CHAT Shop development
The CHAT shop was established
about twelve years ago by an equal partnership of the Methodists at Dilston, the
Baptists at Westgate Road, S Mary’s Cathedral and ourselves as a registered
charity and not for profit limited company.
Based in Arthur’s Hill in the West End of Newcastle, from the outset,
it aimed to address the social and health issues of the area, to promote social
inclusion amongst the population and enhance and support cultural development.
Over the last generation and
particularly since the foundation of the CHAT Shop, the area has experienced
great upheavals. Once a
tightly-knit community of Tynesiders who worked in the heavy and service
industries, development policies and economic vicissitudes have greatly
fractured the cohesion of the community. Erratic
patterns of housing renewal have exacerbated the situation, leading to great
shifts in population. To make way for regeneration, many long term
residents have moved out of the area, subsequently to be replaced by others from
elsewhere. This has resulted in the
creation of large ethnic minority communities and the development of a
considerable quantity of student accommodation.
It is this fracturing of the
community and its concomitant problems that the CHAT shop is now seeking to
address as we pursue our original purpose of giving concrete expression to the
Gospel that we proclaim.
A drop-in café provides an
informal and welcoming venue in which visitors can access community advice as
well as dropping in for a chat and enjoy economical nutritious food.
A healthy living project
currently works with local people to develop an inclusive healthy community
group, which organises low cost healthy activities and provides access to health
information.
A life-long learning project
works in partnership with other organisations, providing regular adult literacy
and numeracy support, access to information technology, a small reference
library. A toy library seeks to
encourage families to play and learn together.
The CHAT shop both lays on
services in its own right and as well as enabling providing hospitality for
others. In 2002, 126 people used
the café every week, together with others who came to access advice and other
services. In addition, 91 children
were involved in the football club.
The CHAT shop has seen a steady
increase in the provision of the services that it makes, the support of
volunteers from the area and the numbers using the project.
We have already seen a broadening of our contacts with regard to ethnic
minority groups. This has established us firmly within the community and in
partnership with other community organisations and statutory bodies that work in
the area.
For this reason, the trustees
felt able to embark an ambitious expansion of the scope of the project.
The development plan for 2003 – 2005 builds on what we have already
achieved.
The CHAT Shop successfully
applied to New Deal for Communities for funding to undertake a feasibility and
development study (F&D) to develop the present café as a community café.
The F&D study aimed both to
engage local community members in assessing the need for and viability of such a
facility and to provide skills training to enable local residents to take the
lead role in establishing and managing it.
By sharing what the CHAT Shop
has already achieved with other community groups, the Trustees sought to
encourage groups to work together for the benefit of the local community.
The establishment of Social Enterprise, funded by ERDF
and NDfC amongst others, will provide training opportunities and some employment
for people in the area as well as establishing a business as the heart of the
community in Arthur’s Hill. The
profits will be used to expand the scope of the project and so draw in more
people.
This Social Enterprise is run by
local residents and will, in due course, function independently of, although in
partnership with, the CHAT Shop. It
has the advantage of “hitting the ground running” as the politicians were
once fond of saying, since it will be able to avail itself of many of the long
established contacts and networks that have been built up for over a decade.
The management has already
embarked upon experimentation with expanding the provision by increasing the
opening hours and the range of food. They
are also investigating effective ways of catering for the wide cultural tastes
of the community. The café has
already been redecorated and now looks much more welcoming that it has done for
a year or two. As well as snacks,
substantial meals are available and step by step much more is planned.
Last month, Bernard Jenkin,
shadow minister for the regions, visited the CHAT Shop whilst he was in the
Northeast and said that “The CHAT Shop is a great success story, involving a
self-help organisation that has grown up in the community.”
The CHAT Shop Trust will
continue to work in Arthur’s Hill. With
others now responsible for the day-to-day running of the café, we will be able
to turn our attentions to other issues in the area, about which the Church
should have a concern.
In a way, the Trustees took a bold step as we embarked upon this venture. However, if we are to remain faithful to the original aims of the CHAT Shop, we need to be making the most of every opportunity to contribute to the development and enhancement of the community of Arthur’s Hill.
Home page: http://stmatthewsnewcastle.org.uk/