Peterborough CAB

After 20 years within an historic building in the center of the city, Peterborough Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) had outgrown its home. Upon finding more appropriate premises, Keith Jones, chief exective of Peterborough CAB went to Unity Bank to raise the finances. Unable to help, due to the required loan being less than the organisation's lower limit, Unity Bank referred Peterborough CAB to Foundatuion East. The rest is history. Or is ti the future?

Peterborough CAB had been struggling with the various challenges of being located within an historic building dating back to 1850 for 20 years. Its lease expiring coinciding with new Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) compliancy issues and a growing need to find more diverse funding schemes seemed like a great opportunity to chief executive  Keith Jones and so his hunt for the perfect premises began.

It did not take long before he discovered such premises in St Mark's Street. Although they were further away from the city centre than the established premises, they offered up to date technology, the space and infrastructure to allow them to develop seperate areas for the administration/office management, training and private interviewing. Better still they are close to the Job Centre Plus, a resource used by many of CAB's clients.

"Foundation East's loan helped us with the relocation costs. Relocating has benefitted us in many ways. not only are we now DDA compliant, we can offer staff and clients a more comforatable environment here. This building also gives us the opportunity to grow, in fact survive, since our survival is becoming increasingly linked to our ability to apply for diverse funding streams.Such streams relate to offering new services, such as training, services which we simply could not deliver in the old premises and services which the people of Peterborough needs", explains Keith.

Peter Davis, Business Loans Manager at Foundation East picks up the story.

"The loan not only secured 28 jobs, it has also directly led to the employment of 3 new staff members.  This, together with the development of new diverse services meeting the changing needs of Peterborough's diverse community persuaded our loans assesment panel that it met all of the EEDA supported Small Loans for Business funding criteria. We are totally confident that Peterborough CAB can now continue to meet their clients future needs, something they simply could not have done in the previous premises".