We are delighted to announce that our funding application to the Big Lottery Fund’s Reaching Communities programme has been successful!!

A grant of £251,505, has been awarded (over five years) for the ‘Making a Difference’ project which will provide opportunities for people to study new academic subjects, pursue new leisure interests, pursue volunteering opportunities and improve skills and employment opportunities.

The Big Lottery Fund distributes 46 per cent of the National Lottery good cause funding across the UK for projects that make real improvements to communities and the lives of people most in need.

This grant will have a huge impact upon the Centre and the community as a whole. Working in partnership with St Helens Adult & Community Learning, St. Helens Healthy Living Programme and the Workers Educational Association, the grant will allow us to deliver courses and activities in response to identified needs, The project will sustain, develop and enhance existing services by providing a greater choice, a natural progression to higher levels and qualifications and greater accessibility – with evening courses and services.

The Centre now known as ‘Hope House’ is unrecognizable after the addition of a brand new front window and refurbishment throughout. This is all thanks to the commitment of a team of volunteers from St Helens Christian Life Centre, who have worked tirelessly and the Seed Bed in Liverpool who provided £5000 towards the refurbishment project.

The work carried out has provided an opportunity to develop the service further, extending the availability of the support and advocacy service to five days a week. On arrival service users are now met with a support team. Facilities such as phones, computers and a new seating area allow the support workers to provide each service user with support regarding benefits enquiries, accommodation searches, applications and forms and signposting to other relevant services as it is required.

Our pre-existing service of dietary and personal care provision still continues with our new Breakfast Club but has been relocated upstairs to a fresh and bright café area with a purpose built kitchen. This allows service users to relax while they eat within a friendly atmosphere.

When asked about the changes service users have provided very positive feedback, describing the new environment as ‘lovely’ and ‘very posh’.

We hope to continue to develop the work that has been started, to keep the service in step with the needs of not only our service users but also to positively impact our community by being a house of hope.

Adults across St.Helens are being urged to boost their brainpower. It’s all part of a range of activities to celebrate Adult Learners’ Week – the UK’s largest celebration of learning.


From Saturday, May 14th to Friday 20th organisations across St Helens will be hosting a range of activities to encourage local people to learn something new and update their skills.


Adult Learners’ Week is the UK’s largest and longest running learning campaign. Held each May, it encourages thousands of adults whatever their age and background, to give learning a go. This year Adult Learners’ Week celebrates its 20th anniversary.


Special ‘taster sessions’ covering a number of subjects will be held by local learning providers in community centres and libraries across St Helens.


And on Saturday, May 14th, a marquee will be open in Church Square from 10am to 3pm, to host an Adult Learners’ Advice and Guidance event when you can learn sign language and discover more about the opportunities that are on offer.

Organisations taking part are St Helens Community Centres, St Helens Council’s Libraries and Learning, St Helens College, the Volunteer Centre, and many more.


Also, look out for an organised ‘Dance Off’ by UC Crew – St.Helens Cultural Award Winners.
And those out and about can enter a free prize draw for a chance to win a £25 High Street voucher.

This fantastic week of events will give local people the opportunity to find out about the courses available across the borough.

Crownway Community Centre provides an in site to volunteering with their Volunteer Profiles. This month we are introduced to Gordon Blackburn – Trustee and Management Committee Member at the Centre.

Gordon has been associated with Earlestown Baptist Church for approximately 60 years, firstly as an active member of the Youth Club where he played Table Tennis, Badminton and helped to organise various social activities, variety concerts and pantomime productions which were held in the hall and enjoyed by Church members and local people from the community.

He met his wife Glenys in the Youth Club and was married in the Baptist Church in 1964 and both continued assisting in Church and Sunday school activities until they moved to Manchester for a few years to be closer to Gordon’s work place. They returned in the 1970’s and continued with assisting in Sunday school and social activities

After the Church building was demolished and fund raising work had begun by existing Church members, Gordon was invited to join the management committee and has been able to contribute to the setting up of the New Earlestown Baptist Church and Crownway Community Centre and continue to assist in its maintenance and organisation.

During the fundraising days Gordon went busking all over the North West and composed a Crownway Anthem which he used to sing during his busking – he raised a lot of money about £700 or more.

Gordon is a ‘time-served engineer’. That is where his talent for doing odd jobs comes in. He left industry to work as a classroom assistant at Penkford School. Up to his retirement, he would do as much as he could for the Centre and when he retired in September (I think it was 2007), the Centre became a life saver for him – he likes to keep busy and we have heard him say more than once, he doesn’t know what he’d have done in his retirement if the Centre wasn’t there.

Gordon used to do afternoon tea dances for Crownway just after we opened. That is one of the fables of Crownway. The first week we opened we had events on every day morning and afternoon. One afternoon we did a tea dance and the place was absolutely heaving, we couldn’t have coped with any more and it was really good. Of course everything was free because Beryl got a grant of somebody to put on the events. Anyway, they all kept saying “this is what we want in this area, when are you doing the next one”. We put one on about a month later and charged £2 each, and nobody came!!!! From that Gordon got the idea of line dancing – he’d never done line dancing, but in his own inimitable style, he looked into it and the rest is history.

Gordon is an asset to Crownway and nothing is too much trouble. His present duties and activities include:

• Setting up audio/visual equipment for centre users when required
• General building maintenance and repair that does not require employing outside contractors
• Facilitates an informal computer class for beginners on a Monday
• Runs the Line Dancing class on a Thursday evening
• Supports the café staff on a Tuesday morning
• Opens and closes the building on a Tuesday and Thursday evening for centre users whilst working in the cafe.

Crownway would not be the centre it is today without volunteers like Gordon.

St Helens LINk is asking people to support a new bus service taking patients and visitors to hospital – or risk losing the service.

The number 28 bus, run by Nip On Buses, will take passengers from St Helens Town Centre into the hospital grounds at St Helens Hospital for the first time. Before that, the closest stop was on Marshalls Cross Road. The distance that patients and visitors then had to walk to get to the hospital entrance was raised as an issue of concern with LINk’s Transport Task Group.
Since the new bus service began, LINk has been busy promoting the service as if it isn’t used by enough passengers, it will be withdrawn. Use it or lose it!

For travel information, contact 0871 200 2233 (calls cost 10 per minute) or see www.merseytravel.gov.uk