Partner Article

Community hub becomes thriving centre through skills exchange

What’s Happening On North Street (WHONS) in Crewe is a vibrant, bustling community hub that has become a valuable asset for local residents and visitors.

As well as delivering an active programme of activities, WHONS also provides a place to engage people with faith and spirituality.

When WHONS was launched in 2015, the first task was to creating a solid Business Plan that outlined how WHONS would become financially self-sufficient within a four-year period, Sustainability was key and the WHONS project-team wanted the plan to be flexible enough to accommodate the community’s changing needs.

Responding to Community Need

A reason for this was that WHONS was situated in the heart of an area classed as being within the top 10% of the most deprived areas in England*. With a community facing very real challenges such as social isolation, digital exclusion, unemployment, poor health and debt, the need for providing a place of support to respond to these particular issues was essential. The Centre Manager Geoff Etherton was keen that flexibility of service provision would drive the make-up of activities and services available.

Impressed by the passion of the WHONS team Cheshire Connect Business Connector: Dianne Parrish became involved. On meeting Geoff Dianne explored possible ways where the team at WHONS and the business community could work together.

Business Planning at the Heart of a Community

The first skill that Dianne suggested was securing the services of a ‘fresh pair of eyes’ on the WHONS Business Plan. Using her business connections in Crewe Dianne introduced Geoff to business owner Yvette Hastings

Yvette reviewed the plan and using her experience, she strengthened key elements of the plan adding strategic points that could support the centre’s sustainability.

Yvette’s suggestions included expanding the range of activities on offer. She also proposed reaching out to partner community groups to reach wider audiences locally.

Geoff and his team were delighted:

“Yvette understands what it’s like to be a small growing business and knowing what that business needs in terms of planning and strategy…she has really helped us to hone what we want to do through a good solid Business Plan that shows what we’re about”.

Reaching into the Community and building the North Street Project ‘Brand’.

The centre was thriving but Goeff wanted to build awareness locally so Dianne suggested creating a strong, brand identity for WHONS which would become instantly recognizable both in the centre and locally.

Dianne approached Tamsyn Hastings: a communications specialist. Tamsyn met Geoff and then developed recognizable branding to appear on signage. Passing drivers and pedestrians were now instantly able to identify WHONS and local awareness quickly grew.

Tamsyn also created WHON templates that could be used to create posters, press releases or internal signs.

A place to meet and socialise

One of the key aims for WHONs was that the Centre should be a place where the community could meet in an on-site coffee shop offering affordable nourishing menu options. The shop was launched but staffing arrangements needed to be considered.

Applying specialist HR expertise to deliver the right solution for North Street

Dianne approached HR professional, Carley Leese. Carley is a HR specialist at ao.com with experience of various types of employment options including full and part time; agency staff and self-employed workers and the regulatory requirements .

Following Carleys advice, Geoff agreed that employing WHONS own coffee shop manager was the best way forward.

Carley’s input was invaluable with Geoff commenting:

“Carley helped us to identify what we wanted to do which was to employ somebody ourselves…six weeks into that role, that person is doing brilliantly so ao.com have been brilliant in helping us to reach the right conclusion but also put into place all the different elements that we needed to make sure we were being compliant”.

Due to Carley’s input, WHONS now had its very own, fully-managed on-site coffee shop.

Ensuring sustainability

WHONS was now a valuable community asset but sustainability was key and understanding the financial impact of variable costs associated with the coffee shop was essential.

Dianne enlisted the expertise of Financial Analyst: Anna Hughes from Electrical Retailer; a.o.com.

Anna and Geoff discussed the centre’s finances and Geoff explained that he needed to understand how features such as ‘Special Offers’ or buying only local produce could impact on profitability.

Anna is now working with WHONS by analysing the coffee shop’s activity and then amending the budget plan to deliver financial projections that give Geoff the information he needs to make the coffee shop a sustainable venture.

Geoff is delighted with Anna’s input:

“As a new coffee shop in this part of Crewe it was difficult to forecast financially……Anna is helping us to achieve sustainability in a planned way by helping us to see patterns, identify what could sell well and how to achieve income for the shop to support our work in the community.”

A thriving community hub from business and charity teamwork and collaboration

Today, WHONS Centre is a vibrant community hub serving the community. Its success is down to the dedication of its great team. Advice and input from business specialists has demonstrated how collaboration and teamwork can deliver great results. We’re delighted that our Business Connector for Crewe was able to facilitate such great teamwork!

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Jo Craig .