We're getting a new building...
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Work begins on the groundwork for our
new building |
Building work at Crimea Road in Aldershot (just round the corner from where we are at present) is proceeding apace, and excitement is growing!
New facilities
The new building has been purpose-designed to meet the current and future needs of clients and staff and to provide a bright, clean, safe and environmentally friendly place.
The new four-storey building
will enable us to bring all our services and management into one building. The top two floors will have 30
single study-bedrooms with communal areas for cooking, laundry and leisure. This will give our young people a
quiet and secure environment in which to live and study.
The
ground floor will house Youth AIMS (our information,
advice and mediation service), along with other services including counselling, training and family mediation. Staff offices, interview and
meeting rooms will be located on the first floor.
Reasons for re-locating
As Step by Step has grown over the past 18 years, more services have been added until we now work across five different locations around Aldershot town centre. The existing buildings are quite old and have been adapted rather than built for our purpose, and communications between staff and clients becomes more difficult over several locations.
Moving into a specially designed building will enable us to make saving on the cost of heating and maintenance, improve communications and make all our services more accessible to our young people, as well as providing accommodation to a good standard. This should lead to better outcomes for all our clients and staff. The old buildings will be returned to community use once we have moved out.
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Architect's elevation of finished building |
Partnerships
Obviously, we couldn't undertake this project on our own. We are very fortunate to have the enthusiastic support of Rushmoor Borough Council and a number of other partner organisations (see left), including Hampshire County Council, surrounding local councils and the Homes and Communities Agency.
We are very grateful to have secured funding for the building, which will cost £3.5 million. Sentinel Housing Association will own and manage the building and together with them we did some wide-ranging research covering around 30 other similar projects to ensure that we have the best possible facilities for our young people. In fact, we're hoping this will be one of the best such schemes in the country. We've also been keen to ensure that energy and maintenance costs are kept as low as possible.
Our builders, Wilding Butler, have experience in this type of building, having recently completed the Trinity Centre for
homeless people in central Winchester and the new
Church on the Heath in Fleet.
Fitting out - funds required!
Although funds for the building are secured, the new building needs furnishings and equipment, which means that we still have to find £285,000 for this purpose. Our fundraising teams have been working hard to raise this sum, and we have received several donations already, including a very generous gift from the Hilton in the Community Foundation towards the costs of second stage client accommodation.
But there's still a long way to go!
You can help..
We have
two fundraising schemes which we hope will appeal to the local community. Individual
supporters can "Buy a brick" for £10, and we also hope
that local people and organisations will be prepared
to "Name a bedroom" for £2,000.
We see Step by Step as a community project, tackling
the problems of youth homelessness in the area,
helping young people to overcome difficulties, develop new skills, regain their confidence, and be
able to live independent and constructive lives.
When the new building opens, we hope to run more
evening and social activities to offer our clients
positive ways of occupying their spare time. We'll
need plenty of enthusiastic volunteers to make this
happen, so if you think you might be able to help, please get in touch.
To offer support and to find out more about how you can help, call Leanne Grubb, our Community Fundraiser, on 01252 327317, or
email her at leanne.grubb@stepbystep.org.uk, or
make an on-line donation.
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Celebrating the start of work are (back row, l-r): Martin Nurse (CEO, Sentinel Housing); Phil Wilding (MD, Wilding & Butler); Mike Brown (Chairman, Step by Step); Leanne Grubb (Community Fundraiser, Step by Step);
(front row): some of our young people. |
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