05 Feb 2024
Help The Circle raise £6,500 to repair and re-open Dudhope Castle’s only accessible toilet!
The Circle, an award-winning social enterprise which rents workspaces to community groups, charities and social enterprises at its Dudhope Castle base, has launched a crowdfunding campaign today (Monday 5 February) to urgently repair the building’s only accessible toilet.
https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/dignity-in-design-the-circles-accessible-toilet
The accessible toilet has been declared unsafe to use since severe damage caused by a leak was discovered last month (NB: January).
The Circle is aiming to raise £6,500 to fix the vitally needed amenity as soon as possible.
Founder and CEO of The Circle, Kirsty Thomson, says: “A broken toilet might sound like a small problem, but until it is repaired there is a danger that some of our most vulnerable clients will be unable to access vital support and services.”
Since The Circle moved into Dudhope Castle, which previously housed Dundee City Council’s Social Work Department, in 2022, the building has become a thriving community hub at full capacity with 11 charities, social enterprises, community groups and businesses based there.
The Circle and its tenants at Dudhope Castle provide vital services to the community including disabled people, vulnerable young people and people with mental health conditions. The building, which is visited by hundreds of people every week, also has an event space which is booked regularly for public and private events.
While the accessible toilet is unavailable, visitors must choose between using a less appropriate facility, or staying away. For some, this means not accessing services that are vital to their wellbeing.
One tenant at The Circle is Uppertunity, a charity that runs social, therapeutic and educational groups for adults with learning disabilities, autism, mental health barriers or other additional support needs. Some of their members require access to a disabled toilet and Uppertunity is a key part of their social lives.
Uppertunity’s Founder, Danielle Gaffney du Plooy, says: “This has had a huge impact on us in this short period as it has caused some of our clients to reduce their services with us while we wait for it to be fixed. This then not only impacts that person, but their family, and also their friends at Uppertunity.”
Like many organisations, especially in the third sector, The Circle has been hit hard by surging energy prices and inflation. Last year, they went through a restructuring and had to make redundancies to remain open. Despite this, they are determined to continue serving their community and want to get their disabled toilet open again as soon as possible which is why they have launched this crowdfunding campaign.
The crowdfunding campaign has gone live today and will be running for 4 weeks, ending on Monday 4 March. The Circle team will be reaching out to their community to ask for support to complete this much needed repair work and help them maintain an inclusive space at their Dudhope Castle hub.
You can keep up with The Circle’s fundraising efforts and support them here: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/dignity-in-design-the-circles-accessible-toilet
