Play centre hails parent job success
By Rachael Doeg on Thursday, 3rd May 2001.
A CHILDCARE centre in Haverhill has enabled more than 30 parents to start work or training and is aiming to expand.
Cartwheels was launched in July 1999 after residents in the town's Clements ward called for a childcare facility in the area.
Since it opened, around 30 per cent of the parents whose children attend the Camps Road play centre have found new work or training opportunities.
Supervisor Perri Butler said: "Parents used to come here with no confidence and they have turned into confident people who are going out to work and are really proud of it.
"They're earning their own money and their families have become so much stronger because of it."
Around 100 children attend the centre every day and there are another 50 on the waiting list.
St Edmundsbury Council, which helped set up the centre, is working with the management group of parents and supporters to find additional premises or win funding to extend the centre.
Cartwheels is open 51 weeks a year, 10 hours a day, and runs breakfast, lunch, afternoon and holiday clubs. The children are dropped off at school and collected.
Mum Lisa Lewis, 27, said: "I was stuck at home and would just sit on the sofa all day. My health worker told me about this place and I sent my two boys and spent a year training.
"I'm now an accounts manager at Haverhill Electrical. I feel 100 per cent better and I'm happy to leave the kids there it's like a big family."
Suffolk county councillor Maggie Lee, whose children use the centre, said: "I could not do without it. It is flexible, local and affordable."
Cartwheels was launched in July 1999 after residents in the town's Clements ward called for a childcare facility in the area.
Since it opened, around 30 per cent of the parents whose children attend the Camps Road play centre have found new work or training opportunities.
Supervisor Perri Butler said: "Parents used to come here with no confidence and they have turned into confident people who are going out to work and are really proud of it.
"They're earning their own money and their families have become so much stronger because of it."
Around 100 children attend the centre every day and there are another 50 on the waiting list.
St Edmundsbury Council, which helped set up the centre, is working with the management group of parents and supporters to find additional premises or win funding to extend the centre.
Cartwheels is open 51 weeks a year, 10 hours a day, and runs breakfast, lunch, afternoon and holiday clubs. The children are dropped off at school and collected.
Mum Lisa Lewis, 27, said: "I was stuck at home and would just sit on the sofa all day. My health worker told me about this place and I sent my two boys and spent a year training.
"I'm now an accounts manager at Haverhill Electrical. I feel 100 per cent better and I'm happy to leave the kids there it's like a big family."
Suffolk county councillor Maggie Lee, whose children use the centre, said: "I could not do without it. It is flexible, local and affordable."
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