St Margaret's Institute
Community Centre

30 Polstead Road, Oxford

Community ….

The Management Committee, in consultation with the PCC, will continue to monitor the provision of community facilities in the area.  The numerous housing developments carried out in recent years have increased the number of families that are served by the existing facilities.
Following the opening of the new 'Phil & Jim' School in Aristotle Lane, the SMI management committee is liaising with the School management to explore opportunities to share or enhance the provision of facilities for community use.  The Management Committee is also exploring with the PCC whether there are opportunities for the use of the Church Baptistry in appropriate circumstances.  The Management Committee has also liaised with St Edwards School about their proposals for an Arts Centre which might also be available at times for community use.

The further developments on the Unipart site will have considerable impact on the area.  It appears likely that the designated 'community' provision may take the form of a surgery or commercial undertaking.

The PCC and Management Committee continues to monitor the need for the provision of facilities for youth in the area.  An evaluation of youth needs was carried out.  For a while, youth group was set up and received partial funding for a youth worker from the City Council.  This funding has now ceased.  We will explore ways in which we can help revive this.

The Management Committee is most grateful for the work of its informal Support Group.  This group consisting of people who use the Centre and support it, was initiated by Lisa Morgan and encouraged by the Management Committee, who were conscious of the risk that they could become 'too close' to the running of the Centre.  It was therefore set up to provide a community-based but distanced 'ideas and actions' group, to feed into the Management Committee.  The Group has raised awareness of the Centre, produced publicity material (the recently circulated leaflet was printed using funds from an anonymous donation for which we are most grateful), raised funds, made numerous useful suggestions and held another extremely successful Open Day.  The development of the '2 o'clock talks' series (the talks are followed by tea) on Wednesdays has done much to raise awareness of the Centre.  This event regularly attracts large audiences, sometimes numbering over 60, and we are very grateful to the Support Group for organising this initiative. The Management Committee would like to express its gratitude to all concerned, and welcomes the continued input from the Group and the wider community.

The Management Committee would also like to thank those involved in the Community projects that have been held at the Centre.  A highly successful post-Christmas lunch for the elderly was held in January.
 
 


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