Main Grants Programme Case Study
The Enterprise Centre is funded jointly by the Coalfields Regeneration Trust (£180,000) and the District of Easington Liveability Fund. Revenue funding is provided through CRED.
The Centre is a Social Enterprise based on a household recycling and reuse project being managed by EAST DURHAM PARTNERSHIP. The project is known as CRATE and operates from an industrial unit located in Horden.
The premises which house the project were purchased in December 2005 and officially opened on April 3rd 2006. The enterprise was developed as a result of working with the District of Easington Environmental Services Department to address the current environment agenda on raising awareness of recycling and reuse throughout the community. The project works jointly with the District of Easington Environmental Services Department. 4,000 plus households have been served since the beginning of the project with approximately 2,000 tonnes of waste diverted. The project was established as a social enterprise in order that any potential surpluses would be reinvested into the project to create employment in the locality thus contributing to the economic regeneration at the District.
The project will address local training needs by the provision of accredited programmes within the enterprise as well as the opportunities for beneficiaries to become more confident and acquire employability skills through work experience within the project.
The project has been extremely successful to date and is now collaborating with some of the projects in different areas and is investigating the potential to diversify and expand to accommodate a white goods recycling unit.
The purchase of the two industrial units will enable the enterprise's next stage of development which is to work towards sustainability.
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