The Harbour Project will be moving into Broadgreen Community Centre in January.
It will have a 10 year lease, and the move will follow major refurbishment work taking place at the centre.
The Harbour Project was founded in 2000 and has become the main charity in Swindon supporting refugees and asylum seekers arriving in the town.
It provides advice, support and practical help for refugees to help them settle and to give them a chance of a fair future in the UK. In 2020 the charity received The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service.
The charity currently operates out of St Luke’s Church on Broad Street, opposite Broadgreen Community Centre. Due to the scale of its operations the Harbour Project has outgrown these premises and requires a larger footprint to deliver the services it is currently offering and would like to offer in the future.
The Harbour Project approached South Swindon Parish Council about moving to Broadgreen Community Centre after the covid testing service left, with the community centre being identified by the charity as the ideal venue for meeting current and future service needs.
South Swindon Parish Council Chair Chris Watts said: “We are so pleased to have the Harbour Project moving in to Broadgreen Community Centre. They will be providing the parish council with a competitive rent and in return will be getting a fully refurbished facility that meets their requirements for supporting Swindon’s refugees and asylum seekers.
“I am also delighted that the community centre will be available to the public once again after being shut for so long. We look forward to welcoming the community back to the centre and hope to see it become a vibrant hub of activity once again.”
Claire Garrett, CEO/Director of the Harbour Project: “The Harbour Project has been part of the Broadgreen community since we were established 22 years ago and we've grown significantly in this time. We've been considering alternative premises for some time so the opportunity to move to Broadgreen Community Centre has come at a perfect time for us.
"Working really closely with South Swindon Parish Council, we've been bringing the building back to life and it's been great to see it taking shape, ready for our move on 1 January.
“We are really excited by the move - excited to be in a building more fitting to our needs where we can offer help, advice and activities for asylum seekers and refugees living in Swindon.
"We are immensely proud of what we do and the impact that we make and are proud to be moving to Broadgreen Community Centre as part of our next chapter.”
Broadgreen Community Centre, between Broad Street and Manchester Road, has been run by the parish council since 2017, and was open to the public for bookings until March 2020, when it was closed to the public and later repurposed as an NHS covid testing site in the height of the pandemic.
After this closed, the parish council considered the centre's future use, including running a consultation in the Broadgreen area on what people like to see at the centre. In September, parish councillors took the decision to grant the Harbour Project use of the community centre through a lease arrangement, with a view to taking bookings from the local community once the Harbour Project had started operating from the building. Moving forward, the parish council says there will be areas of the community centre which are exclusively used by the Harbour Project and other areas, including the main hall and the old activity and youth rooms, which will be shared between the Harbour Project and the parish council for community bookings.
Since the Parish Council took the decision to lease sections of the centre to the Harbour Project, a series of improvements and repairs to Broadgreen Community Centre has taken place, with nearly £140,000 being invested in the centre by the parish council and the Harbour Project. Works include the leaky flat roof being replaced, a new access control system which will include the introduction of an electronic bollard to access the car park and refurbishments to the interior to make the centre fit for purpose.
Once the work is finished and the Harbour Project has moved into community centre, the parish council will once again be able to take bookings for the main hall of the community centre and the former activity and youth rooms at the centre.
The Harbour Project plans to reopen its services at Broadgreen Community Centre in the week commencing 9 January.
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