A former community centre near the heart of Bishop Auckland is being transformed into a social enterprise and creativity hub that supports adults with learning disabilities and autism.
Dorset Place Community Centre, located on Henknowle Estate, is in the process of transformed with over £260,000 investment by Bridge Creative.
In November 2021, believe housing transferred ownership of the building to provide a base for Bridge Creative and bring the building back into a community use.
Bridge Creative was founded in April 2018 and are a community interest company (CIC) who have been searching for a home in the area for three years.
The organisation already supports around 160 people in County Durham, the new premises will allow them to increase their offer in the south of the county.
Bridge Creative secured a total of £261,245 funding for the refurbishment of the centre with money from South Durham CLLD through the European Structural Investment Fund Programme 2014-2020, the North East Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), The Gaunless Gateway Big Local Partnership, The Screwfix Foundation, Power to Change Bright Idea’s Fund and The School for Social Entrepreneurs.
Once completed, the new centre will provide a permanent base for Bridge Creative to continue its employment support for adults with learning disabilities and autism, offering work experience opportunities and supporting people into paid employment in the events, arts and creative industries.
In their new home Bridge Creative will support 10 young adults with learning disabilities and or autism to complete a traineeship as part of the refurbishment, working alongside contractors and tradespeople to renovate the building, gaining real work experience and a nationally-recognised qualification.
The centre will also include five affordable spaces for local social enterprises, charitable organisations, and creative businesses, as well as a commercial kitchen, and co-working space with individual pods.
Fay Metha from believe housing said: “Bridge Creative do some great work across County Durham, when they approached us during their search for a base we were determined to see if we could find a solution.
“The building at Dorset Place has been unused for a while so transferring ownership to Bridge Creative is a great way of bringing it back into community use. It will also provide a brilliant new resource for the community that I’m sure will be really well used.”
Excited
Ben Tinkler, Managing Director of Bridge Creative said: “We’re very excited that we now have the keys and work started on our new building in January.
“It’ll be great for the local area and for the people we support and will provide many opportunities for people with learning disabilities and autism to access meaningful paid employment.
“Homeworking is also expected to continue beyond the pandemic so we think the co-working space will be particularly popular with people wanting to work from somewhere other than their bedroom. It’s took almost two years to get to this stage so we just can’t wait to get started.”
Physical works have already started and will include accessibility improvements including widened doors for wheelchair users and the installation of a lift to make the first floor accessible.
The aim is to offer affordable and flexible space that will benefit the local community and provide opportunities for the people Bridge Creative supports.
Bishop Auckland's local community newspaper.
