MEDIA RELEASE

Community First is delighted that it has been given the opportunity to pursue the acquisition of the Oxenwood Outdoor Education Centre from Wiltshire Council in order that it can continue to develop and deliver a wide and inspiring range of courses for our young people and the wider community of Wiltshire and elsewhere.

We look forward to our discussions with the Council to quickly agree and secure the site and provide continuity for the staff who currently work so hard to give life forming opportunities to all the young people who benefit from their experience there.

Commenting on the proposal, Dr Martin Hamer, Chairman of Community First, said that “It represents a significant opportunity for a win-win situation with the Council to ensure that we can provide continuity and quality of provision at the historic Oxenwood Centre.”

Lynn Gibson, Community First Chief Executive said, “We welcome this strategic move forward to secure the Oxenwood Centre as we can seek to integrate it within our wide ranging existing provision for young people in our arm of Youth Action Wiltshire – providing cost-effective added value to our portfolio of provision.  I thank all the staff who have been involved in synthesising our bid for the centre and look forward to quickly adding value to this treasured community asset.”

Steve Crawley of Community First and Head Of Youth Action Wiltshire stated “This represents a hugely exciting opportunity for our charity to be able to ensure, Oxenwood Outdoor Education Centre and its fantastic staff team, can continue to offer affordable high quality outdoor education, alongside launching new free to access provision for 250 young people who are vulnerable and facing disadvantage every year. Our sincere thanks go to everyone who has been involved in enabling this decision to be made.”

Dr Martin Hamer, Chairman, Community first
Lynn Gibson, Chief Executive, Community First.
Steve Crawley, Head of Youth Action Wiltshire, The Youth Arm Of Community First

NB

All Media enquiries to:-

Lynn Gibson, Chief Executive, Community First.     01380 732811
Dr Martin Hamer, Chairman, Community First.       01672 810032