Castle Donington Volunteer Centre

Castle Donington Volunteer Centre

At a glance

Causes

  • Counselling / advice
  • Health and well being / research and care
  • Local / community
  • Social care
  • Training / employment support
  • Voluntary sector support

Where

25a Borough Street
Castle Donington
Leicestershire
DE742LA

Other details

Geographical remit: 
Local

Objectives

We are a Registered Charity (formerly an unincorporated association no. 518714), which recently became a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO no: 1157707). We were formed in 1975. Over the years we have evolved and taken on meals on wheels, community minibuses, medical care services and supported groups for elderly and disabled people. For 40 years we have met the needs of the communities of North West Leicestershire, South Derbyshire and parts of Nottinghamshire. We support a diverse range of people, in particular those that are older, disabled or infirm, local groups (sports clubs, art groups, lunch clubs) and schools. We have a small staff team of 5 (1 full time Centre Manager and 4 part time project staff) and a supportive and experienced 8 person Trustee Board.

 

Activities

What we do in addition to community transport

Volunteering: As a community organisation we rely heavily on volunteers. We currently have a growing army of around 70. Together they contributed 10,916 hours in 2014 (According to the NCVO, volunteering can be valued at £11.59 an hour – which means that in total, our volunteers provided £126,516 worth of their time in 2014!). Volunteers are at the very heart of our work and as we develop and expand services we will be recruiting many more.

Grow, Cook, Share (GCS) project:

GCS is an intergenerational, community project that provides people with the opportunity to engage in the outdoors, eat healthily, socialise and learn new skills.

There are 3 elements to the project:

Grow – We encourage the growing of fresh produce in our own garden, local allotments, greenhouses and gardens. People are supported to plant seeds, water, nurture and harvest produce.

Cook – We prepare homemade and home-grown food, using fresh seasonal produce in our catering standard kitchen using the skills and experience of service users and volunteers.

Share – We hold lunch clubs where people meet, chat and share affordable, well-cooked food made from locally grown produce. This provides an opportunity to meet new people (reducing isolation and loneliness), to eat well and to become part of the GCS project. If required, we can offer wheelchair and seated transportation in one of our minibuses.

 Drop in Centre:

We provide an information and signposting service to the local community on matters relating to housing, jobs, benefits, local opportunities and services. This is a popular service, which regularly supports 40-50 people per week. In addition we host CAB clinics fortnightly and a twice-weekly drug and alcohol advisory group.

We also support several lunch clubs, offer wheelchair hire and the Friday Group delivering a mix of outings, visits, talks and activities for older people and people with disabilities.

Recent achievements

  • Our Grow, Cook, Share project was recently recognised by Leicestershire County Council as a model of good practice.
  • We recently secured funding for a brand new minibus from the Department of Transport’s community transport minibus fund. This will enable us to ‘retire’ one of our older minibuses.
  • We are implementing the findings from our best value review, conducted in 2014, to help us to continually improve our services. The review offered recommendations for improvement and reported that we offer good value for money.
  • In 2015 we will be celebrating our 40th Anniversary by holding an end of growing season garden party. It will be a family event celebrating our successes and highlighting our commitment to working with all sections of our community as we prepare for the next 40 years!

Our plans for the future

We are a forward thinking organisation and are keen to further develop our current services whilst working towards new and exciting ones. These include:

  • The recruitment of a Volunteer Co-Ordinator [ subject to receiving some match funding]
  • The launch of a service called Help@Hand which will provide a general handyperson, at low cost to our registered customers who live alone, are elderly or who have a disability.
  • The purchase of a new people carrier to provide a more suitable and cost effective way to transport a small number of passengers (including wheelchair users), which is easier to park than a minibus, more economical to operate and looks and feels like a regular car (the subject of this application).
  • Improved street presence, which will involve a move to new premises, and the establishment of a new community meeting / eating space.
  • The ongoing replacement / updating of our minibus fleet.

No current opportunities

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