Home > Success Stories > Success Stories 2011 > Hockley Day Centre has Excellence set in their sights

Hockley Day Centre has Excellence set in their sights

Hockley Day Centre’s big ambition is to become a Centre of Excellence. The team are well on their way to making sure this happens.

The Adults and Communities team, led by Katy Meakin and Tom Mullan, are positive and pro-active about coming up with new ideas and ways of working. They use the BEST workshop programme to full effect, taking advantage of the time to discuss new innovative ideas and discuss the future of the centre. They have taken their BEST actions and turned them into successful outcomes, in a few instances winning funding from BEST Dragons’ Den and the Adults and Communities directorate’s own Dragons’ Den.

The team look to implement innovative ideas that benefit their service users’ development and the income for the centre. So far the team have successfully set up the Green Fingers Enterprising Project which looks after allotments and plants the day centre’s flower beds and hanging baskets. The project gets the service users involved in great outdoor activities.

They have joined forces with Tyburn Road Day Centre to implement the Acupack venture which sees the teams offer a paper shredding service to both council departments and external companies. Acupack collect waste paper, charging 50 pence per kilo and take it back to their base to shred and recycle the paper into briquettes which can then be sold.

Acupack will soon be on Twitter. If you ‘tweet’ why not check them out? We will bring you their details as soon as possible.

The team have recently added a new service to their impressive list - they won funding at BEST Dragons’ Den in May 2011 to set up a conference centre within the day centre. The Hockley Xchange offers a large meeting room and catering, all for competitive prices and offering free parking. They have already had people use the conference centre, receiving great reviews.

Not content with all they have achieved so far, the team are now about to introduce craft making activities and sell the creations, creating further income for the centre but also expending service users’ skills.

On Tuesday 28 June 2011, Peter Hay, Strategic Director of Adults and Communities and Councillor Sue Anderson officially re-opened the centre.

Well done team. Keep up the great work.

For information on any of Hockley Day Centre’s services or to book the Hockley Xchange, please contact Tom Mullan on 0121 464 1257 or via Lotus Notes.