The Doddridge Centre Limited

The Doddridge Centre is the hub of the local community, it provides a variety of opportunities for the local people of St James and surrounding areas as well as for local organisations and charities. We have helped numerous organisations and groups establish and grow by offering a space for them to use to support their own users. The Doddridge Centre has been a community hub since 1996 and has hosted a number of different initiatives from a community cafe through to our most recent community space including a chill out zone and space for use of IT equipment. 

Our Appeal

We have been given the opportunity of purchasing the building from our Landlords and we are looking to raise £40,000 to assist with the purchase costs. There are numerous benefits to us purchasing the building such as reducing our monthly outgoings which means more revenue available for community projects, making relevant and appropriate changes to the building to make it more user friendly, allowing the building to become a community asset whereby the community will have more of an input into the say of the happenings within the Centre and finally, ensuring the security of the building for the future generations to have a safe community space.

What we offer

The Centre is based in St James which is an area of deprivation and therefore we work with many vulnerable individuals and families who require assistance and support of a variety of needs. We are keen to listen to the voices of our Centre users to provide the requirements to help reduce poverty and deprivation whilst engaging in and encouraging new experiences and opportunities for all. Majority of our services are offered at either minimal or no cost to ensure that they are inclusive for all to attend and we intend on continuing to grow these services in line with the needs and wants of the local community. 

The needs of the local community are at the centre of everything that we do, their feedback and co-production is key to our success. Having had to close due to the pandemic, we have since come back working harder than ever to ensure that we are providing support to those who need it. This includes having secured funding to provide food parcels to those living in food poverty, creating a Stay and Play group for children who have not had peer interaction due to the lockdown, art classes, monthly community events, drop in sessions for mentoring, cv writing and interview skills and working with adult learning to encourage uptake with functional skills and ESOL classes. At the current time we have a successful Seniors Lunch Club, Lunch and Play group, Coffee morning, Community Wardrobe, the St James Community Library, Warm Welcoming Spaces, monthly events, plus much more and we have many more plans in the making.

What our service users say...

"The Doddridge Centre have completely changed my outlook on life, before I felt I had nowhere to go, no options, no choice, I felt useless and hopeless, now I don’t feel that way, I feel more positive, more confident, it’s given me my life back"

“So glad we finally have a community gathering place again, the staff and volunteers are always welcoming and there is always something for everyone to do“ 

“It’s brought more people together”

“A great place to visit, lovely people and very helpful, I take my daughter regularly to different events, I’m glad they are there “