The BWCE Fund awarded Julian House (Bath) £4827 towards the running costs of the Bath Bike Workshop.
Rowena Knight, Senior Trusts Fundraiser at Julian House tells us how support from the BWCE Fund has helped them to encourage more people to take up cycling, whilst at the same time helping some of the most vulnerable people in the city.
We are so pleased to have received an award from the Bath & West Community Energy Fund for our Bath bike workshop social enterprise. The bike workshop, based on Corn Street in central Bath, has a dual function of:
- Acting as a shop where local residents can have their bikes serviced and buy affordable new and refurbished bikes
- Delivering in-house employability services for homeless and socially excluded people.
Crucially, the bike workshop limits the impact of climate change by enabling and encouraging local residents to take up cycling or make it their chief form of transport.
This has been essential during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has led to a phenomenal resurgence in cycling as both a safer means of transport and leisure activity.
Thanks to the BWCE Fund, we can continue these much-needed services for another year, reducing carbon emissions while meeting the local demand for free and affordable bikes and improving the life chances of some of the most vulnerable people in Bath.
During 2021 we aim to refurbish and sell just under 400 second-hand bikes (all donated by local residents) and support another 40 long-term unemployed people to gain essential employability skills.
The benefits of BWCE’s support for the local community are clear, and we are so grateful that they chose to involve Julian House in achieving their vision of limiting the impact of climate change in Bath.
