New volunteer opportunities can be found here
Working in Partnership |
Sunflower House is a growing organisation and a successful one which has made a real difference to individuals and groups since it first started, by supporting empowering others. We work hard to do the best we can with limited resources but a great team. All of our work is based on working with others: partnerships with community groups, other organisations, individuals with a passion or a drive to make a positive diffference – and we love it.
Here are three major projects we have helped to develop and continue to support – to find out more, visit the relevant partner website or drop us a line from our contact page….
Grace Hill Library
Sunflower House team members and many partners in the community worked together to persuade Kent County Council to bring back a library service to our town after a break of three years: the campaign was successful and a new location has been created in Sandgate Road.
The Grace Hill building was saved from disposal, bought for the community by Folkestone Town Council and work is now underway to secure funding to refurbish the building and bring it back into life for local people to use and enjoy.
The Community Building Network
This is a really simple idea: community spaces which choose to support each other, share ideas and work together to support local people.
So far, there are eight spaces in the group: Sunflower House; The Community Room; Cheriton Community Network; The Hub; Folkestone Bookshop; Kollectiv; Hythe Youth and Community Hub; Folkestone Community Fridge.
We keep in touch, share resources, pass on useful information and discuss how we can meet community needs in different ways.
The idea of One Folkestone is another simple one: celebrating all that is good about our community, promoting positive opportunities for change and improvement and working with local people and community leaders to develop long term plans for regeneration.
A growing partnership of community activists is supported by six reference groups, with expertise on themes such as Health and Wellbeing, Travel and Transport, Economy and Employment, Arts, Heritage and Environment, Education Learning and Skills, Housing and Homelessness.
Practical work by One Folkestone includes support for the Grace Hill project, the Future Ready programme which is aimed at raising aspirations for Young People, local community health initiatives and plans for a major theatre project with our partners at Folkestone Performing Arts Company