The other switch on – reopening South Shore’s Counselling in the Community hub
This Friday, hours before the Illuminations switched on for the season, I got to attend a smaller switch on – the lights went back on inside Counselling in the Community’s South Shore Hub.
I joined Stuart Hutton-Brown, the charity's CEO and Founder, and Jon Nichol of JD Builders, whose team have spent months turning a wrecked building back into a community space.
It's been a long road back. The hub closed last October after storms tore through the building, with water ingress badly damaging ceilings, walls and floors on both floors. More than 100 people a week were suddenly at risk of losing access to therapy sessions they relied on. Along with the fire nearby, Waterloo Road took some devastating blows in the space of a year.
That's why I was pleased to agree with the council that this rebuild should be funded through the Pride in Place Impact Fund I secured in Parliament. £40,000 has gone towards the urgent repair works and a further £100,000 has been put up to allow the council to purchase the building outright – making this a true community-owned and led asset, and giving the charity a long-term future on Waterloo Road. The refurbishment has also added two extra counselling suites and improved accessibility throughout, alongside the sensory room the centre had already invested in before it was forced to close.
Standing in the building on Friday, it was hard to believe it's the same place. Both floors were totally gutted after the storm – an absolute wreck, and heartbreaking to see. The transformation Jon and his team have delivered, turning it into a 14-room community space, is unbelievable.
CITC's professional counsellors provide accessible, affordable mental health support across their bases in South Shore, Bispham and Cleveleys, seeing hundreds of children, adults and families every week, with sessions starting from just £5. I've spoken about their model several times in Parliament, and told the health secretary directly that charities like this deserve to be invested in and used far more widely to plug the gap in mental health services – they know their communities, and they give us far more bang for our buck than private providers ever could.
Without this charity, more local people would end up back at their GP, in A&E, or with nowhere to turn at all. Instead, thanks to this investment, they can carry on being supported by the professionals and volunteers they've already built trusted relationships with.
This is exactly what Pride in Place is about – investing in our communities, protecting the assets that matter most to them, and putting pride back into our town. Thank you to Stuart, Jon and everyone at Counselling in the Community for everything you've done to get these doors open again.
