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Dragon's Den comes to St Ann's Community (Wates Living release)

Earlier this year three community groups took on the Nottingham City Homes Dragons' Den and walked away with a community investment worth £5,000 each!

Wates Living Space joined Nottingham City Homes and its five other partner contractors to offer three grants of up to £5,000 for local community projects.

Representatives from all contractors sat on the 'Dragons' Den' panel just like the hit BBC1 programme – but this time groups were battling it out for community funding rather than selling a stake in their company!

One of the winning bids came from the St Ann's area of Nottingham. Community project, Pro Vision, recycles second hand clothes and household items, and provides them to people on low incomes, the homeless, single parents and older people.

The £5,000 funding will help Pro-Vision set themselves up as a Social Medium Enterprise (SME). This will help with providing employment opportunities, work experience for young people and adding value to peoples' lives and communities.

In April representatives from Wates, Nottingham City Homes and the other contractor partners handed the cheque over at Pro-Vision's new premises.

Shaun Spowart was there to receive the cheque on behalf of Pro-Vision. He has been key in organising the leasing of the property and sourcing second-hand goods to recycle for vulnerable members of the local community. Shaun said:

This funding will make the world of difference to Pro-Vision and the work we do. It is so important that we support the vulnerable members of our society. We feel that we do our little bit by providing the basics to those most in need in our community and of course we are always on the look out for donations from kind members of the community who are happy to help out.

The substantial floor-space in the new premises will allow Shaun and his team to serve large numbers of local residents on a daily basis, providing a much needed facility for those most at risk.

Adrian Grimes, Operational Excellence Manager, said:

We wish Shaun and his team all the best for the future and will continue to assist Provision in all their endeavours in aiding the local community.

Wates will be returning when Shaun officially opens the shop to the public and will be helping them offer free tea and coffee to all who visit the shop that day.

Steve Edlin of Nottingham City Homes, said:

Together with our partners we are working hard to create homes and places where people want to live across the city. It is important that we support the groups and organisations that are doing their bit to improve the local community and Dragons' Den was a great way to do this.

www.wates.co.uk

(Thursday 19 May 2011 09:00:00 GMT)

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