The Church Street Project

The Glass Wipe Board Company and Charities

Just like us, The Church Street Project a local charity in Folkestone is making a difference to the local community, by offering on site counselling in schools for children and their parents.It all started in 2004 when Children's Fund money was put into Folkestone schools, where young people were awaiting counselling and a counsellor was set up in Church Street next to St Eanswythes School. As it turned out, the school was really impressed with the counselling and various therapies on offer, but unfortunately, the funding eventually ran out, without the counsellor being able to complete counselling sessions. The school decided to pay for those session in order for children to be able to finish their counselling, which gave them time to secure funding. Kent Community Foundation decided to help out and the Church Street Project was born and it became a registered charity in 2006. They are currently working in 5 local primary schools and are piloting parent sessions, to benefit the family dynamic, which will follow on from child based work for parents that are interested.

Why Are We Writing About It, You Wonder?

To explain, we have to go back a bit and tell you about our involvement with TEDxFolkestone. As mentioned above, we like to get involved with the local community and when Aaron Dewhurst was asked to get involved with a new event called TEDxFolkestone in 2017, he didn’t hesitate and we have been sponsoring the event ever since. In 2019, a local artist called Shane Record was part of this year’s event and performed a speed painting live on stage. The completed painting was put up for auction for all TEDxFolkestone attendance to bid on, with the money from the highest bidder to go to The Church Street Project.

You might have guessed it already, but as you can see from the above picture of our breakout area, our CEO Aaron Dewhurst’s bid turned out to be the winning one. Not only is the painting a great addition to our office, but it will also help this great charity to offer counselling for those in the community who need it.

If you would like to get involved with The Church Street Project or just find out more about them, then take a look at their website https://www.thechurchstreetproject.org/ or get in touch with Mary Paterson on 01303 264195.