Easton community centre
We provided £4k in funding to Eastside Community Trust so it could continue providing a warm & welcoming space to the local community.
However, many of these buildings are old and draughty, making them costly to run. As part of our Community Benefit Programme, we’re committed to helping these centres thrive by providing energy efficiency grants and training.
Included in the list of grantees from 2022 was the Easton Community Centre, which is located near to our 20MW battery storage project at Feeder Road in East Bristol. Eastside Community Trust, which runs the centre, identified heat loss and rising energy costs as a significant problem. We’re thrilled to have been able to support the centre in addressing these issues by providing a £4,000 grant that has helped them to install essential loft and pipe insulation.
These energy efficiency improvements have helped the team to reduce their operational costs at a time when it’s really needed, ensuring they can continue providing a warm and comfortable space for the local community to enjoy.
The upgrades mean that the centre can continue offering vital services to residents, which ranges from community advice on energy efficiency and retrofitting to providing a base for Bristol’s Somali Youth Voice – a grassroots organisation that advocates for and empowers disadvantaged young people living in the city. As well as this, the centre is home to Somali Kitchen – a women-led CIC offering advice and volunteering opportunities to Somali women, the BCfm community radio station, HIV & Aids charity Brigstow, the Raised In Bristol nursery and Houria CIC, an anti-racist café and catering business supporting migrant women and those escaping modern slavery.
“So much of what we do is trying to create a warm, cosy, welcoming space for people to enjoy – we like to call it the neighbourhood’s living room. From energy and legal advice drop-ins to exercise and reading classes, we’ve seen a big increase in the number of people accessing our services, many for the first time. We were concerned about the increase in energy bills, but the grant we have received from Thrive has helped us to take proactive steps in improving the building’s energy efficiency, not only reducing our own costs but making it more comfortable for the local community. It also means we can share our learnings about the process with people looking to make efficiencies in their own homes as part of our work on the Community Climate Action Project.”
Easton Community Centre is home to Houria CIC, an anti-racist café and catering business