From the old ..
To the new ..
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St Martin's: The Story
The first St Martin's Church was built in the early 1930's. In recent years the original building had become underused and did not have a good future. The church community had been exploring the possibilities that working more closely with the wider community would bring.
A consultation was held at Christmas 2003. The issues the community most raised were issues to do with children and young people. However, there were other concerns raised and these were to do with meeting places for older people - not only for informal meetings but a venue for having a meal as well as the possibility of the provision of education and training.
From January 2004 St Martin's Church worked in partnership with the Sure Start programme to help develop support networks for families with children under four and their parents.
As more partners began to work together the St Martin's Centre vision developed. It is this vision that has guided the demolition of St Martin's Church and building of St Martin's Centre. St Martin's Centre Partnership was formed in April 2004 by members of local residents groups, local parents, church members and workers from agencies.
The Partnership is registered as a charitable company. The church retains ownership of the site but leases the building to the Partnership who will be responsible for running the new Centre. The new centre contains five multipurpose spaces and a dedicated chapel as well a daycare centre run by Barnardos.
The Centre is at the heart of a Children's Centre and hosts a large variety of activities for children and their families. It is however a centre that caters for all ages and many organisations work in partnership together to deliver key services everyday of the week.
St Martin's Centre is the home of the church community throughout the week. On Sundays the church community benefits from flexible worship space, facilities for work with children and social times after services. On weekdays the Centre is available to the church community for church-run activities such as Brownies and Guides, the Tea Club, Christian education, Church Council Meetings, Local Ministry Group meetings and for daily worship.
St Martin's Centre was handed over to the Partnership in early June 2006 and the official opening was on Saturday 15th July. The Centre was opened by the Bishop of Newcastle, The Rt Rev'd Martin Wharton, The Lord Mayor of Newcastle, Councillor Diane Packham and Sharon Barbour from BBC Look North.
The vision for St Martin's Centre was presented at the Opening Ceremony by the members of St Martin's Centre Partnership:
St Martin's Centre aims to meet the needs of everyone in a supportive, friendly and inclusive way that offers, amongst other things: a place to grow, a place to learn, a place to worship and a place to be heard. It will be: a safe and comfortable place that welcomes and cares; a forward thinking environment that enables people of all ages to develop to their fullest potential; a centre where people from the neighbourhood take an active part in decisions about the high quality activities and services that should be established.
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