BBRC supporting the regeneration of ‘a new heart for Hillfields’

BBRC Homes is supporting the Hillfields Family & Community Trust (HFCT) in its aim to build new affordable community homes and to modernise the Hillfields Community Hub, off Thicket Avenue.

Formerly known as Hillfields Youth Centre, the Hub already provides a venue for youth services, music, sporting activities, community groups, health and therapeutic work, and is available for private hire by residents for social events.

The Trust has recently been awarded a site adjacent to the Hub, from Bristol City Council in order to develop it for new affordable community homes. BBRC Homes is working with HFCT to gain planning on the site, source appropriate finance and to build out a development that is co-designed with the local community. The site is currently occupied largely by waste ground but it also includes a building currently occupied by Hillfields FC. The football club is set to move into new changing rooms and facilities in the Hub before its old building is demolished.

It is also planning to revamp the Hub, modernising its facilities and making it a more attractive place for residents to use.

Read more about the trust’s plans for the Hub here.

Driving the changes forward are the trust’s co-managers Jan Ross and George Campbell-Touray, above.

Friends since the age of 11, Jan worked as a nurse and George as a social worker before they founded the Hillfields Young Mothers Group at the centre in 2003. Originally a group of six young mums, they took on more responsibilities at the centre, until last year they were offered long-term control of the council-owned building under the community asset transfer scheme. The group merged with the Hillfields Community Trust to become HF&CT, taking the building over on a 30-year lease.

Read more about the plan for new homes here.

Jan and George run the trust with the help of volunteers and their job-share post is funded by Bristol charity the Quartet Community Foundation. Having lived and worked in the area for so long and raised their own families there, they want to pay something back by creating lasting change for Hillfields.

Jan said: “There was no heart to this community – there’s no pub, no community centre – and no history of regeneration. We have had no money invested in this area for a long time. This is really exciting, to do something like this in my own area where I brought up my own children. It will absolutely be a community asset, something for the community to make it its own. The rental will go into a fund which will be used for the community. It will mean we are self-sustaining and not reliant on grants for funding, and the community can make decisions about how that money will be used.”

George said: “There are stigmas attached to young mothers, people who say ‘all they want is a home’. But why wouldn’t you want to provide a home in an area where people feel safe? At the end of the day, this is about creating a community.”

For more details about the trust and its work visit its site, www.hillfields.community.