Station team rolls up its sleeves for the community
The team from VolkerFitzpatrick, Van Elle and Mace, delivering the design and build projects at Brent Cross West train station, took time out on November 30 to volunteer at North Road Community Centre in Burnt Oak Broadway.
The team painted the main hall and corridors throughout the centre, as the first step in a series of improvements, which will also see them complete the painting of the kitchen and rest room areas, as well as improving the outside façade and fencing, creating a sensory garden, and converting the committee room to a classroom. Barnet Council will provide the centre with free broadband and laptop computers.
North Road Community Centre is a hub used by many local groups, including Burnt Oak Women’s Group, which runs a weekly foodbank at the centre; Age UK Barnet which uses it for a variety of community activities, and a variety of local churches for their weekly meetings.
As well as the centre’s renovation there are a variety of plans for future use, including hosting after-school clubs, and Barnet Council sending digital champions to help local people learn computer and internet skills.
Calvin Howe, VolkerFitzpatrick’s workplace manager, said: “North Road Community Centre is a fantastic resource, that offers so many different services to so many local people and is run by a great team of volunteers, who care passionately about the people in the community. Our commitment to adding value to the local community is not just about building new facilities - it can be about going somewhere that already exists and supporting them to continue that work into the 21st century.”
The partnership with North Road Community Centre came about through Barnet Council’s community engagement team, which was aware of the needs of the community centre. VolkerFitzpatrick and other teams working to build Brent Cross West stepped in to help.