The church leader Pastor Roger Rowland has informed the 'Post' that work will be commencing soon, to convert the building into a community centre to serve the people of Bude and North Cornwall.
The New Life Centre as it will be called will become the home to lunch and coffee clubs for a variety of community groups. A money management and debt counselling service will run alongside the current Food Bank service and a crisis centre will help those who find themselves in difficulties.
A life skills training programme will enable anyone from the community to come to be trained in cooking, home management, family issues, finance and a whole lot more. An after school coffee and study club for secondary aged young people will be held in the café and an internet hot spot will be freely accessible to all.
A youth and children's project will see youth clubs develop and children's activities increase. On the top floor a family contact centre will be set up to enable estranged families to meet with their children in a warm and welcoming environment.
The building will provide the working base for the soon-to-be-launched Street Pastors. (Launch evening on February 11 7pm in The Falcon Hotel)
Rev Rowland said: "Add to all the above a state of the art conference room and other spaces that will be available for rent by local people and organisations and the readers will understand that this is definitely going to be an excellent facility for the town."
Over £120,000 has been given by members of Bude Christian Fellowship in donations or loans to enable the purchase to happen. The church is looking for individuals and businesses in the town to stand alongside them with donations to help make this project a great success. If you would like to make a donation or want to know more about the New Life Centre, you can contact Roger Rowland on 01288 359714 or email him at [email protected]">[email protected]
The project will be run as a charitable company under the name CATCH which stands for Community Action Training Care and Help. The public are being consulted as to what other projects and community initiatives could be run from the building and an on line community survey can be found at http://www.bcf-elim.com/community_survey">www.bcf-elim.com/community_survey.
Rev Rowland added: "What's the catch? We are! Are you? If you would like to get involved get in touch."