their work and increase the number of service users, as a result of having more space at the Energy Hub.
Peter Gowland, chairperson at the Hartlepower Community Trust, says: “Our aim is to provide a space which meets a range of community needs and to deliver information, ideas and support which help other local organisations carry out their different community activities as well as they can.
“The refurbished room is so much more suited to Pets4People’s work than it otherwise would have been and will provide new opportunities for them to extend what they do for families across the local area.
“We wouldn’t have been able to carry out this refurbishment without this funding, and we’re very grateful to the Society for enabling us to get the work done.”
Download the press release (PDF, 111kB).
Image caption: L-R: Kate Myers, our Community Assistant Apprentice, with Sami, from Pets4People who use the refurbished room at the Energy Hub; Peter Gowland, Chairperson at Hartlepower Community Trust; and Michelle Sherwood, Customer Adviser at our Hartlepool branch.
