Project Inspire - providing Fernham with a community hall
Fernham is a busy, sociable village with a strong community spirit - but no community hall.
Project Inspire intends to change all that with an ambitious plan to convert the village church, St. John's, into a building that can continue to be a place of worship - and can also double as a place for community activities.
The church conversion, which began in January, will make the building a more comfortable environment for community events and church services.
Milestones achieved towards our dream
November 2007: Fernham wins a supergrant of £94,000 through The Big Lottery Fund and ITV's public voting competition, The People's Millions, raising enough money for the project to take the next step - applying for planning permission.
July 2008: The Diocesan Advisory Committee approves the project's main conversion plans. This approval enables the project to seek a licence from the Diocesan Chancellor to alter the building, to get firm builders' quotes and to negotiate a "licence to occupy".
January 2009: Building work begins - hurrah!
March 2009: Taru Toikku from The People's Millions visits the church, and reports that all the conditions for the grant have been met, and she's very impressed with what's been achieved. Project Inspire is now free to draw down the remainder of The People's Millions grant. Excellent news!
Generous help from other grant-awarding organisations
In addition to being awarded £94,000 from The People's Millions, Project Inspire has also received grants from the Oxfordshire Youth Service Chill Out Fund (£5,000), TOE (£22,300) and the Department for Education and Skills through the Youth Opportunity Fund/Youth Capital Fund (£10,000).
Still fundraising...
The fabulous Fernham cookbook is still available to purchase - a bargain at only £4! - containing more than 100 recipes from 30 village contributors.
Pews for sale
The pews removed from St. John's Church are available for purchase at £200 ono.
Project Inspire pictures
To view pictures from Project Inspire fundraising, celebrations, and - hopefully - the future, click on the flickr badge below.
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Church fundraising
The easiest way to support the future of the church building is to become a Friend of St. John's. Just a standing order of £5 a month will go a long way towards ensuring the building's future.
The Friends of St. John's standing order goes into the restoration fund to help the church to cover its share of building maintenance costs.
Project Inspire covers the running costs for the building's use for joint community activities.
The annual parish share goes towards clergy costs, and helps to cover the mission and outreach of the church.