Financial boost for Melton Learning Hub

Barratt Homes is building the town’s King’s Meadow development near to the Hub’s Burton Road HQ and decided to help it through its Barratt Foundation.

The Melton Mowbray charity supports around 120 students each year and many of its learners have a mixed programme of mainstream schooling while attending the Hub one day a week for vocational tuition.

Construction is the Hub’s most popular course with places filling quickly each year, and 85 per cent of its learners progress into further education or employment.

On the new donation, Sarah Cox, manager at Melton Learning Hub, said: “We are so grateful for the working relationship we have developed with Barratt Homes.

"The generous donation to our charity goes beyond this cheque, and the opportunity for our top students to see a working site and the job opportunities available to them is invaluable.

"The funding allows us to complete various projects with our students embedding the construction skills they have learned.”

She continued: “We receive no core funding and, as such, running courses such as construction can be challenging as the materials can be very expensive.

“It’s important to offer our learners a variety of projects to develop their construction skills, and therefore we intend to use this funding to complete several projects.

“This includes the implementation of fencing, a raised garden area, and constructing a wall, and we also need our facias repairing, so some of this money will go towards this.”

The Hub supports many families across the district.

As well as education, it also runs a community transport scheme which completes around 6,000 journeys a year, taking vulnerable members of the community to hospital, doctor’s appointments or simply to see family and friends.

It has two family workers funded by the National Lottery who support families and young people having difficulties such as bereavement, poor behaviour, separation and school exclusion.

The Hub previously ran a foodbank for the town during lockdown and its services continue to this day.

It supports its own beneficiaries, but also Oasis Pre-School and the Brownlow Wellbeing Hub, and works closely with a local group called Help the Isolated to support families and elderly people in need.

Sarah added: “The charity has found funding harder and harder to get.

"The demand for our foodbank services has grown hugely and yet, the funding has reduced.

"We know our children’s families are struggling and therefore feeding our learners has become an essential part of the service we offer.

“Education budgets have been squeezed and, as this happens, schools have had to seriously consider if they can allow students to come to us.

Mark Cotes, managing director at Barratt Homes North Midlands, said: “We’re proud to support Melton Learning Hub and the variety of excellent services it offers.

"Demand for such services is incredibly high in the currently climate, and we hope our contribution will help the charity continue to thrive.”

Click HERE to learn more about the services of the Melton Learning Hub.