Flo’s - The Place in the Park, which will be housed in the former children’s centre in East Oxford’s Florence Park, has been granted access to the Community Shares Booster Programme. This means that Co-operatives UK, supported by Power to Change, will match fund local investment up to Flo’s target of £50,000.
Flo’s - The Place in the Park will have a cafe, nursery, community drop-in space, meeting rooms and other much-needed services.
“What we are trying to provide is a ‘children’s centre phoenix’ offering services in a new way - supporting families and communities through locally owned effort and funded by social enterprise,” says Annie Davy, a founding member of Flo’s. “The community is chomping at the bit to finally get into the building, which has largely been empty for over year, and bring it back to life.”
It’s a great success story for Flo’s steering group who, with the support of Aspire Oxford and Oxford-based ethical investment platform Ethex, have raised the money to regenerate the closed down children’s centre and turn it into a community asset.
Flo’s launched a Community Share Offer in April on the Ethex platform, whereby the local community could invest and have a stake in the future of this much-needed project. The share offer has so far raised £34,219 (as of 12 June) and closes on 18 June. Co-ops UK will boost the final figure to reach the target investment of £50,000, should it be needed. This funding will allow Flo’s to carry out initial refurbishment works, and also provide working capital, while the community enterprises become established.
Josh Brewer, Ethex’s senior business development manager, says: “At a time where communities often lose out at the expense of government austerity cuts, this way of generating funds offers local people the chance to collectively take on ownership of a community enterprise.”
Flo’s is still urging people to get involved by volunteering; becoming members or donating to the crowdfunding campaign at www.justgiving.com/campaigns/charity/aspireoxfordshire/flosplaceinthepark
The community share offer will also remain open until 18 June (www.flosoxford.org.uk)