As you all are aware we are experiencing real problems with excessive noise levels from the gym downstairs. This problem has forced us to relocate the drop-in yoga and relaxation, incurring room hire, and has resulted in some children and adults being unable to attend clubs and services.
As a result, the Trustees have decided that it is vital we move to new premises. Cheryl has been actively searching for a suitable site and I’m pleased to let you know that she has found a building which will serve our present needs and has scope for us to expand our services in the future.
You will remember the ‘Art of the Possible’ workshop we ran 18 months ago asking what support services you would like and I think you will agree that we have made a good start on providing these for you with more social and activity sessions for the children and the drop-in service for you to informally access professionals without having to wait on a waiting list! The new building will allow us to expand these service. We will also be running a café and retail area which will begin hopefully in the New Year.
However, this is a great undertaking for Space as the cost of running the new building will be around £100,000 per year, this including not only the building costs but salaries and the running of all the activities we do at the moment, but we are actively raising the funds to cover these costs and the Trustees are confident that we can sustain this moving forward.
The building is situated on Mill Lane and backs onto Lowe Street. It has been empty for some time and needs refurbishing which the Landlord assures us will be finished in six weeks time so Cheryl will be letting you know a moving date when we receive confirmation. We envisage in the August holidays to give us time to have some transition visits for the children and young adults but we will keep you posted.
We now really need your help to allow us to move on.
Although the Landlord is refurbishing the property, heating/decoration etc. it is going to be costly to move and install all the things we will need to make sure the members are safe and to continue to provide our support services. As an example, it will cost £600 just to move the white board!! Cheryl will be putting a shopping list on the website very soon of things we will need and if you can help source any of the items for us please let her know or alternatively if you know of any business who would help us again please let Cheryl know.
Several members are running, climbing, swimming and eating! and we have a team in this weekend’s Born Survivor at Capesthorne to raise funds towards the move so could we ask you to sponsor them please if you can, even just £5 per member will make all the difference? You can do this via the website or facebook pages that Cheryl is sending out. If you would like to undertake your own fund raising please let Cheryl know and she will advertise this out for you.
Finally, we really need your help to enable to make this move for Space a success so anything you can do or help us with, however small, please let us know. We are hoping to expand the services we offer but can only move forward with your help and support. The council only fund 3 of our clubs and we find funding for everything else! We work hard to find the money but we need your support. Also, whilst writing the 3 clubs that the council fund the grant runs out at the end of August, therefore we are busy putting together another application to enable us to keep these clubs going from September onwards but there is no promise so fingers crossed but we will find a way if we are unsuccessful so please don’t panic!
This is an exciting time for Space please help us as much as you can!
Pauline Girdwood
Chair of Trustees Space4Autism
Note: 1st item on the shopping list is blinds for the building so the money that Aaron Donnelly is raising is going towards this (as per his wishes) so please sponsor him at
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Aaron-VegChallenge
