Sixth form students help community centre to secure future

Two Abingdon sixth form students have volunteered at a community centre as it works to cope with financial pressures.

Marcham Community Centre approached Abingdon School at the start of the academic year, seeking assistance from the school's students with marketing.

Business students Max and Oliver volunteered and have supported the centre to deal with issues such as financial difficulties due to inflation and poor facility use.

Jim Asher, trustee director and chairman of Marcham Community Centre, said: "Having Abingdon School involved with our local community facility project has been tremendous.

"The Marcham Centre is an invaluable asset for our village and its long term sustainability is a key goal for the trustees to manage.

"The analysis and recommendations provided by Max and Oliver have given us much to consider as part of our long term planning.

"Great work and very much appreciated by all the trustees."

The two students worked on a strategy to bolster income and preserve the centre's future, communicating directly with the centre's trustees and visiting the facilities to gather first hand insights.

They then used their findings to formulate a marketing strategy to optimise the centre's potential and highlighted strategies to optimise resource usage during a presentation to the trustees.

Additionally, they carried out research into industry best practices, using other community centres as benchmarks to guide their recommendations on pricing, advertising, and facility management.