Established 2005 Registered Charity No. 1110656

Scottish Charity Register No. SC043760

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New home for SIFA Fireside

July 07 2011
Birmingham homeless charity moves to purpose-built premises

 

Birmingham homeless charity SIFA Fireside is moving from Lower Essex Street and Pershore Street to new premises in Digbeth. SIFA and Fireside merged in 2007, and its services have been delivered from the two separate buildings ever since. After a long consultation, it was decided that the organisation should seek a new building in order to provide its many services under one roof. Thanks to a £400,000 grant from the Social Enterprise Investment Fund, SIFA Fireside will now have purpose-built premises on Allcock Street, just behind the Custard Factory development. From September 2011, all its staff, volunteers and service users will be based in one building.

Importantly, this means that the organisation will remain in the centre of Birmingham. A number of other homelessness services, including St Basil’s, are also based in the Digbeth area, which will make the location convenient to service users and offer SIFA Fireside an even better opportunity to work closely with similar organisations within the city. Planning permission has been granted, and SIFA Fireside has commissioned a building company to make the necessary alterations. Progress on the development is on schedule, meaning that SIFA Fireside’s new home should be ready by September.

SIFA Fireside Service Users were given the opportunity to visit the new building in order to give their opinions about the move. William West, a regular at SIFA Fireside, commented: “I feel that the move into new premises can only benefit the service. Being purpose-built, the premises will offer more facilities in a more suitable environment, allowing the staff to deliver their invaluable services even more efficiently. This is an exciting change in SIFA Fireside’s history”. Cath Gilliver, CEO at SIFA Fireside, added: “I’m delighted that, thanks to the Social Enterprise Investment Fund, we’ll have a building which brings our services together under one roof and provides the kind of high quality environment which our service users, staff and volunteers deserve”.

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