Good times ahead
We are about creating safe spaces for people to learn, do and grow, empowering them to contribute back into their community and bring life back into an often overlooked area.
After a turbulent year, surrounded by speculation about the future, we have learnt a lot, done a lot and grown hugely. We are now an organisation with a positive future, embedded in our communities and feeling stronger than ever.
If you don’t already know, we are a community anchor organisation spanning multiple wards of Middlesbrough, offering youth and engagement activities as well as housing, childcare, jobs and volunteering. Under the direction of Chief Executive Mike Milen, who joined us in January this year, we have undergone an assessment to find new ways of working which enable us to connect and partner with similar organisations who want to help people, just as much as we do.
CEO, Mike said: “It hasn't all been easy and we don’t always get it right, but we have made substantial changes to ensure we have the right people, projects and plans to create a long-lasting legacy. We continue to listen to feedback, learn from our mistakes and stay focussed on the real reason we are here.”
“Kindness and a safe space can make all the difference to someone living in poverty, struggling with their mental health or fighting to fit into a system. We understand this because not only do we work in these communities but we’re also from them and have our own first-hand experiences. So as an organisation built to support people through this and find solutions to reduce these issues, we foster community building and strong relationships among our participants so that no matter what someone faces, we will be stronger together.”
Over the last year we have experienced the negative impact of the pandemic, large staff turnover, the current cost of living crisis and now rising energy costs, which are real concerns for more and more people and businesses, as an area yet to realise its potential, risks falling into extreme poverty.
Even through all this, we're confident in our abilities to support the people of East Middlesbrough - by pushing our struggles aside, this last year has seen us complete a merger with North Ormesby Neighbourhood Development Trust (NONDeT), pull a struggling childcare provider up the ranks (and more recently ensure its positive future), restructure the organisation, and move forward with our plans to develop a registered housing provider to work alongside CVL.
Mike said: “Due to all our efforts these last few years, we're now in a really strong place to not only take these projects forward but also build on new ones in sustainability, wheels-based activities, micro regeneration and local wealth building.”