Help The Circle raise £6,500 to repair and re-open Dudhope Castle’s only accessible toilet!
We have launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise funds to carry out urgent repairs to the accessible toilet in our headquarters at Dudhope Castle.
https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/dignity-in-design-the-circles-accessible-toilet
In early January, The Circle’s team discovered that the toilet was unsafe to be used, with the floor having rotted as a result of a leak. The toilet is currently falling through the floor and the floor is disintegrating; it needs urgent work. The way the toilet was designed is also not compliant for wheelchair users to access it with ease.
The Circle at Dudhope Castle sees hundreds of visitors every week, providing access to vital services for the community including disabled people, vulnerable young people and people with mental health conditions. The hub also has an event space which is booked regularly for public and private events. While the disabled toilet is closed off, The Circle is using equipment to make one of their standard toilets more accessible.
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.”
As a community hub, creating a safe and inclusive environment is so important to us. Many of our tenants serve clients with disabilities, or work with staff and volunteers with disabilities. One of our busiest tenants is Uppertunity, which runs various social, therapeutic and educational groups for adults with learning disabilities, autism, mental health barriers and other additional support needs. Uppertunity is one of their main and sometimes only sources of socialisation, and many of their members require access to an accessible toilet. It is so vital to have access to a toilet, which for all of us, is a basic human right. Without this, many individuals cannot socialise.
Uppertunity’s Founder, Danielle Gaffney du Plooy, says: “Uppertunity have always been based in physical places that are physically accessible, and also respectful. The Circle are both of these things, and we love being part of it. However, the only accessible toilet in the whole building has now broken. 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. It has also made the team and volunteers anxious as we are frustrated that we can’t support all our clients, which we all love doing.”
Like many organisations, especially in the third sector, The Circle has been hit hard by surging energy prices and inflation. Last year, we went through a restructuring process and had to make redundancies to keep our doors open. Despite this, we are determined to continue serving our community and want to get the disabled toilet open again as soon as possible which is why we have launched this crowdfunding campaign.
The crowdfunding campaign has gone live today and will be running for 4 weeks, ending on Monday 4th 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 support the fundraiser here: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/dignity-in-design-the-circles-accessible-toilet