We are delighted to announce that TAB has moved into some newly refurbished premises in the centre of Abingdon! Our HQ and Registered Office will remain at 19 Bridge Street but all our work with young people will now be at the new TAB Centre in The Market Place – above The Coventry Building Society. The empty offices have been transformed into a suite of counselling consulting rooms and also provides us with additional office space, meeting rooms and a working kitchen where we can continue to create healthy meals as part of our Healthy Lifestyles programme!
All this has been achieved by a partnership between TAB and The Coventry Building Society. When it became known that we needed larger additional premises in the centre of the town, staff at the Abingdon branch of the building society immediately thought of the empty offices above their branch near the iconic County Hall in Abingdon’s historic Market Place.
Our Centre Manager, Gary Hibbins, is delighted with the move.
“This could not have come at a better time. We have never been so busy. The lockdown has created some enormous pressures for young people – some of which are only beginning to emerge.
These new facilities in the centre of the town will enable us to meet the increasing demand for our services. As soon as the lockdown restrictions are lifted, we are ready to go! Although we have been working remotely with young people, we know that most of them prefer face to face contact.”
TAB has been supporting young people in the area for over 25 years. In 2019, it was presented with The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service by the Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire, Mr Tim Stevenson. It was at that event when Chris Bryan who was the Chair of the Trustees at that time, alerted the local community of the need for larger premises for TAB. Since then, TAB has been using The Charter Building in The Precinct until our new Centre in The Market Place was being given a complete make-over and ready to use.
Dr Gill Dean, the Chair of the Trustees at TAB, expressed her appreciation to everyone who has made this possible.
“This has been a really exciting project. We have been looking for additional premises for some time and we were thrilled when the Coventry Building Society made us this offer. The refurbishment has cost £120,000 but all this has been funded by grants from charitable trusts along with donations from some very generous benefactors. This means that our work with young people carried on as usual with the dedicated funding donated specifically for that work. With these new premises, we can now expand our work to meet the increased demand.”
Where is it?
We are above The Coventry Building Society. There is a blue door to the right of the building society which takes you up to reception on the 1st floor. Access is controlled so press the bell to speak to Reception and the door will be released. We have also installed CCTV to improve security.
TAB HQ: Our Headquarters and Registered Address remains at 9 Bridge Street. In future, all our work with young people will now be at The TAB Centre at 3 Market Place.
Open Day: We hope to have an Open Day at our new Centre in the summer. Details to follow.