Visitors to a new community facility at a County Durham football ground are enjoying a better outdoor environment thanks to a five-figure grant from regional employer the Banks Group.
The ‘South Stand’ venue has been created as part of the £1.6m upgrade of the recently-reopened Beamish Football Centre on Tyne Road in Stanley, and includes indoor training spaces, function rooms and a new bar.
As well as being part of the overall sporting set-up at Beamish Football Club, the new venue has been designed for wider use, in order to provide high-quality meeting and event facilities six days a week in a deprived area that has very few other community locations.
Local social enterprise Stanley Events will be running, hosting and facilitating different community activities at the Centre, including ‘knit and natter’ meetings for older residents, a range of advice sessions and one-to-one support services for local young people.
A £10,000 grant from the Banks Group’s Banks Community Fund has now enabled the Stanley Events team to buy a range of outdoor furniture that can be used for different events and activities in order to help to create a flexible outdoor breakout space for visitors to use.
The funding has also paid for landscaping work and tree planting to be undertaken around the ground to help enhance the natural environment, with dozens of the club’s junior players getting involved with doing the work required.
Stanley Events has been active in the area since 2011 to help provide training and skills development opportunities for local people which build their self-belief, enhance their career aspirations. and lead to meaningful employment with the organisation in areas including catering, event management and security.
It works with a range of local partners including local youth projects, Durham Constabulary, sports clubs and Durham County Council to understand and deliver the specific types of support required across different local communities and age groups.
It’s the second time that the Banks Community Fund has chosen to support the work of Stanley Events at the Beamish Football Centre, with a previous £20,000 being provided to improve access to the site through the installation of a new walkway and new viewing areas for spectators.
Anna Marshall, manager at Stanley Events, says: “The amazing new Beamish Football Centre is an aspirational focal point for our community and provides a hugely positive context for the work that will go on inside and outside the building.
“We want it to be a central part of the local place shaping agenda and to set an example of best practise in the provision of multi-use community facilities, and it’s so exciting that the venue’s doors are now open.
“Giving people the skills and confidence they need to take on employment doesn’t just benefit them as individuals, but it also benefits their families, the wider community and the local economy, and we will be using the South Stand as a base for extending what we can do in this respect.
“The external environment is just as important as the interior of the new building. Everyone knows the benefits of being out in the fresh air, especially with the beautiful surroundings in which the venue sites, while the flexibility that the outdoor space provides opens up a lot of new opportunities.
“The Banks Group has taken a very accommodating and open approach to providing their invaluable funding support, which has really helped us use this grant in the most impactful ways possible, and we’ve built a really strong relationship with their team.”
Lucy Hinds, executive assistant at the Banks Group, adds: “Stanley Events has helped improve the lives of hundreds of local people through their training and skills development work, as well as through the jobs they provide, and the team deserves huge credit for its achievements over the last 13 years.
“The new facility gives them a fantastic opportunity to build on everything that they’ve already achieved and we’re very pleased to be helping such an effective community organisation extend what it can do in our home county.”
Anyone from a community close to a Banks Group project who is interested in applying for funding from the Banks Community Fund should contact the company via the enquiry form on its website (www.banksgroup.co.uk/contact-us/) to find out if their group or project is eligible.