Putting down roots – our new office at St Mary’s Cloister

WTRRP’s clients are growing in number (now more than 100 families) while the number of volunteers remains steady at 80. Operating remotely from volunteers’ homes and liaising with clients elsewhere has become increasingly challenging, so the need for an office had been on the agenda for some time but has always been too costly.

That is until St Mary’s church kindly offered the use of a room at St Mary’s Cloister for a very modest rent. The small Cloister building will be shared between WTRRP and the Chaplaincy, each occupying its own separate room with a shared kitchen and bathroom. Frances and Ann from the Chaplaincy, Tim and Marie-Jo from WTRRP met in September to discuss the practicalities of sharing the space and how we can best support each other.

The aim of the new office is to run our administration more smoothly. It will allow us to centralise our paper and electronic files and will also facilitate communication between volunteers and clients. Small meetings such as introducing a client to a befriender, or inducting a new volunteer will take place there. It will also offer privacy to discuss confidential issues.

The Drop-in centre, English classes and food distribution services will continue to operate as normal from St John’s church. WTRRP remain greatly indebted to St John’s for their hospitality and support.  The new office however, will give WTRRP more flexibility to operate throughout the week.  It is envisaged that the office will be manned for a couple of hours every week day enabling us to improve the quality of service we can give our clients and the support we can offer volunteers.  Moving in is scheduled for early November.

Our grateful thanks to Rev Tony Rindl and all at St Mary’s for making this project a reality.