£4.5m development transforms facilities in Birmingham suburb
A £4.5m investment in Erdington is set to transform the facilities for businesses and the community in the Birmingham suburb.
The Chris Bryant Centre provides a community and conferencing centre and next month coffee shop Eden will open. The centre includes meeting and training rooms and a multi-use hall for use by businesses and organisations.
The YMCA Birmingham development also includes the second phase of its housing scheme, called The Vineyard, which has added an additional 34 flats that will house young people. In 2010 it completed the first phase, The Orchard, which has 83 flats.
Alan Fraser, chief executive of YMCA Birmingham, wants the development to benefit the wider community in Erdington.
“Our mission has been to put YMCA back at the heart of the local community,” he said. “It’s been a 10-year vision from our first idea to the final brick being laid, but we’re so proud of the finished result. We now have 117 flats – meaning 117 fewer young people who are homeless.”
YMCA Birmingham also runs programmes of training for its residents, including employability skills and CV workshops.
“It’s all geared towards helping them live out a more positive future,” added Mr Fraser.
The scheme was funded by a bequest from the late Chris Bryant and his charitable trusts. Mr Bryant, who died in 2012, ran the Bryant housing group and was a long-standing supporter of the YMCA in Birmingham.
The development also received a £1m grant from the Homes and Communities Agency, £250,000 from the Garfield Weston Foundation and £40,000 from The People’s Postcode Lottery and The Peter Harrison Foundation.
