After two years of hard work impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the CORE Centre is hoping to become the leading community hub in Gedling.
The charity was created in 1994 by a local vicar to provide free and low-cost education resources for Calverton residents.
But the CORE truly picked up a couple of years ago when Sam Round, 50, and Becky Lord, 51, became project managers after volunteering there for years.
The pair wanted to expand the range of services offered to the community and to assist as many people as possible, with their moto being ‘if we can’t help, we’ll find someone that can’.
Becky said: “In recent times we have changed our focus more towards wellbeing and providing services and activities that make people happy.
“Since covid we have built around 40 services and activities, which we are pretty proud of.
“We offer a lot of support and advice for all things such as emails, forms, council worries, housing worries, disabilities concerns, etc.
“We have also made a lot of new partnerships and managed to get two lottery bids, even if we still have funding gaps to meet.”
The CORE is not only a place to get help, but also to meet people and form friendships.
More than 14,000 interactions are accounted for each year.
The former teacher and head deputy added: “We have this lady coming down to eat soup once a week because she says it’s the only time in the week that she doesn’t have to eat on her own.
“We are reaching a lot more people now, they come from not only Calverton but also all-around Gedling and Nottinghamshire.”
The work done by the charity would not be possible without volunteers, who put their time and skills to use.
Sam said: “We couldn’t run everything without volunteers, we rely on [them] to do a lot of things.
“And we’re constantly surprised by [their] generosity.
“Being a project manager is challenging but also rewarding, we love what we do, it does not feel like work.”
The Core Centre are based at Calverton Working Men’s Club – Collyer Road – Calverton – NG14 6JX
Further information can be found on their facebook page HERE
