Radford Care Group is getting ready to open the doors on its brand new centre, made possible thanks to the generous support of Nottingham businesses and its communities.
The £854,000 eco-friendly building, built by O'Keeffe Building Services, will allow the charity to double its capacity, accommodating up to 75 people comfortably on a day-to-day basis. It has been carefully designed to ensure it is disability-friendly throughout and boasts a range of new benefits for its service users and staff including a professional chef's kitchen, walk-in showers, large outdoor space and excellent parking facilities. The new build will open for business in early August and it's hoped a grand open event will take place in the autumn.
Jill Davies, CEO of Radford Care Group, explains...
Back in 1968, the Council for Voluntary Service in Nottingham (now Nottingham Community and Voluntary Service) called a series of meetings all over the city to set up a network of Neighbourhood Care Groups, and soon after Radford Care Group was born, thanks NCVS!
52 years later, we are stronger than ever and have just completed work on our brand-new building on Prospect Street, Radford. We moved in on Monday 20 July and will be open for business from the 3 August.
The new build has been made possible thanks to the amazing generosity of trusts, foundations, local businesses, our buy-a brick campaign, friends of the care group, our member volunteers, and endless fundraising events which in total raised a staggering £746,000 towards the overall cost of the build. This included our Big Band Bash fundraising event, organised by NCVS' own Office Administrator Lucy Fisher, which raised a whopping £5,350 towards the charity's total.
We cannot thank our supporters enough for believing in us and joining us to help build a new future and provide endless new possibilities for our local community.
We will endeavour to make our new centre the top choice for local older people, their families and carers, and anticipate working alongside other organisations and individuals to make the centre one of excellence.
We will continue to provide our core services to older people - including running a friendship group, a daycare facility for those presenting with more complex needs (such as dementia), quarterly carer support meetings, a dementia information programme and our Mental Capacity Act Forum which empowers people to make decisions for themselves. We are also looking forward to seeing how our services can develop.
In everything that we do, our aim is to alleviate loneliness and isolation and ensure that older people feel they belong within their community and have better access to quality care, thereby improving their health and wellbeing.
We plan to have a grand open event in the autumn, providing coronavirus conditions have improved and social distancing guidelines have eased. In the meantime, we are having a soft launch with our longtime president Pauleen Davies (MBE) as the honorary guest. Pauleen, who turned 94 recently, is one of the original founders of Radford Care Group. We have invited her and her family, along with our volunteers and staff to the new centre to unveil a plaque in her honour.
Pauleen said, "Looking back over my 93 years, I know that the most worthwhile and rewarding part of my life, apart from my wonderful family, has been my time with Radford Care Group."
If you would like to find out more about Radford Care Group, please visit their website here.
