YMCA opens its doors to community

YMCA Birmingham is holding an open evening today for locals to see their recently transformed site.

Locals can go along to the site in Erdington to see what the new development has to offer to the community.

The evening will feature live entertainment and music as well as a range of food and drink provided to guests. Birmingham’s long-established youth arts participation programme Gallery 37 will also be at the event.

There will also be volunteering opportunities available at the event, with the YMCA teams from its housing, training and conferencing areas around to meet and talk to.

A £4.5m investment was recently completed which has transformed the residential facility into a site for all the community. The site now includes a community hall, meeting rooms and coffee shop Eden.

The Chris Bryant Centre includes meeting and training rooms and a multi-use hall for use by businesses and organisations. It opened in spring, alongside an additional 34 flats for YMCA residents, which increased its total to 117 flats.

The new site has already welcomed the likes of Weight Watchers and the W.I. into the building for their weekly meetings. The building also boasts popular café Eden which has become a popular destination for families and friends in the area.

Ashok Patel, Engagement Officer at the YMCA, said: “We want to throw our doors open so that people can see what we have here and how they can use it for their own groups and organisations, and also for people to find out how they can get involved with the YMCA and the work we do in Erdington.”

The event is being held between 4pm-8pm this evening on Reservoir Street in Erdington, near Birmingham city centre.