Great Places has played a pivotal role in helping a community café in Burnley getting a new lease of life.
The café is housed in the Chai Centre, on Hurtley Street, has been closed for a number of years but has been reopened thanks to Ibrar Syed, who also runs the Enterprising Habits Hub on Abel Street.
Great Places has helped with expertise and support to set up a new social enterprise business as well as business planning and meetings with NHS estates who own the building.
The new café was officially launched at a special event recently, which saw organisations come together and discuss how the centre could be utilised for the benefit of the community going forward.
Daniel Mountford, Great Places’ Funding Partnership Lead, said: “It’s wonderful to see the Café open again for the community and to have worked over the last two years to support Enterprising Habits and partners to develop plans for the reopening.
“Meeting the needs of the community moving forward, Great Places looks forward to working with local residents to support their training and enjoying this vital community space.”
Mr Syed added: “We started the journey two years ago and a lot of hard work has been done to get us to this launch event.
“A lot of people have been helped through Enterprising Habits, and we are hoping that via the Chai Centre we can work with our partners to extend the offer and help more people.
“Using the expertise of the organisations, we can create a vibrant service which will help the people of Daneshouse and Burnley.
“I’d like to thank Great Places and our other partners for helping get us to this point.”
Enterprising Habits Ltd provides a wide range of services that includes bi-lingual Info Advice and Guidance, ESOL< ICT, Numeracy, Employability skills programme as well as Health and wellbeing Initiative etc thus supporting over 8000 local residents annually. Their aim to work with our partners particularly Great Places to extend the offer and help more people.
Using the expertise of the organisation, they are committed to create a vibrant and welcoming space to help people connect and build new connections to support one another.
Finally, targeted investment and expert advice will enable a financially sustainable café that delivers measurable outcomes in health, skills and employment.
