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Status
Received: on time
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Income
£355.1K
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Spending
£335.3K
Public benefits
The advancement of community development, in particular the promotion for the public benefit of urban and rural regeneration in Cookstown and surrounding areas (the "area of benefit"), being an area of social and economic deprivation, by all or any of the following means: (i) the creation of training and employment opportunities by the provision
of workspace, buildings, and/or land for use on favourable terms; The direct benefits which flow from this purpose include a more entrepreneurial society and increased levels of employment and self-employment throughout the Cookstown Council area. This is evidenced by the fact that in recent years the Cookstown Enterprise Centre (CEC) property base has retained average occupancy levels of approximately 80-90% despite the difficult economic climate, providing employment for in excess of 120 people. (ii) the provision of financial assistance, technical assistance or business advice or consultancy in order to provide training and employment opportunities for unemployed people in cases of financial or other charitable need through help: (i) in setting up their own business, or (ii) to existing businesses; CEC provides a wide range of enterprise support programmes to support people who wish to start their own business, as well as support to established businesses. CEC is the delivery agent for many of these programmes, the majority of which are publically funded including the Exploring Enterprise Programme, Steps to Work Programme and the Regional Start Programme. Over the past year we have supported over 100 unemployed people with help to start up in business and we are currently supporting approximately 120 established businesses through funded development programmes, primarily funded by Cookstown Council. The benefits of the above are evidenced through feedback from clients and regular independent evaluations from funding bodies such as Cookstown Council and Invest NI. In fact Cookstown Enterprise Centre was recently awarded best delivery agent in NI of the Regional Start Programme at the NI Enterprise Awards, which provides further evidence of our commitment to providing quality services to the local community. (iii) the relief of unemployment; Through providing workspace for small businesses and advice, training and employment programmes we are continuously supporting unemployed people into employment. Over the past 10 years we have supported over 1,000 unemployed people from throughout the District, through the provision of advice, information and training. This has resulted in a better trained community and up-skilling and re-training of local unemployed people. (iv) the advancement of education, training or retraining; Through voluntary involvement with organisations such as the Cookstown and Dungannon Business Education partnership our staff supports over 1,500 secondary school pupils per annum through delivery of interview skills days, enterprise skills days and supporting mini-enterprise projects. The direct benefits of this are that young people are better educated and informed in the areas of employability and enterprise which in turn enhances their career prospects. We also deliver accredited enterprise training such as the CCEA Accredited Exploring Enterprise Programme assisting unemployed people with enhancing their employability and enterprise skills. (v) the provision of housing to benefit people on low incomes unable to afford a house on the open market. There is no harm flowing from any of the above purposes. Some private benefit is obtained by the owners of small businesses who rent units on favourable terms, but this is ancillary to the main purpose and is greatly outweighed by the gains in public benefit.
... [more] [less]What your organisation does
Cookstown Enterprise Centre exists to promote the advancement of community development, in particular the promotion for the public benefit of urban and rural regeneration in Cookstown and surrounding areas. We do this by providing the following range of services; * The provision of a range of business units to let and meeting facilities on
favourable terms * Funded Enterprise Support Programmes and initiatives including pre-start programmes, start-up programmes and business development programmes for established businesses * Employability and enterprise support initiatives for local Schools * Office and secretarial services for small businesses on favourable terms * Project Management services and advice and support to community and voluntary organisations throughout the District e.g. CEC currently manages Stewartstown Development Association which is a local community development organisation in a rural part of the Cookstown District
... [more] [less]The charity’s classifications
- The advancement of education
- The advancement of citizenship or community development
- The relief of those in need by reason of youth, age, ill-health, disability, financial hardship or other disadvantage
Who the charity helps
- Adult training
- Ethnic minorities
- General public
- Men
- Tenants
- Unemployed/low income
- Voluntary and community sector
- Women
- Youth (14-25 year olds)
How the charity works
- Advice/advocacy/information
- Community development
- Economic development
- Education/training
- Relief of poverty
- Rural development
- Urban development
- Youth development
