Play your part in a £5,000 Hartlepool fundraising drive

The Orcel Centre, in Wynyard Road, has been serving the Manor House ward for almost 20 years.

And although officials always manage to find enough money to stay open, they say there is never any spare money to pay for replacing broken equipment.

Now, they have come up with a plan to use crowd funding to pay for a new partition. It will cost £5,000 but Orcel development manager Glenys Thompson said the partition was needed as it made a big difference in a large room at the centre.

She explained: “We have a large room and the partition gives us the chance to split it into two so that you can have two different activities.

“It also reduces the cost of hiring the space.”

But the current broken partition is “preventing us from using it as much as we want to and bring in extra revenue.”

Glenys added: “We are pleading for support from the generous residents of Hartlepool to help us in a way no-one else can do. If 2500 people gave just £2 we would make our target.”

Orcel runs everything from adult education classes to support for people who are unemployed by helping them with job searches.

A therapist can help with treatments for issues such as anxiety.

Orcel also hosts experts who give advice on money issues.

“Local residents use the centre to upskill and work towards getting employment,” said Glenys.

She has a team of eight volunteers who help to run Orcel and praised them for being “really hard working.”

But she is hoping more people will get involved in the centre by supporting the crowd funding bid. To do so, people should visit justgiving.com and search for Orcel where they can make a donation.

The Orcel Centre also has its own Facebook page where a competition - with the prize of a meal voucher for £50 for the Golden Lion in Hartlepool - is up for grabs.

To find out more about the centre, visit the Facebook page, call (01429) 288123 or go to the website at www.orcel.org.uk.