These can be arranged with organisations such as the CAB and the Volunteer Centre.

Room hire at the Community House

There are two rooms available for hire on an hourly or daily basis. These can be used for meetings, training sessions or children's parties. Due to parking restrictions, priority is given to Sandhills residents for the use of these rooms. Please contact the Community House for further details. Please contact the Community House for further details. 

Who's who at the Community House

Lucy Crayk - Community Development Officer. Lucy works with the Sandhills residents organising activities and helping them to become more involved in their local community.

Vicki Drummond - Partnerships Officer. Vicki's role is to develop partnerships with organisations from all sectors and to keep everyone up to date with events at the Community House.

Jo Divney - Programme Co-ordinator. Jo is responsible for the smooth running of all the activities and events taking place at the Community House.

Maggi Perry - Community Café Co-ordinator. Maggi is the resident chef and runs the Community Café.

The Sandhills Community Action Project

This project has been running for over a year. To read more about the success of the project please read the Annual Review.

The Sandhills Community Project was established to develop the area of Sandhills in Leighton Buzzard as a sustainable community. This involves advocating on behalf of the Sandhills residents, as well as creating and delivering new social infrastructure to address their needs.

Project Core Values
There are six core values underpinning the project:

1. Social inclusion - a sense of belonging where people from different backgrounds feel valued for the part they can play in making their community a better to place to live, as well as having the ability to network beyond their own neighbourhood.
2. Participatory governance - enabling citizens, individually and collectively, to identify their needs and to have a greater say in decisions that affect their community's well-being.
3. Empowerment - individuals, groups and communities are empowered to take control of their future and are able to take action with reducing levels of external support.
4. Community self-help and support - building confidence and the capacity of individuals and groups to plan and deliver community-led activities and programmes to meet local needs through structures that are supported and maintained from within the community.
5. Partnership working - public, private, voluntary and community service providers are coordinated and there is a commitment to open, honest and effective communications between the community and service providers to build trust and effective relationships.
6. Learning - action research and other systems for monitoring, reflection, evaluation and learning provide evidence-based practice and outcomes that inform future delivery of social infrastructure.

Strategic Outcomes and Objectives
There are three strategic outcomes for the project:

1. Residents living at, or moving into, Sandhills will have their information needs clearly identified and met so that they can access local services and improve their well-being.
2. Sandhills residents will feel less isolated or lonely as a result of having participated in new social networks, activities or other services offered at the Community House.
3. Sandhills residents will be more actively involved in their community as a result of being able to participate in new community activities, forums and groups, and through local volunteering opportunities.

These out comes are underpinned by the following objectives:

1. To utilise the Community House as a base for developing a programme of activities and other services, designed to reduce the social isolation of residents and enable them to become actively involved in their community, which is planned, organised and delivered in partnership with residents and local service providers.
2. To identify and meet the information needs of new and existing residents, increase their knowledge of local services, including those delivered through the project; and enable residents to access local services and improve their well-being.
3. To enable residents to take an interest in, and engage with, local issues affecting them or their community through local forums, consultations and other media.
4. To promote and develop volunteering, and enable residents to access local volunteering opportunities.
5. To empower residents to lead, create, develop and sustain new social networks, cultural activities and community groups.
6. To manage the project in a way that makes best use of the resources available.
7. To identify the lessons learned from evidence-based practice and outcomes to inform the future delivery of social infrastructure and support the development of new sustainable communities within Central Bedfordshire.

Sandhills Community House is operated by Voluntary and Community Action (Charity No. 1108879) on behalf of Central Bedfordshire Council. The Sandhills Community Action Project is managed by Voluntary and Community Action on behalf of the Southern Leighton Buzzard Partnership.

Back to top of page