Home

FUNDRAISING APPEAL

 Progress Report

Support our appeal

The sun shone brightly on Friday 23rd July 2004 when supporters of the Norwich Centre including volunteers, staff, Trustees of the Norwich Centre and Directors of Norwich Centre Projects Ltd gathered to watch our Patron, the Right Rev Dr Stephen Platten, Bishop of Wakefield celebrate the completion of the foundations of our annexe by laying a plaque.

The Carl Rogers Memorial Unit

The Norwich Centre plays a key role in providing an affordable and highly professional person-centred counselling service; indeed I believe we are the market leaders in this sector in Norfolk.  It also stands as a beacon of hope to the person-centred community around the world.  Many person-centred agencies and practitioners are faced with the struggle to retain their integrity in the face of the demands of funders, but  the Norwich Centre remains completely independent, with the help of a dedicated team of staff and volunteers – and you, our supporters. 

7 Earlham Road provides the physical space within which we provide our service.  It is a very special space and our visitors often comment on the therapeutic atmosphere – indeed as those of you who have read ‘Infinitely Beloved’ will know, Carl Rogers himself visited the Centre in 1984 and pronounced the vibrations to be good.  It has been very important for us to maintain the ‘good vibrations’ whilst at the same time ensuring it is a safe and healthy environment to work in.   However our lovely building has one big drawback – it is inaccessible to those in wheelchairs.  Although we previously had a ramp outside Room 1, it was on a gravel driveway, and once inside there was no wheelchair access from Room 1 to the rest of the building.  In addition we have three ground floor levels and three first floor levels and only one toilet on the first floor. 

In order to rectify this situation and enable us to meet our obligations under the Disability Discrimination Act the Trustees considered a number of options: 

•  Adapting our existing building

•   Selling and relocating

•  Building an annexe

After much research and deliberation it was decided to build an annexe which would provide an accessible counselling and training room, an accessible toilet, and access to our existing waiting room and kitchen. It will enable us to cut waiting times and help another 86 clients a year. 

Brian Thorne's suggestion to name the annexe the Carl Rogers Memorial Unit in honour of the 100^th anniversary of Carl Rogers’ birth in 2002 is a highly appropriate tribute both to Carl Rogers and to the Norwich Centre. 

The Carl Rogers Memorial Fundraising Appeal was set up to raise the money to carry out the essential repairs to our building and to build the annexe.  

We have been able to carry out essential repairs to our building, including replacing the entire floor of one of the ground floor rooms, installing central heating to combat damp, restoring the sash windows to full and safe working order, treating woodworm and damp, replacing damaged brickwork, and installing fire safety measures. In total this has cost £45000. 

We are now in the process of completing the annexe and will be using it from September 2007. We still need to continue raising money to resurface our car park, widen internal doors, and complete repairs to our existing building. 

You can help by making a donation, forms are available from the Norwich Centre, and if you are a UK taxpayer the value of your donation can be increased if you complete a Gift Aid form. 

We also welcome regular donations by standing order, if each of our supporters could commit to paying £5 per month for a year we could raise enough money to complete the annexe. 

You can even support us at no cost to you at all through our online shop www.buy.at/TheNorwichCentre.  Using the link to access the retailers in this scheme will generate commission in support of our appeal.  If you ever buy online from Amazon for example, don’t go straight to their site, click on their link on our web shop and then we will get 3% of the amount you spend.  Cards giving the link for our online shop are also available. 

Once again I would like to thank you all for your support  - without you the Norwich Centre would not exist and a beacon of light would go out leaving the world a bleaker place 

Caroline Kitcatt

Centre Director