News
Celebrating 13 years in Coley Park
PARENTS And Children Together is drawing to a close its 13 years of frontline community work with families in Coley Park.
19 Jul 2010
PACT has provided services in Coley since 1997, most recently in the form of its flagship Coley Park Children’s Centre in Wensley Road in partnership with St Mary and All Saints School.
The school is now in a position to take on the running of this project directly from September 2010. All services for the families who use the centre will continue as normal and PACT’s team of dedicated volunteers and staff will be staying with the project.
PACT Chief Executive Jan Fishwick said: “While we are sad to be leaving, we are delighted to have made a difference and to be leaving behind a legacy for the children and families of Coley Park”
“PACT has created a superb team at the centre who have spent many years working with families in the area and ensuring their children have the very best start in life.
“While we are pleased to have been so successful in Coley we know there are so many other communities in Reading and beyond that could benefit from the work of independent charities like ourselves and we are always looking for our next opportunity to make a difference.”
PACT’s work in Coley Park began in January 1997 when it ran an Open House at Coley Sphere but a sewage leak in 1999 forced the centre to close.
An open house drop-in centre was re-opened in 2000 in community and church halls. A new family centre on the current site was opened by the Mayor of Reading in 2006. PACT was delighted when the project was selected to become a Children’s Centre and the building was extended and refurbished. This new centre was opened by MP Martin Salter in May 2008.
PACT continues to manage projects across Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire that help families, children and young people, particularly those who are vulnerable or affected by poverty. In Reading it runs Alana House, a project supporting vulnerable women who are at risk of offending.