What? Windows

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Funded on
24 Jan 2025

The What? Centre counselling service for children, young people and families based in Stourbridge. Help us to improve the look of the building and make it comfy and warm, and then cool in the summer

£44,854 Raised of £44,689

33 Backers

100%

Our Delivery Report

Funded on 24 January 2025 | Delivered on 26 May 2025

£44,855

RAISED

33

BACKERS

125

DAYS TO FUND

BIGGEST PLEDGE

£20,000

From Dudley Council

£20

MOST POPULAR PLEDGE AMOUNT

350

people have visited this project!

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30 Artworks created

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28/11/25 - 28/11/25

40th Anniversary of The What? Centre

Himley Hall

Dudley Council donated £19544

£19,545

DONATED

By Dudley Council

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2 Jobs created

More about our impact

The environment

These new windows have helped to keep the building really warm and we have used less electricity in the building, it is also a healthier place to be because we are close to the ring road we find that the fumes from the ring road do not come in anymore. The front of the building is very safe and secure now. At the front of the building we had an unsafe base underneath the window, now this is brick built.

Volunteering, jobs & education

We have lots of volunteering particularly with regards to counsellors who are in their last year of training and this then supports them into employment. We have employed two new counsellors under some new Lottery Funding. Our Centre has been more visible in terms of young people passig by and poppoing in for help with employment and training issues.

Arts, culture & heritage

Heritage the improvement of the building. Children and young people have created art within the building

Activity, health and leisure

LGBTQ+ Groups have taken part in weekly activities. We have plans for new groups through new staff

http://www.thewhatcentre.co.uk

The What? Centre is a children and young people's counselling service with two builidngs one in the north of the Borough near to Dudley Twon Centre and the other in the south of the Borough in Stourbridge. We provide hundreds of counselling sessions each month and over the year several thousand. We are comissioned for some of our work with Children and Young people by Black Country NHS Foundation Trust and also have a HIV service funded through Public Health. The rest of our funding for 18-25's has to be found through Charitable Trusts funding applications but our contracts do not provide us with funds to deal with any repairs or structural issues.

Our services will have been running in Stourbridge for 40 years next year and we have in that time seen generations of young people come through our doors, sometimes parents who saw us when they were children themselves. All of our counsellors are qualified to level 5 or Post Grad or Masters, all are DBS checked. We hold the Queens Award for our service and Investors in People and are accredited by the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP).

The age groups we counsel are mainly 5-25 although we do have a Social Enterprise which enables us to counsel adults as well.

We have specialist counsellors who work with younger children and use play therapy as a way of engaging them in the process. Most of our counsellors are Integrative in their Practice which means that their qualification has included the learning and practice of different techniques to enable them to work with a wide range of clients.

We also work with young people who have declared themselves suicidal and so work with them to get them the support that they need. Many of our clients, partiularly ones of 14-25 may also have self-harm issues or may have OCD. Our experience is recognised in that we hold a contract for counselling with the Black Country Trust and lead a consortium of other organisations in that contract.

We also run several LGBTQ+ groups each week which we are currently trying to find extra funding for as well as this has been a vital part of our work.

Project Owner: The What? Centre The Project Owner takes legal responsibility for receiving and spending the funds raised and ensuring the project is delivered.