Summer Programme 2021
Giving Children, Young People & Adults a Voice through Positive Activities
Cheesy Waffles Project
Skills House
A CWP Building
Welcome to The Skills House
Our project that started in 2019
In May 2019 we set out to raise funds to purchase a local house with the aim of creating a home setting for young people & adults to have the opportunity to develop independent skills and experience overnight stays for respite. We raised over £100,000 and purchased a house which is now used for sessions, residentials, daytime provision, staff training and much more!
A Timeline Of The Skills House
Updates from the start of our project
A house to learn
life skills
This is a real home environment where members have the opportunity to develop valuable life skills that will support them in their daily lives and as they transition into adulthood. These include household responsibilities such as vacuuming, washing up, and changing bedding; maintenance and outdoor tasks such as lawn care; and other essential life skills including cooking and recycling.
A Fun Skills House
The Skills House is a space where members can have fun! Whether that be by staying over night with their friends, through learning or through the opportunity to take part in fun activities, games and sessions etc etc etc...
In the Garden
Members have the opportunity to...
Overnight Stays
Members have the opportunity to stay...
November 22
The Skills House is Complete and ready for gradual use by some of our members!
April 22
The house is really coming together now with lots of work taking place over the last 6 weeks both inside and out. We have had a huge amount of support from so many people, it's amazing to see everyone coming together to support the project and make this happen for our members. A big thank you to everyone and the Skills House Project Manager Stephen Jones for sorting everything out.
February 22
An update from our Skills House Site Manager Stephen Jones:
There has been a lot going on at the Skills House this week. Thanks are in order to some fantastic people. Thank you to Michael Atkinson and ACK Electrics for helping to sort electrics; thank you to Water Works for sorting the new central heating system, wet rooms and bathroom; thank you to Ian Gallagher and Adam Magoran for building works, and thanks to JT Atkinson building merchants for supplying plaster, plasterboard and all other materials free of charge. Massive thank you to Craig Geddes who is taking time out of his busy schedule and popping in for the next couple of days to do some plastering free of charge.
Primula Cheese Donation of £15,000
March 2019
Erika and Amy were invited to the Primula Factory in Gateshead on Friday to talk about The Skills House and how it would support independent living skills for members of The Cheesy Waffles and The Wider World Projects. They were then presented with a cheque for an amazing £15,000. This now means we are over 25% towards our target and can start to apply for funding.
Sponsor a Brick 2019
We set out to develop a new venture, 'The Skills House', with the aim to purchase a 3- bedroom property that will provide a 'home' setting and offer personal residential opportunities for project members to develop life skills. We want to offer one-to-one support, bespoke training and activities.
We aimed to raise funds to purchase a property with a target of £100,000 over 18 months from the 1st of May 2019. For people who wanted to support the fund, we encouraged them to Sponsor a Brick’ by filling out a brick form.
November '19
Thank you to everyone who supported Cheesy Waffles and Wider World yesterday at the Tesco Durham Extra store bag pack and raffle. We raised a fabulous £673.55 which will be shared equally between Cheesy Waffles, Wider World and The Skills House. A great big thank you to Jo (at Tesco Community) for arranging the bag pack.
Aim
In May 2019 we set out to raise funds to purchase a house near to where we are based with the aim of creating a home setting for young people and adults so that they have the opportunity to develop independent skills and experience overnight stays for respite. We raised over £100,000 thanks to the sale of bricks, lots of wonderful donations and plenty of fundraising.