Thank you for your interest in supporting The Restoration Centre. The Restoration Centre (RC for short) is the name of the Social Action Service run by Whitley Community Church for the residents in the Whitley Area. Whitley Community Church Trust is a registered charity in England No:106766.

Although the Charitable Trust is a faith organisation (Charity Commission), The Restoration Centre is a separate and secular programme with no exclusions based on: Race, Colour, Creed, Faith, Sexual Orientation or Age.

Our aim is to serve the people in need in the Whitley neighbourhoods- reaching out with active programmes such as Healthy Eating Courses or reacting to people in sudden need such as bereavement counselling or emergency food parcels.

We have already been awarded small amounts of project funding by The National Lottery and West Berkshire NHS and are recognised in our own right for our Social Action activities throughout the local area.

To get established we initially have a three year programme in mind. Some of our plans include:

• Healthy Eating Courses – using local chefs and NHS dieticians by encouraging Young Mothers and Older Residents to cook low cost, healthy options to common fast food favourites.
• Computer Clubs – targeting homework lessons for poorer children, job clubs for job seekers and introduction to computers courses for mature and returning-to-work residents
• Debt Counselling – initial assessments and referrals
• Bereavement counselling
• Police Liaison surgeries
• Coffee Shop and Healthy Snacks
• Self-start courses for people wanting to start their own businesses

These are just a selection of ideas that we have and we will respond to resident requests either on a 1:1 basis or ideas for communal involvement.

Independent Approach.

Reading Council and other Non-Government Organisations (NGO’s) have well funded projects in the area but some of these charge quite a lot for courses and some groups like ex-offenders do not take well to walking back into local and national government schemes. We, on the other hand, offer low or no cost options and many feel comfortable with our relaxed approach.

We need your support

In order to maintain our independence we welcome corporate support in areas such as useful equipment and finance to help pay utility bills and staff fees. From time to time we may approach organisations directly and we hope these pages help to explain the nature of the problems in Whitley.