The Green Hub Project for Teens has been gifted Head Offices for the next six years in Station House at Witley Station, courtesy of the Community Team at South Western Railway. The Green Hub team moved in during June and celebrated with a Grand Opening on 5th September, attended by the Mayor of Waverley and many other key supporters.
Vanessa Lanham-Day, Co-founder of the Green Hub commented; “This time last year we were looking for somewhere to store our accumulated bits and pieces. Who could have imagined that, one year later, we would be celebrating our Grand Opening of our shiny new HQ in Station House at Witley Station. Thanks to the considerable generosity of South Western Railway, we now have our own head offices at a peppercorn rent for the next six years. This has made such a difference to us, and our ability to support young people locally.
“The offices have arrived at exactly the right time for us, now that we have employed a professional staff of five people to help us build a sustainable service that supports our teens and families in Surrey. We couldn’t be more grateful.”
Combined with the generosity of local companies (Hotel Plan in Farnborough, Wizard Video in Witley and Mitchell & Evans in Godalming) the Green Hub team didn’t need to pay for furnishing the space either, with volunteers literally doing all the heavy lifting on removals day.
Vanessa was keen to thank key Councillors at Surrey County Council for their support too: “A giant THANK YOU too to Cllr Penny Rivers, Mayor of Waverley, who cut the ribbon for us, as well as supporting our funding through Surrey County Council. Their input has covered the costs of all our technology and other set up costs”.
Green Hub has adopted Witley station
An unexpected development at the new Witley offices was for Green Hub to adopt the station, meaning that there is now a team of volunteers overseeing creating the Green Hub Wellbeing Garden at Witley Station. Vanessa was keen to let local people know that they are very welcome to visit and to get involved.
As Vanessa explained, adopting the station makes sense for Green Hub in many ways:
- It’s a great way to connect with the local community and spread the Green Hub message wider
- It offers a calm space for locals and commuters to enjoy, in keeping with Green Hub’s core ethos
- It brings funding opportunities with it – South Western Railway and the Community Rail Network are both highly supportive
- And it’s a great way for adult volunteers to enjoy connecting with one another
See their amazing transformation so far here: Wellbeing Garden transformation at Witley Station
If people are interested in getting involved at Witley, or any other aspect of the project, they can find all the details at Green Hub’s website: greenhub.org.uk
