CommuniShop will close next month after four years serving East Reading Phil Creighton
A charity is planning to close its store to enable it to concentrate on enhancing its services to the public.
CommuniCare, which offers advice and support to people who need help with everything from form filling to legal advice, will shut its London Road, east Reading store CommuniShop, at the end of November.
Opened four years ago, CommuniShop’s aim was to boost the way in which CommuniCare related to the community, raising awareness and giving people the opportunity to volunteer.
In a statement released by the trustees of CommuniCare, the charity feels that these goals have been successfully met. Now that the support centre, based behind Wycliffe Baptist Church, is expanding its services from four to five days a week, the charity wants to focus on its work rather than the store. The charity has also launched an advice surgery in the CCA store in Oxford Road.
The statement said: “The Trustees have decided that the time is right to close CommuniShop, our charity shop in London Road.”
It continues: “In view of the increasing demand for our information, advice and support services, which are CommuniCare’s main function, and our exciting plans to meet this demand, we no longer consider the shop to be sustainable.”
The store has been open for nearly four years and the trustees statement says that it hasn’t been able to support the work of CommuniCare in the way envisaged when it launched.
The statement said: “In practice some CommuniCare funds have had to be used to support CommuniShop.”
The store’s closure will be marked with a special celebration event, for the local community and to thank supporters, customers, donors, volunteers and staff.
A Facebook page aimed at keeping Communishop open has been launched and has had 74 likes at the time of going to press.
For more details, log on to www.communicare.org.uk.
Last modified on Wednesday, 08 October 2014 12:25
