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.
In the past, St. John's has housed village meetings and our very popular film nights, but it lacks the facilities to accommodate regular village use. The planned conversion of the church would make it a more comfortable environment, with moveable seating and modern facilities including toilet and kitchen facilities. The fabric of the building would only be altered where essential.
The People's Millions - turning our vision of a community hall into reality
Fernham won a supergrant of £94,000 through The Big Lottery Fund and ITV's public voting competition, The People's Millions, which means that work can begin to convert the church for community use.
The Project Inspire team has set up 2 working groups: building and operations. The buildings group is working towards arranging a lease and seeking planning permission for the conversion work. The operations group is looking ahead to how the community hall will be managed, the kinds of activities it would best suit, how to equip it, and how to promote it. Watch this space for progress updates!
Ongoing fundraising - the Fernham village cookbook
The fundraising focus is now switching to raising money to equip and furnish the community hall, once it's completed.
The Fernham village cookbook - a professionally produced A5 ringbound book containing more than 100 recipes from villagers - is raising money towards furnishing the new hall. Priced at only £5, the cookbook, entitled Be Inspired, is a real bargain!
Generous help
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).
Give online to Project Inspire
You can donate securely via www.justgiving.com. Eligible donations will also be Gift Aided.
St. John's standing order form
Can you afford to spare the cost of a couple of pints at The Woody each month? A monthly standing order for that amount will help to maintain St. John's Church both now and after the Project Inspire conversion. Print, complete and return the form to Neil Sutherland. Go on, you'll feel good about yourself afterwards!