Easton Christian Family Centre

Good morning, thank you for sparing me some time. Uh, could you state your name and your community interest company and what you provide for the community? Yes, um, my name's Patrick Wickson. I'm the Operations Manager here at Eastern Christian Family Centre. Um, we are a church and a community centre

Excellent. So you applied for the Community Resilience Fund. You were successful in being allocated a portion of funding, which is brilliant

Uh, so what have you spent, er, the grant money on the funding? Yeah, so, um. The main chunk of money's on these windows that you see here. Alright, excellent

And the old windows were in a very bad condition. In some places they were almost falling out. Um, they were probably the old original timber windows

And the other things, the money was spent on some new doors, cavity wall insulation, and some cladding, um, at high level. Around the building we have a look? Yeah, yeah, thanks. Oh

It's a little bit wet here. Yeah, it's raining. So here's the cladding up here and it goes all around the building

Excellent. New windows all around the building. Excellent

Yeah, the windows look really good, don't they, Cladding. Yeah, we were really happy with the work. It was done

In the work over the summer holidays, which is when the um the sun's quieter, yeah, so. So yeah, so we've seen some of the work um that that's been done. um what difference has this funding made to the staff here and the wider community? Yeah, the, the funding, um, so we got about 66,000 pounds, and I think without that, we got that early on, as I mentioned, I wasn't here at that stage when we applied, but I think it really, um, boosted us and gave us the confidence to

I think at least we've got a start because um initially we were um expecting the the cost of the the work which includes the roof, which is the next stage now, um, was around 600,000 pounds, so. Yeah, yeah, we, we were, we were really kind of worried how we'd get to that, that amount and, um, that, that early money sort of really helped. You did mention that the cost was 600,000 and then by the time you Inquired further into it that it had risen to 1

1.2 1.2 million roughly, um, we employed Hookways, which is a chartered surveyor, and they did a cost analysis, um, and by the time that happened, which was May last year, the, the price has risen to just under 1

2 million. And that's when I arrived when we just got that news. OK, good time to, to appear, is it? Um, so, so you changed, tapped, and yeah, so we were gonna prioritise the roof work first

But um we realised that we all the funding we had um we needed to spend, so we swapped around and um the slightly lower amount for windows, doors, cavity wall insulation and cladding would be more achievable and we could, sort of, we nearly had the money, so we, we just decided to go with that and um as I say, we managed to, Fundraise the rest of the money and get the work done over the summer. Excellent, yeah, it's been really uh encouraging to us. That's good, that's good, um, has it made, because I can see this is a staff office, has it made a difference to them I mean

It looks, first of all it looks great, it makes the building look a lot more smart um but aside from that, the thermal comfort is increased, so now we're just getting to um sort of towards October, November, um, we're starting to feel the benefit. It's not draughty, the old windows, you know, you can just feel the air coming in, um, so that'll really sort of keep us warm this winter. Excellent

Um, so you may not be able to answer this question, but how did you find? Filling out the application form, how did you find the application process? Yeah, so I wasn't here, um, when we had the application, but, um, we did along the way have other, um, bits of paperwork to complete, and I remember at one stage Rosco were involved, so we had some help from them filling in, uh, a sheet, um, so that was useful. OK. Um, Yeah, I mean, There, there is a fair amount of paperwork and I think I understand why that is, um, but the team have been really helpful in kind of providing the support that we've needed to, to complete all of that

Excellent. Um, so what made, you might not be able to answer this one as well. What made you apply specifically for this grant for the CRF funding? Um, well, I don't know the exact reason, but what I do know is that, um, anything

Uh, when we're fundraising anything that looks like we can achieve it, we'll go for, so this one is obviously available and it's a good, a good chunk of money, so. Excellent, good strategy. Um, so what has impacted the delivery of your project? You did um

Touch on it a little bit a moment ago, so from filling out the forms or receiving the, from receiving the funding to delivering the upgrades or or changes. So, um, I think it's fair to say that um, what's really positively impacted us was employing er the chartered surveyor to kind of help us um tender the work. Find the contractor and then manage the work itself and 6, about 10%, 6000 of the CRF funding was towards their fees

So that was really it was really crucial. The previous phase, we managed to work ourselves again before I was here, but I think that was hard work. We had some problems with the, with the contractor, um, and this time

Um, yeah, having, having their support has really helped us, um. What else, um, any setbacks, so the, the big setback really was the increase in costs, um, so that, that meant that we reprioritized what which pieces of work we, we were gonna do. So the, the, the windows and the doors, um, slightly lower cost than the roof, um, and that's what we could manage fund to, to get the funds for

So, um. Yeah. OK, you can sit up

Um, have your future plans changed since receiving the grant? So has it meant you're able to progress, um, more groups are interested in the building because of those changes, or, or has anything changed? Well, I don't know how much it's connected to the new windows, but the building is getting more busy, and I think. As the building's more busy, it's more and more important that all of the far flung bits of it are are warm, so the new. Uh, Windows are helping keeping the kind of

The bits that the rooms at the far ends of the building warmer, so that's it's, you know, it's just much more comfortable, yeah, yeah, in the room that's not draughty, um, what about the staff, do they appreciate it, do they like it? Well, it definitely makes the environment cleaner, more pleasant, so you know, everyone's commented on that. Things have improved. It's a nicer environment and, and again, I guess over the, the winter we'll benefit from it being nice and cosy, yeah, excellent

Um, if you hadn't received the grant, where would your organisation be? What would you have done? Yeah, so I think it's fair to say we'd be a bit further back. We possibly wouldn't have managed to get to the point of actually doing this work. Number 1

The early award of the grant gave us confidence that we had, you know, a chunk of money upfront that we could rely on, and then number 2, it's just like a fair proportion of the overall total and to raise that sort of from other means would have taken longer, so yeah, both in terms of confidence and in getting to where we are more quickly. Excellent. Um, if so it's time to dream big now, uh, if money was no object, what would you prioritise for the future of this, um, organisation? So I mean like

Just ridiculous, like would you put another extension on top of this, would you buy these buildings so that you were larger, yeah. Now, we have reached the point of thinking about the roof because it's still leaking. The problem is it's a flat roof, so that will only have a limited, uh, lifespan, so even when we replace it, that won't last forever, so we are thinking whether we should have a different roof profile, and we are seriously thinking about whether we

It would be best if you're gonna do that, to go up another story. Yeah. And provide accommodation we're in an area where um affordable accommodation, you know

Needed and whether that that we can help the community, um, possibly, we do a lot of work with, um, refugees and asylum seekers, possibly, um, accommodation for them or the local community. So we're just at the beginning of thinking big like you're suggesting. That's really good, that's really

Um, what was, sorry, let me start again, was there anything different or unique about the resilience fund, uh, application or the process compared with other funding? So I know you didn't, but you've been probably having a when I came in, what was different was one, it was the size of the, the grant, but, but two, the, the team's support and uh. Uh, Careful, um, approach to regular meetings, making sure we're on track, helping us, trying to troubleshoot where there were problems or find a support where we needed support. So that, that's different from the other um people we got funding from

Excellent, great. um, so. Where are the last questions

Uh, lastly, how do you feel about the Community Resilience Fund? Has it met your expectations and would you apply again if the opportunity arose? Yeah, yeah, so, um. There is a fair amount of work around paperwork and. And um keeping kind of in touch

But I think, you know, that's more than offset by the, the amount of, um, support and financial assistance that we've received, and also, it's been nice to, Um, get to know the, the team and just feel that there's someone else from outside the organisation that's interested, keeping an eye and kind of can give you advice and support, um, and I guess they're, they're used to this field, so it's. They were able to put us in touch with other people trying to get a new roof and things like that, it's helpful because they see the wider picture, they can kind of link you up and um provide support and advice, so, brilliant, yeah, yeah, thank you. um, lastly, is there anything else you want to show me, uh, anything else you wanna add, anything else you wanna say? Well, do you want to have a little tour of the building quickly? Yeah, sure, sure, thank you

So as I said, this is the office next door we've got um. Another organisation using offices, uh, Bristol Hospitality Network, and they're actually doing what's happening. Here this is normally the cafe

The cafe runs here Tuesday to Friday, but not on Monday because Christian Hospitality are doing their drop in. Yeah, this is the worship space, the main hall where we meet at church on a Sunday. OK

You see today they're setting up for a drop in, so usually between 100 and 200 people. So at the moment they're sitting for a person and there's table tennis for um sewing down at the bottom have a haircut here OK, excellent. Um, there's another upstairs, OK, Bridges for Communities, uh, the City Council used to have a children's centre office up there

Um. This is the Beehive centre which um is kind of over to a cafe you see. The kitchen itself with the, OK, there's a name in the flag

Do you accept that for parents. Uh, food for the week. OK

This is the tree I So. Here's some of the, the work that um goes on in the building. Oh cool

That's good. And I'll just show you down here, we've got another kitchen. So we've got the community kitchen

People in the community who can use and is used by. Um, for example, today it was the Hospitality Network, and we were cooking for probably between 100 and 200 people. Community kitchen here

And then just a three, here. groups. So here

There's a little office in there, this partition can be opened to make this into one big. Excellent. Yeah

In terms of this phase of work, we're, we're almost done. We just need to get a new ramp out here for a new, uh, fire escape route outside and then we'll be done. Yeah, so that's it

Brilliant. Thank you so much for your time. You're welcome

Alright, cheers, thanks..