We're still collecting donations
On the 29th July 2022 we'd raised £2,955 with 44 supporters in 49 days. But as every pound matters, we're continuing to collect donations from supporters.
The aim of the project is to raise funds to secure the immediate and long term future of the Centre and Tearoom.
by Anthony Grimley in Coalville, Leicestershire, United Kingdom
On the 29th July 2022 we'd raised £2,955 with 44 supporters in 49 days. But as every pound matters, we're continuing to collect donations from supporters.
Our origins start in 1986 when a seed was sown in Kevin and Ellen Grimley for founding a space for those in need of a place of hospitability, care and compassion, where people could learn how to be in a safe and supportive environment. At the time, their family home had become an open house where people came and knocked on the door to find, a listening ear, an open heart and even a place to bring their sleeping bag if they needed a place to lay their head.
In the early nineties, they found themselves in Northumberland learning to run a retreat/community house called Nether Springs. They packed up and went to live in this house for a year to learn their trade, learning a way of live and establishing a vocation that placed equal value on 'being' and 'doing', here they learnt to culture a fearful hope for humanity.
The seed became a living reality in 2008 when Kevin and Ellen Grimley and four generations of family moved to a large house called to St Joseph’s. They started by sharing a few scones from a wheel barrow at the bottom of their drive, to offer hospitality to the people in the area from their home. From very small beginnings, two years later they moved to an adjoining building called Abbey Grange to establish a Tearoom and Community Centre.
Currently the Centre cares and provides hospitality, a listening ear and training for vulnerable people via our partnerships with Derby, North Staffs and Burton YMCA’s. The Centre also supports various local charities and organisations who benefit from a refuge and place of acceptance and compassion.
This is our past our present and our future .
We have an established , thriving hospitable business which is now precariously balanced because of the pending renovation costs of the building . Due to Covid, most businesses are already under extreme pressure and we too have to negotiate this together, with the overwhelming costs to bring the building up to the standards required.
With a heavy heart, full of hope we plough on and it is now time to ask for your support on this journey as we seek to protect this place of sanctuary for so many. We already value your support and are just responding to several questions around our future and opening up the channels of communication further.
Kevin and Ellen Grimley June 2022.
For more information feel free to email or pop in and speak to us in person.
This project offered rewards