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South Leeds: Behind the Scenes at Tenants Hall Enterprise Centre
OPEN SPACE: Kathryn Scarr, facility business development co-ordinator at Tenants Hall Enterprise Centre with Ian Rodley, of Dazl who use the facilities.
Aspiring entrepreneurs are already making the most of a state-of-the-art community space.
Just three months into its existence, the new Tenants Hall Enterprise Centre, in Acre Close, Middleton, is proving a hub for growing enterprise.
The £1.6m Leeds City Council-owned building’s business advisors are visited by five or six new aspiring businessmen or women every week.
Managed by the Health for All charity, the centre is also looking to aid access to employability and basic skills training.
Kathryn Scarr, Health for All’s facilities business development coordinator, said: “We are trying to break down the barriers so that things are accessible to people.
“The entrepreneurial spirit is definitely here, last year we engaged with 750 people in south Leeds who were interested in enterprise.”
She said she hopes more local groups will use the centre through a “two-way partnership” of communication.
Boasting offices, meeting rooms and an IT suite, the centre is a base for organisations like Youth Inspire, Connexions and Leeds Chamber of Commerce.
Amy Tolliday, Connexions area manager based at the centre, said: “For our service this building has been fantastic, it has put us right in the heart of one of the communities that we work with.”
Connexions offers support and advice to people, aged 16 to 19, who are out of education, employment or training.
The centre, funded by central government and the European Union European Regional Development Fund, rents out work space, meeting rooms and its main hall to businesses and community groups.
Ian Rodley, director of Tenants Hall-based Dance Action Zone Leeds, which uses the centre’s hall for dance events, said: “To have that facility is worth its weight in gold for an organisation like us.”
He said DAZL, famed for its male cheerleading, is putting a bid to the Arts Council to have dance leaders, aged 17 to 25, trained up with dance qualifications and business skills to set up their own dance groups.
Mr Rodley added: “We want to cultivate that interest so they can work across the city and beyond.”
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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