Building Refurb Project
OUR VISION FOR THIS COMMUNITY BUILDING
ECFC aims to ‘welcome all with the love of Jesus’. Some of our activities are explicitly faith based (such as prayer meetings and Sunday services), however we have a building where we aim to welcome all from the community without a faith agenda. As such we run a conversation class, a stay and play, an Arabic speaking women’s group (run by our Muslim volunteers), and a support group for older members of the community.
We also let space in the building extensively to local charities and community groups including Refugee Women of Bristol, Bristol Hospitality Network, Bridges for Communities, the Central Children’s Team and the Resettlement scheme at Bristol City Council.
The demand is ever increasing for affordable community spaces and after a consultation with our building users and the wider community we have made a plan to ensure our building is able to continue to offer a warm welcome to all.
“When I come to this place, I feel like I’ve come home“.
A refugee who attends mid-week groups at ECFC
Our Context
Lawrence Hill is within the 10% most deprived areas of the UK with high unemployment, high levels of child poverty, poor housing and many people struggling financially. It is a very multicultural, multifaith area which brings a great diversity but can also present problems of lack of understanding between people. Some feel isolated and lonely due to lack of support networks, struggles with language and intergenerational barriers. They want to ‘belong to a diverse but connected neighbourhood’ and build stronger community bonds.
Sources: ‘Lawrence Hill Statistical Profile 2018’ and ‘Understanding Wellbeing in Easton and Lawrence Hill’ – Up Our Street, 2017
ECFC wants to continue to be at the heart of meeting this need in our area.
Will you help us?
Our Plans:
- Refurbish the old toilets.
- Take out the current tiered seating in the main worship room to create two levels to increase use options of the current space for community use.
- Create a quiet lounge area which can be used as a multifaith prayer space.
- Expand our community kitchen and turn a large room into three smaller linked rooms to enable greater room hire options of the space.
- Replace old, draughty windows, add extra insulation in roof and walls to make the building more energy efficient.
We want to make our worship space more inviting and useful
How Can I Help?
£500,000 feels like a huge amount of money to raise but we know that if we pull together as a community and raise some of it ourselves, we can then approach other funders to help us get over the line. We intend to apply to trusts and foundations for about half the money but we need to raise about half of it ourselves from our community and our contacts.
Can you give something yourself?
Can you ask a neighbour or family member or friend to donate?
Can you organise a sponsored event and give the proceeds to this appeal?
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