Ravensthorpe Community Centre Ltd

Our Aim is;
1.To grow a sustainable charity
2.where we improve the quality of life of people and
3.where people love to work.

To achieve our aim we have the following objectives:

Become self-sustaining through developing social enterprise and income generation streams
Provide excellent childcare that meets the needs of our community
Provide appropriate, accessible and inclusive learning opportunities for everyone in our community
Provide opportunities for our community to become more informed about health and wellbeing and become more healthier and fitter
Develop high calibre, appropriately qualified, enthusiastic and motivated people who are committed to contributing to Routeways’ success.

The organisation was set up in 2000 as an independent charity to run a community facility. Since then it has gone from strength to strength by expanding the space available for activities and delivering its own services such as childcare, adult learning health and well-being projects.

Outline below is our story:
1999 - In 1999, with the closure and demolition of the Foundry Street youth club, a meeting was held by representatives of local Ravensthorpe based community groups about the possibility of acquiring a building for general community use.
After many meetings and discussions between them and Kirklees Council, it was agreed that if representatives could come together to form a group, Kirklees Council would support them in acquiring and running a community building through available European SRB Grant funding.

With St Johns Ambulance Centre looking for new premises their building came up for sale, it was purchased by the newly formed group in 1999 and renamed as the Ravensthorpe Community Centre.

2000 - The building underwent a series of alterations to make it more suitable for use as a community centre, the building had disabled ramps put in and the rooms were changed to make then suitable for community use. In May 2000 the building was officially opened by Mayor of Kirkless.
The building subsequently became very popular with regular users such as a wide range of community groups, the local further education college holding learning classes and a local provider delivering crèche facilities.

2005 - In 2005 it became apparent that adult learning was becoming very popular, however the lack of crèche places meant learners who were parents had to be turned away. In response the community centre management planned on an ambitious programme of expansion in the form of a building extension to house a state of the art ICT suite and a purpose built childcare facility capable of meeting the demand for childcare and nursery places.
2006 - Fundraising of over £400,000 was undertaken with grant funding secured from the European Regional Development Fund and the Big Lottery to build the extension.
2007 - The building work on the extension was undertaken in 2007 with the nursery opening in December.
2008 - The demand for adult learning was rising meteorically and both the Local College and the Local Authority found it difficult meet the demand. The Community Centre undertook its first foray into delivering adult learning through a partnership project.
2009 - The Community Centre went through the quality assurance process with City and Guilds and started to deliver accredited learning courses. It was also successful in getting approval to deliver learning courses on behalf of the Local Authority. The Information Advice and Guidance delivered by the Community Centre was also externally verified and consequently successfully achieved the Matrix standard which illustrated the high standard of delivery.
Our community needs analysis highlighted that there was a burgeoning demand for young people’s activity. A building across the road from the existing site become available with the owner agreeing to sell it to the Community Centre for community use with a grace period of a year for the Community Centre to raise the money for the purchase.

2010 - The community centre raised £170,000 for both the purchase and the renovation of the annexe building.
2011 - The renovation work was undertaken in the annexe building and youth groups along with other community groups started taking advantage of the space provided by the building. This year saw the securing of approximately £500,000 over 5 years of Big Lottery grant funding to deliver health and community learning activities. The Community Centre was also successful in securing over £100,000 to deliver ESOL across Kirklees as the lead partner in a consortium.
This was a particularly successful year for the nursery as it achieved the highly coveted ‘Outstanding’ in the OFSTED inspection in all competency areas.

2012 - With the Community Centre delivering a diverse range of activities (especially health activities) in areas across Kirklees, a reorganisation and rebrand of the charity took place. The name was changed to Routeways and the program delivery was divided into four categories, Childcare, Learning, Health and Wellbeing and Social Enterprise.
2013 - Great strides were made in the delivery of our health strand with the Community Centre securing over £70,000 to deliver health related activity.