Around the time of the new millennium the then Priest in Charge of Christ Church the Revd. Bob Mackrill (an architect in a previous life) had a vision to turn the old water tank on which the church was built into a bright and welcoming self contained facility with the purpose of providing a range of services to support the neediest in the community across the full breadth of age ranges.

This development built on the well established pastoral support to the wider community that had been established when the church was first built in the mid 1960’s

The Access and Learning Centre opened in November 2005

The objective:
to combat loneliness and to give individuals of all ages a sense of self worth, of belonging in the community and hope for the future.

The Access and learning Centre, the fruit of over five years fund raising and construction work has broadened the scope of our community support significantly. Christ Church now operates five social outreach projects which target the most needy across the age ranges in a broad variety of ways.
Membership registration with these groups now approaches 1000 people.

The projects are managed by a team of eight who co-ordinate the activities of 140 volunteers working on these social outreach projects. We provide volunteers with appropriate training and support to suit their individual roles. All those working with vulnerable groups are CRB checked.

This work is funded and supported by national and local trusts plus the wider community and local commerce to deliver the range of services

We work in partnership with many other agencies active in the community;.
Some of the agencies and other organisations we work with on a very regular basis include:

• Stamford Children’s Centre
• Bluecoat primary School
• Cummins Generator Technologies
• Community Police
• WEA
• Stamford Childminders
• NCMA
• SHYP Trust (trust to support homeless young people)
• Stamford Queen Eleanor School
• Connexions
• Evergreen Care Trust
• Jobcentre Plus
• Stamford Resource Centre
• Rutland Adult Learning
• CAB
• Other training and mentoring support agencies via StartaFresh