THE ROSELAND CENTRE
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Mission Statement
We have created a community-led, residential centre enabling a range of outdoor educational and cultural experiences, to promote health, well-being and sustainability for children and young people, and we are developing a long-term community hub for all. This has entailed the commissioning and execution of substantial refurbishments to the building, ensuring it is disability compliant, renovating all the dormitories and the purchase of new bunkbeds and mattresses, and renewing the kitchen and all fire safety equipment. We have also recruited an experienced team of part-time staff including a Centre Manager and Deputy, a cleaner and an Administrative assistant. Now we need to make sure we have the financial resources in place to sustain and further develop our activities. As Trustees, our next challenge is to raise sufficient cash resources to see us through to long-term sustainability. We need to do this quickly, and in parallel to our efforts to increase income through our 2024 Summer program of activities. We need to: - Raise £25,000 in Capital funding to complete the following work: - Replace/repair & paint rotten barge boards and gutters; and - Build an accessible path in concrete all the way around the Roseland Centre to facilitate safer and easier access and exit especially for those in wheelchairs. Other Revenue & Capital Funding needs: - Revenue and rainy-day fund: TRC needs to build a Reserve to cover ongoing operations and any cash deficit from the Youth Programmes. - TRC Trustees have established a Bursary Fund to cover some of the costs for any special cases where parents/carers are unable to afford activities for children and young people. - And finally, to build a Treasure Chest to cover longer term architectural changes to the Centre to make it work better and be more energy efficient. Accessible, affordable accommodation: TRC refurbishment is now almost complete, with staff and accommodation fully operational, and increasingly we are supporting participation in a number of indoor and outdoor land and water-based activities, including Holiday Clubs for able and disabled children. We now have bunkbed Residential accommodation for 30 children/young adults in three Dormitories, and bunkbeds for 4 Teachers/Adults in 2 separate rooms. We have several shower rooms and toilets, a Disabled-friendly washroom, and a commercial Kitchen with a Food Hygiene Rating of 5 from the Food Standards Agency. There’s the Main Hall for mealtimes or meetings, and a separate large Hall for communal activities, lectures, relaxation or even viewing movies. The TRC team has established links with local outdoor activity providers to offer packages of activities, currently targeting children and young people during the summer season. We have enthusiastic support from the Roseland schools and from other schools around Cornwall. In addition to young people, we are planning to host adult and family groups outside School Holiday periods for those seeking low-cost hostel type accommodation on the Roseland for rambling, cycling, foraging, working holidays etc. Providing these facilities “Out-of-Season”, will improve our Occupancy rates and financial viability. We are already attracting staff and students from local colleges and universities and interest from organisations such as RNLI, Paddle UK, schools running Duke of Edinburgh Award schemes, and for Corporate CPD training, first aid courses and group development days. TRC is developing a Memory Café where people suffering from Dementia can come to have a social chat, coffee & cake, and perhaps to be stimulated with books, music and other items from their past. We now have bunkbed Residential accommodation for 30 children/young adults in three Dormitories, and bunkbeds for 4 Teachers/Adults in 2 separate rooms. We have several shower rooms and toilets, a Disabled-friendly washroom, and a commercial Kitchen with a Food Hygiene Rating of 5 from the Food Standards Agency. There’s the Main Hall for mealtimes or meetings, and a separate large Hall for communal activities, lectures, relaxation or even viewing movies. The TRC team has established links with local outdoor activity providers to offer packages of activities, currently targeting children and young people during the summer season. We have enthusiastic support from the Roseland schools and from other schools around Cornwall. In addition to young people, we are planning to host adult and family groups outside School Holiday periods for those seeking low-cost hostel type accommodation on the Roseland for rambling, cycling, , working holidays etc. Providing these facilities “Out-of-Season”, will improve our financial viability. We are already attracting staff and students from local colleges & universities and interest from organisations such as schools running Duke of Edinburgh Award schemes, and for Corporate CPD training, first aid courses and group development days.
About This Cause
We are already attracting staff and students from local colleges and universities and interest from organisations such as RNLI, Paddle UK, schools running Duke of Edinburgh Award schemes, and for Corporate CPD training, first aid courses and group development days. TRC is developing a Memory Café where people suffering from Dementia can come to have a social chat, coffee & cake, and perhaps to be stimulated with books, music and other items from their past. TRC is open all year round. Accommodation and Activities charges will help to fund the business and we have employed an on-site Centre Manager, Deputy Centre Manager, Cleaner and Admin Assistant. The Centre Manager and team are expected to develop new activities and business opportunities for the Centre. A Community Hub for the Roseland: As a Charity we have divided our efforts into four “Phases”: “Phase 1” was our campaign to purchase the buildings and site, completed on 7th October 2022. “Phase 2” was the refurbishment and general tidying-up of the site leading up to the Re-opening Event on 1st June 2024. The current “Phase 3” is to run TRC successfully and sustainably such that the Centre income covers costs and generates a surplus, which – after we have created a sufficient Reserve – will be directed into our Bursary Fund. “Phase 4” will commence after several years of trading on the current refurbished site, when we plan to rebuild some of the buildings at the rear of the site to provide greatly improved services, and of course to bring the entire site up to a modern, fully insulated, and environmentally friendly status. We have developed a Community Permaculture Garden, and this is providing some Produce for local people in the summer of 2024. We are making plans to provide a community hub for the village of St. Just in Roseland (in collaboration with The St Just in Roseland Institute), and other local community groups such as the GP surgery patient participation group, to offer a range of cultural, educational, health & wellbeing, and environmental projects supporting localisation and sustainability on the Roseland. We hope the facilities will be used by both young and old from the Roseland. We believe there is an opportunity to offer space for a drop-in café, a producers’ market, a tool library, a cycle repair workshop, facilities for complementary therapies, hairdressing and podiatry. And we are exploring hosting a resident business tenant to license space to help raise regular income. What is distinctive about The Roseland Centre? We are redefining what a Residential Hub is in Cornwall. We are putting sustainability and nature at the heart of everything we do, alongside access to outdoor activities – the new community-supported & funded garden is a great and very visible start. We are delivering education through nature, encouraging children and adults of all ages to live differently, providing an ecological and environmentally friendly context for schools to develop and expand their curricula. This is in accordance with the April 2022 Department for Education’s Sustainability and Climate Change strategy to establish the UK as a world leader in sustainability and climate change education by 2030. (See https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sustainability-and-climate-change-strategy/sustainability-and-climate-change-a-strategy-for-the-education-and-childrens-services-systems) What have we achieved so far? TRC was established in 2019 as a registered Charity (# 1186095), and our Trustees & Committee have met regularly in person or virtually throughout the pandemic and ever since. TRC has raised over £540,000 to date, through a combination of Grants, Crowdfunding and Donations. These include substantial Grant support from St Just in Roseland Parish Council, Community Levelling Up funding (via Cornwall Council), Crowdfunding and well-off individuals. Some of our major Donors include: ASDA BA BETTER WORLD COMMUNITY FUND COMMUNITY LEVELLING UP PROGRAM (CLUP) CORNWALL COUNCIL COMMUNITY CHEST CROWDFUNDER LTD KING HARRY FERRY NATIONAL LOTTERY COMMUNITY FUND (AWARDS FOR ALL) NORMAN FAMILY CHARITABLE TRUST POSTCODE LOCAL TRUST RANK FOUNDATION SACKLER TRUST SEASALT SPORT ENGLAND - ACTIVE TOGETHER ST JUST IN ROSELAND PARISH COUNCIL THE CLARE MILNE TRUST VOLUNTEER CORNWALL (CCF) TRC’s major fundraising campaign commenced during the summer of 2022, kicked off by a very generous £60,000 donation from the St. Just in Roseland Parish Council. This enabled us to Crowdfund the remaining amount needed to buy the TRC site from Cornwall Council for £200,000, and to fund some of the remaining costs for the major refurbishment of TRC leading to the re-opening in June 2024. TRC Business Plan is for a mixed-use daytime and residential business model, intending to operate throughout the year, targeting both children and adults, voluntary organisations, schools and business corporations. Thus far, TRC Management team has run daytime Holiday Clubs and home school Clubs during Holidays and weekends. TRC also rents space to organisations for residential usage including full access to the Kitchen, Bunk beds, dormitories and staff rooms. It is still early days, but the attached Financial Projections show income and bookings and projected income. The Business Plan details planned expenditure and costs including maintenance, utilities & services, Business Rates, insurance etc., together with staffing and proposed residential costs. It includes number of bedspaces, peak and off-peak occupancy estimates; Cashflow forecasts have been developed on a monthly/quarterly basis for the first year of operation, with trading operations having commenced in June 2024, and extrapolated annually using Bank of England CPI Inflation forecast indices. Indicative summary income and expenditure projections for 2024-29 have been produced. TRC original business plan was based on extensive research, conducted for us by the charity Locality, with help from the Cornwall Rural Communities Charity (CRCC). This included market research to establish demand for low-cost residential accommodation, competitor analysis, availability of suitable outdoor activity providers, and identifying local voluntary groups & schools who would be interested in using the facilities. The original business plan was approved by Cornwall Council as a suitable basis for going forward, when negotiating the Option to Purchase agreement. Since that research, the market for our services has grown stronger than ever because of the closing-down of Cornwall Outdoors in 2022, and of the Council-run Outdoor Recreation Centres elsewhere in Cornwall. Research into the needs of the community in St. Just and the Roseland was also conducted by the CRCC which identified the following needs: - This village community is remote and isolated from opportunities, employment, and recreational activities. - There is extremely limited local public transport. - Low-income families live alongside high-income households. - Lack of access to amenities and services; there is no shop, public house, or drop-in centre in St. Just in Roseland, the nearest shops being 3 miles away, and the nearest town (Truro) is 17 miles away. - There is a complete lack of affordable residential accommodation for outdoor pursuits in an otherwise affluent AONB and tourist area. - There is a growing elderly population and a need to keep active, healthy and socialised to reduce loneliness. TRC is already helping to meet these community needs in the following ways: - TRC has refurbished and regenerated these old buildings at the heart of the village of St. Just in Roseland. The original school building constitutes both a heritage asset and a modern utility that has been a part of the community since 1893 and will now be invaluable for many years to come. - TRC will become a Centre of Excellence supporting educational projects focusing on enhancing physical and psychological wellbeing, promoting the teaching and learning of outdoor activities and skills, together with supporting sports and other recreational activities for children and young people. - TRC provides an inspirational example of sustainability and a hub for the development of localisation on the Roseland. In particular, it is planned that local young people, schools and colleges will be encouraged to engage in activities to support the promotion of sustainability and environmental education throughout the Roseland. - TRC now provides a social hub for the community, offering the space needed for community groups, courses and eventually a community shop or café. The Centre’s community activities are now open and being used by local residents and their children. TRC Management team is providing structured holiday and weekend educational, social health & well-being activities as well as cultural opportunities such as music and drama workshops, and other artistic and craft workshops. - Uniquely, TRC offers residential provision to support and enhance the above activities for both local residents and also children and young people from further afield. - TRC provides direct employment for 4 local people. TRC is also providing a destination with equipment for external organisations to bring children and young people for residential experiences. Trustees have rightly placed the emphasis on financial sustainability and growth of quality services for TRC as it currently stands, and for its intended purposes. However, it is also important to look ahead, especially when it comes to construction projects involving planning and raising sufficient capital. Our strategy going forward is to operate the newly renovated existing buildings and to make the grounds ever more productive. However, in background mode, Trustees will seek grants to eventually rebuild the existing accommodation block. We understand that significant matched funding grants up to £1-million pounds could be available to the Charity, now that we own the site and after we have proved that our business model works.