A popular activity centre in Canning Town that was previously set-up after a generous £36,000 donation from Sharon Kaur of Sahara Care is to undergo an extensive makeover.
The Terence Brown Arc will welcome significant expansion and improvements following a new charity partnership with international construction firm, Mace.
The youth hub in Hermit Road Park, Canning Town, was recently reopened under its new name following a donation of £36,000 from Sahara Care’s Sharon Kaur.
Sharon Kaur, Managing Director of the leading Sahara Care group and a Trustee of AAA, the organisation behind the Arc, named the centre in honour of Sahara’s Chairman, Terence Brown.
AAA, which stands for Ambition, Aspire, Achieve, is a new young people’s organisation in east London which aims to provide new opportunities and sustained positive outcomes for local youngsters.
The launch of the recently refurbished centre also drew the attention of West Ham’s Chairmen David Sullivan and David Gold, who also donated money to the centre, which has since led to contributions by Mace, an organisation which employs more than 4,000 people across five continents with a turnover in excess of £1 billion.
At the Arc, the Mace group is due to carry out 12 different construction processes, worth an estimated £300,000 in total, to improve the facility.
The project was kick-started in August with a volunteer day involving more than 40 Mace staff and some of their colleagues from their supply chain, during which they completely repainted all the adventure play structures at the Arc.
Other planned works, which are being conducted free of charge to the centre, range from a floodlit all-weather pitch to a new mezzanine floor in the main building.
Speaking about the generous donation by Mace and AAA’s other supporters, Kevin Jenkins OBE, the group’s founder said: “Without the core support given to AAA by Sharon Kaur and Terence of Sahara Care, we would not be in this position – attracting substantial pro-bona support from Mace and making a real difference by changing the lives of the disadvantaged, vulnerable and at-risk children that we work with daily.”
Manging Director and Founder of Sahara Care, Sharon Kaur, added: “We are delighted that our ongoing support of AAA has led to this project getting underway with Mace.
Sharon added: “Everyone in the community is really getting behind this centre and it is fantastic to see that AAA and the Terence Brown Arc have bright futures ahead of them.”