Manor Court Baptist Church cinema given helping hand by The Heart of England Co-operative Society

A Nuneaton church which serves one of the most deprived areas of the town has received a welcome financial boost from the Heart of England Co-operative Society to help provide cinema facilities for local families.

The £500 award – from the Society’s Helping Hearts Awards Scheme – will be put towards a long-throw projector at Manor Court Baptist Church (MCBC), in Manor Court Road, which is set to launch the Saturday Cinema Project in early January 2018.

It will directly benefit several families across the area who will have the opportunity to come together on a regular basis in a safe, friendly environment.

The facilities will also have the potential to be used for those homeless people using the winter night shelter, co-ordinators of Christians Against Poverty which organises social events in the church, as well as the church itself.

Carole Sparkes, community liaison and fundraising officer of MCBC, said: “Our aim with the cinema project is to build up our relationships with families in the community, and our initial soundings for this project have been met with great enthusiasm. We are hoping to launch this new facility from January.

“We are grateful to the Heart of England Co-operative Society for its support in helping us to obtain this projector. Also for its help in the past, including when we set up the food bank, when we needed a new fridge and when we received food vouchers from them.”

The church has long been proactive in its community with groups to cater for all walks of life.

These include three play and stay groups, a CAP debt centre, drop-in sessions, food bank centre and participation in the town’s winter night shelter.

Other activities include Christmas dinner for the lonely and isolated, mid-week meetings for older people, including a meal and guest speaker.

To continue accommodating the various groups the church is undergoing a rolling programme of improvements to include multi-purpose facilities within the building, in turn increasing capacity.

Ali Kurji, Chief Executive of the Heart of England Co-operative Society, said: “We are of course delighted to support MCBC in its quest to build a closer community.

“Many local families do not have transport and can either not get to nor afford, to take their families to the out-of-town cinema in the area. We hope our donation will go some way to helping to bring isolated families together for the benefit of the community.”

Jo Dyke, Community and Membership Adviser at the Heart of England Co-operative Society, added: “This is the perfect example of the type of community project Helping Hearts is able to assist.

“Situated within Manor Court Baptist Church which is an active player within the local community, the effects of this projector are far reaching. It will go a long way to help making a real difference to people’s lives.

“We are always looking out for new and inspiring projects which help ease or improve the lives of people across our community and would urge anyone who knows of a similar project – a community initiative designed to benefit many people in their neighbourhoods – to contact us to see if we may be able to help.”

Application forms are available from all branches of the Heart of England Co-operative Society. Alternatively contact Jo Dyke on 024 7638 2331 or [email protected]
Back to newsline