A CITY community centre can continue its vital work after having its boiler and heating system generously upgraded.
St Barnabas Community Centre in Edwick is celebrating after Swale Heating, a contractor for Orbit, kindly donated and fitted £4,000 worth of equipment to help it keeps its doors open.
The centre is used by a variety of different congregations, mum-and-baby groups and also provides an essential service to the city’s homeless – handing out hot meals once a week.
But issues with the hot water in the kitchen meant it was becoming harder to provide the facilities groups needed.
The centre had even stopped being used as a meeting place for older people because the central heating no longer worked properly.
Upon starting work at properties around St Barnabas, engineers from Swale Heating heard about the plight of the centre and installed the equipment.
Pastor Partap Masih, who runs the centre, said the new boiler and hot water system will make a great difference and also thanked another contractor, Fortem for re-decorating and carrying out essential repairs to the roof.
He said: “We’ve been struggling since losing other funding so we are very grateful.
“It’s wonderful to know that the Centre can continue to be an important part of this community thanks to the support of these two organisations.”
Simon Lieberman, community investment manager at Orbit, added: “The centre is such an important part of the local community and we’re so pleased our contractors have stepped in to help improve the facilities there.
“We’ve been working to better understand the issues and challenges that the community faces, so that we can empower local people to help arrange activities and interventions to manage some of those issues and improve the lives of everyone living in the community.”
