CHILDREN’S CENTRE TO OPEN ITS DOORS TO THE PUBLIC AT WEEKENDS

The Children’s Centre will be opening its doors to the public every weekend thanks to a grant of £20,000 from the Manx Lottery Trust.

The Children’s Centre, an independent Manx charity, provides a range of therapeutic learning resources and services to young people and their families in the Isle of Man. This includes a community farm and a variety of creative and outdoors-based activities for children and their families.

Based on Wallberry Farm, Braddan, the Centre will be opening its doors to the public at weekends from this spring.

Its weekend offering will include guided tours of the farm and its animals, access to walking trails and a ‘Wild Space’ Zone, horticultural activities and bookable workshops at the Centre’s tech, craft, and woodwork spaces. Light refreshments will also be available at the Centre’s Long Barn.

The charity will be using the grant to implement infrastructural changes across its 15-acre site, which includes adapting several facilities to improve the flow of any additional footfall and the installation of various security measures.

Jonathon Whitten, Head of the Children's Centre, commented: ‘Over the last two years the Children’s Centre has been working hard to create a therapeutic learning environment at our farm for the benefit of children, families, and those with additional needs. There’s simply nothing like this on Island, and we wanted to share this wonderful resource with as many people as possible.

‘Thanks to the Manx Lottery Trust we have been given the opportunity to develop such a public offering, which gives back to the public but helps us to raise the charity’s profile and the work we do, whilst celebrating our beautiful location in all its glory.’

Stephen Turner, Chairman of Manx Lottery Trust, added: ‘The Trust has been delighted to support the Children’s Centre and their weekend offering. This is a wonderful initiative that truly resonates with the charity’s underlying philosophy of ‘therapeutic learning for all’.’

To find out more about the Children’s Centre, visit: www.thechildrenscentre.org.im.

This grant has been awarded from Manx Lottery Trust’s Dormant Assets Fund. To find out more, head to: www.mlt.org.im/grant-programmes.