Crownway Community Centre

Earlestown is a district of the Lancashire town of Newton-le-Willows. The community has a mixture of private housing stock and larger council estates, two of which were identified as "Pathways" areas and eligible for Objective One European funding. The Baptist Church in Earlestown began with just five men in 1871 and grew quickly, so much so that the new church building was opened just 10 years later. A wide range of activities were housed in a building whose condition was deteriorating and by 1998 it was clear that the church needed to be demolished and a replacement built. The new build (Picture courtesy of Beryl Finney) cost of £250,000 was achieved by a combination of giving, local fundraising and support from trusts.

Church Urban Fund support for this exciting initiative was typical of the CUF approach. The Fund initially gave a grant of £2000 towards the cost of the social audit of community needs which the church undertook before designing the new building. partnership with the local community is an important element in the CUF approach. Then CUF made a second capital grant of £18,000 towards the building costs of the new dual purpose building. This new church would have a worship centre and also a centre that was both open to the community and responsive to the needs expressed by the community. The involvement of Age Concern in the Crownway Centre is further evidence of the value that CUF places on forming partnerships between church and community.

At the end of the last century the baptists of Earlestown built a church and 16 years later added a school room to meet the needs of the children of the local community. At the beginning of this century the Baptists of Earlestown were building once again. They needed a new church - and were still seeking to meet the needs of the local community.

Planning began with an audit of community needs. They wanted to minister to needs the community really had, not what the church thought the community needed. This social audit, funded by the Church Urban Fund and undertaken in 2000 highlighted fundamental changes in this particular area of Earlestown. What was once a self reliant industrial area was suffering from considerable social deprivation, with high levels of unemployment, unsocial behaviour amongst young people and the isolation of many elderly.

To respond to the needs of the community, Earlestown Baptist Church applied for a capital grant to CUF in March 2002 and a grant of £18,000 was awarded towards the cost of rebuilding on the site of the original church. The new build would incorporate the Crownway Centre to be used for a variety of community activities. The social audit had highlighted the need for a community cafe, a luncheon club for older people and space for after school activities.

It took a further four years to raise the remaining money to construct the new building, support was obtained from a variety of other major funders including, Coalfields Regeneration Trust, Ibstock Cory Environmental Trust, Biffaward, St Helens Health Partnership, Rank Charitable Trust, not forgetting tireless fundraising amongst church members and the local community. The target was eventually reached and in October 2005 the official opening of the building took place - from October to end of January 2006 over 2000 people had already accessed the Centre.

The Centre has gone from strength to strength with people of all ages coming together to have a chat in the café, and enjoying the facilities and activities on their own doorstep.

Beryl Finney, fundraising coordinator says “Although it has been a hard and tiring journey, it has all been very worthwhile and we are doing extremely well – receiving the initial funding from CUF put us on the first rung of the fundraising ladder, for which we are very appreciative”.