Friday, March 29, 2024
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Lounge celebrates

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As we approach our third year at The Lounge, the Directors of ACT (Alvechurch Communities Together) are celebrating. We are delighted to have recently received charity status.

It is a great achievement, thanks to the hard work of a number of our committee members, and one that we hope will help us as we move forward with our plans for the Lounge.

Over the years we have received amazing support from the local and district councils and from the generosity of many local businesses and villagers, who have donated time and money to ensure that this venture has gone from strength to strength.

The success of the café has meant that profits made from sale of teas, coffees and light snacks have been ploughed back into the work that we are doing here.

Our new charity status will now allow us the opportunity to look for other forms of funding, through grants and awards, to further develop the project.

ACT is made up of volunteers from the local area, who use their expertise, energies and hard work to ensure that The Lounge can function as a youth and community resource for the village of Alvechurch and the surrounding areas.

The group was set up in 2011 with the aim to open The Lounge as Community internet café by day and a youth café in the evening. 

Three years down the line and the café opens its doors from 9 till 2 from Tuesday through to Saturday, with a late closing on Friday (4.30pm); the young people enjoy the choice of seven different sessions held over three nights and community groups are also making regular use of the facilities at other times when the shop would normally be closed.

We have ambitious plans for the coming year, including becoming a registered centre for ASDAN training.

ASDAN is a pioneering curriculum development organisation and awarding body, offering programmes and qualifications for young people that particularly encourage skills for learning, skills for employment and skills for life.

We hope to be offering our first course in September of this year.

We are also aiming to reach other sectors of the community from mothers with young children through to those in the later years of their life. At present we run a Knit and Natter group on alternate Mondays from 1.30pm and will be offering a short course to promote healthy eating for adults in March. 

We are working with other organisations that operate in our area to find other ways for the Lounge to serve this community.  Please watch this space!

We look forward to your continuing support as we move forward in an uncertain financial future. Remember that whenever you spend money at the Lounge, through coming into the café, hiring the room or donating at one of our fund raisers, all profits will be reinvested into this unique community project. 

Sally Meredith
The Lounge

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