FUTURE: We recognised some years ago that the state of our building was poor, so neither sustainable nor fit for purpose long-term; we concluded therefore, that determined action would be necessary in order to safeguard the Church’s future and all that we stand for within our community.

For over 10 years we hosted the Wycombe Homeless Connection (WHC) Night Shelter until its closure due to the pandemic. Since then however, our links with the WHC charity have remained strong and our vison is to support their work, and that of the Wycombe Refugee Partnership, by providing affordable accommodation and help for those who are vulnerable, homeless or at risk of homelessness.
 
The availability of such housing not only meets local need but also enables reprovision of our Church facility, both of which signify our commitment to intervene for good in the Oakridge community. Ours is just one of several projects currently in development that follow this model, where Churches seek to redevelop their buildings along with the creation of community-oriented, fully affordable housing, and we are excited to be part of this initiative.
 
The current proposal has taken many years to develop, and has been prepared in consultation with, and support from, a variety of partner organisations including J49 (Registered Provider), Archangel Architects, the Central Baptist Association, Buckinghamshire Council, Wycombe Homeless Connection and Wycombe Refugee Partnership. Other options short of full redevelopment have been considered but they would not relieve us of the considerable maintenance burden, and would severely limit the project in terms of size, scope and funding. 

SOCIAL & ECONOMIC VALUE: The National Churches Trust (NCT) is a grant-giving and Campaigning organisation for Church buildings in the UK. A recent NCT research project demonstrated a conservative value of £55bn of social benefit per year across just under 40,000 Churches (this was published as the House of Good Report), which is an average of £1.4m for each and every Church! Most of that impressive.

£55bn lies in wellbeing initiatives such as food banks, youth clubs etc. While it is not yet possible to derive a tailored estimate of the benefit contributed by a single Church community, given that the principal elements of value relate to social and mental wellbeing, the annual contribution of Oakridge Baptist Church can be expected to be significantly greater than the average annual figure of £1.4m per Church. This social and economic value is core to the significance of us as a Church community.
 
From the very beginning, our Church has always been about more than Sunday worship (very important as that is); from 1902 until 1943, the buildings addressed the key social issue of the day i.e. education. It is appropriate, therefore, for us to reimagine the building to address the key social issue of our day, i.e. the provision of housing. What worked when the building was originally built and subsequently altered, no longer does.
 
PARTNERSHIPS: Our proposed development of integrated Church space and accommodation will include residential units which are not designed as long-term general needs housing but instead, ‘move on’ apartments to be rented on a socially affordable, short term basis. Our partnership with J49 - in discussion with local authority officers, homeless and refugee organisations - we believe, is a fantastic combination of vision and ideals for us as a Church.
 
Oakridge Baptist Church, as freeholders and J49; envisage the accommodation to be an empowering experience for all residents. We are both committed not only to social housing but also to 'creating community’ i.e. a place where people thrive, where there are opportunities to network, grow skills and to reside within a community context with individual living space.
 
The new apartments will become part of a local network of existing relationships giving residents the chance to engage with the community to access services and opportunities around employment and community project involvement that embeds a sense of co-operative living, responsibility and identity.
 
The self-contained units will be fully equipped with shower rooms, kitchens, relaxation areas, hi-tech access systems as well as reliable fast broadband. Creative light solutions will enhance well thought through design to build the wellbeing and welfare of residents. Innovative heating systems will provide a warm and healthy living environment, whilst breaking fuel poverty and cost of living pressures.  We will work alongside J49 to ensure that the living accommodation is of high quality, safe, affordable and eco-friendly.
 
ENVIRONMENT: Biodiversity is important to us and soft landscaping together with an ecologically rated garden space will enhance our new building which will be constructed to very high energy efficiency standards, incorporating photovoltaic panels to the roofs to reduce carbon emissions; opportunities will also be explored for passive solar and similar low carbon technologies.
 
We intend to raise the quality of our new build with regard to internal space and technical standards for dwellings; a three bed flat and terrace will also be included for the use of the Church’s Minister. The existing relationship with rear areas and immediate neighbours' will improve also, for example, by moving the building line and windows significantly away from the boundary.
 
We recognise that currently we have no official parking on site, but this will be improved with the addition of two spaces. We believe this is appropriate because the internal area of our Church facility within the new build will be reduced and, with the exception of the minister’s flat, the accommodation has a zero parking requirement given the nature of this type of housing. While we acknowledge that street parking is limited there is a public car park a short distance away in Desborough Street and covered cycle parking will be provided for residents and users of our Church facility.
 
CREATING COMMUNITY: Our values are rooted in generosity, compassion and integrity with an ongoing commitment to engage with, and support those, who are living on the margins within the Oakridge area particularly.
 
Our Church is already strategically placed, and well respected as a key facility by the Local Authority and other agencies/charities for supporting some of the most vulnerable and needy in our community; and we feel called to develop this further.
 
Our proposed building design will promote healthy, innovative relationships and supportive environments for mentoring, networking and relationship building in order to address issues such as:
 
- Life skills, independent and healthy living
- Social isolation, financial inequality and poverty
- Mental wellbeing, health and personal resilience
- Learning, education, employment and enterprise
- Homelessness and hopelessness
- Social skills and healthy relationships
- Food poverty, information and advice
 
Our vision is to provide integrated community housing in partnership with other established and well respected providers, service agencies and voluntary sector organisations such as Wycombe Homeless Connection and Wycombe Refugee Partnership. In doing so, we aim to cultivate and make provision for ‘creative community living’ to flourish in our area. Our development team’s vast experience of 'creating community' in a variety of contexts gives us a framework for integrating our new Church building into the housing/support context and we are looking forward to working with them on this project.