Residents of Worcester City Council have been invited to have their say on plans to further develop community hubs.
Users of Worcester Community Trustโs community hubs are being asked for their views on plans to enhance and improve the sites.
Worcester Community Trust is a registered charity that runs six community hubs and architects have now been appointed to design several new skills and training spaces within some of those hubs with the aim of encouraging residents to access training opportunities within their local areas.
The project is being funded by Worcester City Council as part of its Towns Fund allocation. Worcester was awarded ยฃ19.6million from the Governmentโs Towns Fund which is helping to pay for several projects around the city that aim to deliver long-term economic and productivity growth, and support recovery from Covid.
Of that ยฃ19.6 million, ยฃ1.79million has been allotted towards improving Community Skills and Enterprise in the city, with ยฃ1.6million of that money being invested in Worcester Community Trust buildings.
This ยฃ1.6m funding will be used for the development of a new construction skills training centre, “Building Block II ” at The Green Hub in Dines Green as well as planned improvements at other hubs.
The charityโs aim is to provide training opportunities to residents within their local communities, focusing on areas where people may not have mainstream qualifications. Courses planned range from IT skills and customer services to training in construction skills including bricklaying, carpentry, plumbing and green tech trades such as solar and heat pump installation engineers.
As part of the same project, a ยฃ150,000 grant has been awarded to St Peter’s Village Hall Association to support construction of a new village hall that will include space for training courses for the local community, and a ยฃ50,000 grant has been awarded to the Fairfield Centre in Warndon, which is expanding its capacity to deliver hair and beauty skills training.
Helen Davis, Director of Skills & Training at Worcester Community Trust said โIt is fantastic to be entering into the design phase for this project as we start to get a real feel for the impact this is going to have within the local community.
โWe will shortly be holding online and face-to-face consultations with members of the public and Worcester Community Trust clients, to get their feedback on what barriers they are currently experiencing when trying to access skills & training opportunities. This will all be fed back into the designs, to ensure that the new spaces really work for members of our local community and support them in gaining new skills that will have a positive impact on their lives and families.โ