Go Golspie Development Trust celebrate the re-opening of the YMCA Building in Golspie
Issued by Go Golspie Development Trust
Go Golspie Development Trust are delighted to announce the YMCA Building will be re-opening on Saturday 22 July 2023 with a ribbon cutting by children and young people planned to take place at 3pm at the door at the back of the building in East Millicent Avenue, Golspie.
This is a great opportunity to see the building, look at the spaces available and chat through ideas for Golspie Youth Club with Golspie Youth Action Project (GYAP) and for intergenerational community activities with Go Golspie Development Trust. Tours, tea and biscuits as well as musical entertainment will be available.
This much loved but derelict building has been closed since 2019 but now thanks to the generosity of many funders and the support of the community, it has undergone major refurbishment and upgrading of the facilities and is once more able to offer a number of spaces for the community to use.
Go Golspie Development Trust is working with GYAP to help reopen Golspie Youth Club after the summer holidays. There are also plans for Golspie Gala week events, youth activities, a Film Club and Mindfulness sessions as well as opening as a ‘drop in’ community hub and winter warm space.
The areas available include a Large Hall, Youth/Community Space, fully fitted Kitchen and Small Meeting/ Hotdesking Room. Go Golspie Development Trust also now occupy a room in the building as their office.
Capital work is now nearly complete and has included replacing a roof and down pipes, repairs to an existing roof and the clock tower roof, installing solar panels, new insulation throughout, new windows and doors, floors and flooring, damp-proof courses, ceilings, installing a new accessible WC, new heating and lighting systems and kitchen. Also upgrading and redecorating and new fixtures and fittings throughout.
This major capital refurbishment and upgrading project has cost over £350,000 and funders include: HIE; The Highland Council's Place Based Investment Programme, Town Centre Fund and Highland Coastal Communities Fund; Hugh Fraser Foundation; The National Lottery Community Fund; SSE Renewables Sustainable Development Fund; SSE Renewables Beatrice Partnership; SSE Renewables Gordonbush Community Fund; The Scottish Landfill Communities Fund; and The Westminster Foundation.
Many thanks to you all.
Valerie Mackay, Chair of the Go Golspie Development Trust YMCA sub-group says: ‘Re-opening this vital facility is going to make a real difference to those who use it particularly to our young people as well as to the wider community. We are extremely grateful to all our funders and the community for providing their support as we would not have been able to go ahead and do this otherwise. It is very exciting to finally see the building coming back into use again’.
Cllr Richard Gale, Chair of The Highland Council's Sutherland Area Committee, said: "We are very fortunate to have Go Golspie working hard to bring about positive change and improvements for young people in the community. Sutherland Area Members were delighted to support Go Golspie in this project by awarding £181k through three Council funding streams towards the building’s refurbishment. The local investment into this project isn’t exclusively financial, the work has been carried out by local contractors with the development trust to bring about the project’s completion. It will be a special moment at the weekend when we can come together to celebrate the building’s re-opening, a building which now has new life to it as a result of local support, talent, and investment.”