Derby Community Centre
Helping the community
Students from a dozen different countries are working to put new life into a community centre in the heart of Derby.
Austin Community Enterprise (ACE), based at the Austin Neighbourhood Base on the Austin Housing Estate, is re-launching itself with the help of a £40,000 grant from the Derbyshire Community Foundation's Fair Share Fund. ACE was set up in 1994.
An international squad of University of Derby business students are helping the community enterprise promote three new projects to local residents, as part of its re-launch.
The schemes
- 'stay and play' - where young mums can bring their children to play while they attend workshops, offering parenting skills and other training;
- 'grow and cook' - a gardening expert will teach residents how to grow fresh fruit and veg in the smallest of 'plots', including soil bags and tubs;
- computer club - giving eight to 15-year-olds access to computers to do their homework and play games, to teach them information technology skills.
Students on the University's Masters degree business courses will help market the three projects for a study project, providing expert help that the Austin centre would otherwise have to do itself or pay to have done.
All around the world
The 20 students come from all over the world, countries such as Uzbekistan, France, Spain, India, Cyprus, Greece, Nigeria, Malawi, Jordan, Lebanon, China and Britain.
They took up the task after Sue Cliff, the Austin centre's Development Manager, contacted their tutor, Hildegard Wiesehofer, for help.
Hildegard, Programme Leader for the Masters degree in Marketing, said: "Most of these students are from other countries and very different backgrounds from each other.
Doing this project will give them experience of working in the public sector, and of British culture. It means that when they go back home they will have done something really worthwhile to leave behind them in the Derby community."
What the students say
Masters student Ali Wahid, 28, from the Lebanon, said: "Every disadvantaged area has some similarities, problems such as unemployment and attracting jobs.
"I think the differences are that in England there is more government support in terms of benefits for people in poverty and in the Lebanon families tend to be larger, perhaps five to seven children, leading to problems with parents being able to support them all."
Sonia Daswani, 25, of Spain, added: "One of the things our research has already identified is that, because the centre it's based in offers other services, people aren't always sure what the Austin Community Enterprise is."
