Popular centre in city battling to reopen again

A COMMUNITY centre in the heart of Coventry is fighting to ensure it can reopen its doors once lockdown lifts.

St Peter’s Centre in Hillfields is a well used and well loved community space, but has been closed more than it has been open during the pandemic.

As a result, they have not been able to rent out rooms, which is their main source of revenue.

Open since 2001, St Peter’s is a busy space, and before the pandemic were a revolving door for community groups and people who needed help.

Their open door policy was hugely valuable for people in the area, who would drop in for help with anything from photocopying to housing issues.

We heard from centre manager Joan Haywood who detailed their concerns and hopes for surviving lockdown.

She said: “We’re a very busy centre, we raise our funds through letting out rooms and all the funds that we raise support the local community. We’re based in Hillfields which is a very diverse community, a lot of people that would use the centre for support would be people facing multiple challenges.

“We rent rooms out to raise revenue but of course with all the lockdowns we haven’t been able to raise that, we’ve had some money from the council that we can apply for but certainly not enough. The furlough money has helped us tremendously, we’re all working from home now.”

The centre is a registered company and is run by a board of trustees.

They have six members of staff, one full time and the rest part time, and around ten volunteers.

The issue they are currently facing is getting back on their feet to make sure they can re-open, and stay open.

They are also expecting the challenge of encouraging people back through the doors who may have lost their confidence.

Joan Haywood added: “It’s a close knit community in Hillfields and we’re very much part of it.

“We’ve had some offers during the lockdown, a company offered us some shoe vouchers, we did an open Christmas meals event, but again that had to be really scaled back because of Covid.”

She said the key is getting companies and groups back into Hillfields, showing them that the centre is a good place to hold their next away day or party.

And the centre really is a valuable community asset, working in collaboration with a number of organisations.

If you would like to rent out a room, volunteer, or make a donation to St Peter’s Centre you can email centre manager Joan Haywood: joan@stpeterscentre.org.uk