The Centre
The Open Door Centre was established in March 2000. It is a drop in support centre with a not for profit snack bar, operating in the deprived ward of Waterside in Pendle, an area of declinin employment and high social deprivation. The Centre was set up to respond to the needs of people in Colne and the surrounding areas that live in social isolation and have become marginalised by society. Now over 20 years into our existence the Colne Open Door Centre is firmly integrated in the community that we serve. The Open Door Centre is well regarded and utilised by statutory services and also other third sector charities.
The Centre provides a safe, nurturing and friendly environment for individuals experiencing a vulnerable time in their lives.
Our main aims and objectives are to provide:
A service offering support, help, guidance, coaching and sign-posting to meet the needs of the poor and those marginalised by society with a view to improving their quality of life.
A community snack bar/meeting place, which can be used by everyone, serving low cost, home-made nutritious meals and providing a non-threatening, non-judgemental
environment in which we can achieve our stated objectives.
Free internet access for everyone to assist in the search for employment and provide the opportunity for social interaction.
A non-threatening venue to accommodate training, mental health and wellbeing classes, counselling, support groups and other activities beneficial to our community.
Crisis Support Service
Our service is available between 10.00 am – 2.00pm, Monday to Thursday, giving free guidance, support and help with any issues that may be causing stress and anxiety.
These may include problems with benefits, housing issues, finding work, writing CV`s, use of a phone, writing a letter, completing forms, drug and alcohol issues - help and information, budgeting, debt, etc.
Our Crisis Support Service is facilitated by Jessica, whom will work with you to reduce you worries and help solve the issue’s you may have. As always the services that we provide are free of charge.
Community Cafe
Our snack bar serves low cost nutritious and home cooked food to our community. The snack bar is open Monday to Friday, from 10am until 2pm. Our snack bar is often used as a place where people can have a hot drink and have a friendly chat with others. The snack bar can also offer emergency food parcels and free meals to the impoverished, people can self-refer for this service whilst in the centre. Our snack bar offers free unlimited internet access and use of computers.
The snack bar is solely operated by our amazing volunteers under the guidance of our kitchen supervisor, Richard. If you would like to volunteer at the Open Door Centre and become partof the team please get in touch on 01282 860342
Counselling
Our free counselling service is a big part of the charity and is something that we are very proud of. The counselling service is so well regarded many statutory services such as the NHS refer clients directly to us. The service we provide is free and long term (up to 16 weeks), so clients can have the time and luxury of working through their issues at their own pace.
Our 3 counselling rooms are both comfortable and private and are accessed by a separate entrance to ensure client confidentiality.
If you would like to self-refer for some counselling please contact the Centre on 01282 860342
Training
The Centre has a well-equipped training room and is able to facilitate various training programmes with the aim of improving quality of life. We work closely with local training providers to provide free qualifications for our community. For our latest training information please see the posters in the information section.
Self Help & Peer Support
Self Help, Peer Support and Activity Groups
To help improve mental health and wellbeing we provide a range of peer support, self-help and activity groups. By providing such a large range of
groups, activities and educational opportunities we are able to engage with a large amount of people in our community. Our groups also provide people with much needed social inclusion and tackles loneliness in our community.