Great to see you all to celebrate hitting our Crowdfunder target3 months ago
Impact data and claims within this report are provided by the project creator and have not been independently verified by Spacehive.
Our Community Benefit Society is setting up a new Community Centre, Cafe & Event Space in the former St John's Church in Newsome, Huddersfield. Help us buy this building for the community.
From a redundant church we will create a vibrant community café with free wifi. It will also be an entertainment and small conference venue. It will be a place where people can come together, meet socially 7 days a week. There will be comfortable seating and tables, with a main hall to accommodate 150 people and seminar rooms also with multi media facilities each accommodating around 25 people round tables It will be an entertainment venue for concerts, plays, films and a place where people can celebrate their marriage and other family events. We will aim to be a zero carbon building with high levels of insulation and use of renewable energy. This will reflect our values but also make us a financially sustainable venue. While modernising the building we will respect the heritage of the building by retaining church features such as the pulpit and memorials . We do this out of respect but also to celebrate the heritage of the building in our community.
What we'll deliver:
Why it's a great idea:
It will create an open inclusive space were people can come together in a community where there is nothing like it at present. The knock on effect in terms of community well being will be massive. We want the centre to be the local community 'lounge' where everyone feels welcome and comfortable. We want to create a building with a busy agenda providing something for people of all ages and backgrounds. Activities will include income generating activities such as wedding receptions, beer festivals and small conferences. These will support community activities that are less focused on generating income and more about maintaining the building as an open space for the whole community such as the community cafe, a comfortable work place for students, and home workers with free wifi and a place which community organisations can call home for their events and activities.
Steps to get it done:
We have created a vision document for The Newsome Centre and commissioned an architect to develop our vision and estimate the costs of realising it. We recognise that the vision will need to be worked at in stages. THe first being the demolition of the existing kitchen and toilet extension and the creation of a new modern kitchen and accessible toilet block with baby changing facilities. We have established the Community Benefit Society, to lead the project and have a board with currently 5 members. A bank account has been set up. The community consultation that we have carried out has shown strong support for The Newsome Centre across the community and we are confident that it will be popular and meet a need that is not being met locally.
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We're going to meet outside St John's Church at 6.30pm on Wednesday 2nd August to mark hitting the Crowdfunder target. We'll be available to give people an update on progress to date on the sale of the building and next steps in this exciting community project. There will also be some fizz on hand! Please come along.
Whoop, 110 people have pledged since fundraising began!
Brilliant news, thanks everyone!
Whoop, 100 people have pledged since fundraising began!
How will the money be spent?Total £17,767
Costs Breakdown
This shows how money raised for the project will be spent. These costs have been confirmed by the project's Delivery Manager and verified.
Overfunding
This project is enabled for overfunding. If the project hits its funding goal before the end of the campaign period, any extra funds raised will be spent (in order of priority) on:
Total £17,767
Our Volunteer List
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VolunteerThe Newsome Centre is a Community Benefit Society established in 2022. The board consist of representatives from the Church of England, Newsome Academy and local Kirklees Councillors. We have established the community benefit society with help from Cooperative Mutual Solutions Limited.
We have established our model rules and policies that we need to operate, hold regular Board meetings and have set up a bank account.
The purpose of a community benefit society is to serve the broader interests of the community, in contrast to co-operative societies that serve the interests of members. The 2014 Act requires a community benefit society to “carry on a business, industry or trade” that is “being, or intended to be, conducted for the benefit of the community”. But the Act does not provide any further definition or description of what a community benefit society is, creating a reliance on the FCA’s registration guidance. The FCA focuses on four key characteristics of a community benefit society:
Purpose: The FCA says that “the conduct of a community benefit society’s business must be entirely for the benefit of the community.” There can be no alternative or secondary purposes, including any that may preferentially benefit the members.
Membership: In common with all societies, community benefit societies normally have members who hold shares and are accorded democratic rights on the basis on one-member-one-vote. The FCA says “it is not usually appropriate for a community benefit society to give any particular group of members greater rights or benefits, because the society must be conducting its business for the benefit of the community. So, for example, we would expect to see community benefit societies run democratically on the basis of one-member-one-vote.
Project Owner: The Newsome Centre The Project Owner takes legal responsibility for receiving and spending the funds raised and ensuring the project is delivered.
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