Jaspers Community Café, a new initiative in Rochester that is being supported by the Rochester Riverside Community Board, was opened by the Mayor of Medway, Cllr Habib Tejan, on the 13th November.
Led by Becky Meadows, the café is one of six new projects supported by the Community Board and provides an opportunity for people with learning difficulties and disabilities to be trained as volunteers within the café.
Demonstrating the level of local support for the project, the launch was attended by the MP for Rochester and Strood, Kelly Tolhurst, as well as Dalia Halpern Matthews and Jane Howard, Chairperson and Vice Chairperson respectively of the Rochester Riverside Community Board.
Located at the Community Hub in Rochester, which also houses Medway Adult Education, the café will provide a lively and friendly meeting place for all users of the building, while also enabling employment and training progression for volunteers with learning difficulties and disabilities. The café will also help combat loneliness, by using trained volunteers to welcome and signpost café users to the many organisations, help groups and unique communities that Medway has to offer.
The Rochester Riverside Community Board was set up to ensure that the benefits of Rochester Riverside, Countryside and Hyde’s £419m regeneration scheme in Medway, are felt across the area, bringing to life worthwhile initiatives and ideas that enhance the local area with an annual budget of £30,000 available for selected projects.
Countryside has partnered with STEMPOINT East to take part in the Nuffield Research Placement scheme this summer, which will provide the opportunity for Year 12 students, from selected London regions where Countryside is developing new homes, to take part in real-life research placements – designed to develop the students’ professional, research and quantitative skills.
Leading mixed-tenure developer Countryside has donated 30 children’s book to Hainault day nursery and All Saints pre-school near its Oaklands Hamlet development in Chigwell to help boost young learning post-covid. Designed to provide additional resources for local nurseries, the book donation aims to encourage reading at a young age with a range of new and interesting books with a focus on kindness to reflect the post-pandemic sentiment.
Countryside’s community development work in Medway brought two of our partners together this autumn, as The Historic Dockyard Chatham hosted a day out for Home-Start Medway’s ‘Adventure Club’.
We’re delighted to announce our participation in the newly launched purchase scheme, Deposit Unlock. Providing first time buyers and existing homeowners with the option to purchase their new home with just 5% deposit, the mortgage indemnity scheme has been developed by the Home Builders Federation.
