We’ve secured over £100,000 from the Lottery Community fund!
Wycombe Environment Centre secures Reaching Communities Lottery Funding for its ground breaking community craft shop
Wycombe Environment Centre, that runs the Refresh shop in High Wycombe, has secured over £100,000 over 3 years to run events and save more material from waste.
Refresh is a fabulous volunteer-led upcycling shop stocked with donated goods for re-use as craft material – an inclusive retail space which aims to promote the circular economy and save waste. The shop opens 7 days a week. We moved into new long-term leased premises in January 2026 having set up the first shop in 2022 in the old Chiltern Shopping Centre, taking over stock from the Council’s ‘Resource Zone’ that was closing. “Over the last 4 years we have shown proof of concept and a strong team of 30-40 active volunteers and loyal customers has got us to the place we are in today”, said Karen Bates, one of the Centre’s 7 trustees.
Wycombe Environment Centre was founded in 2001 by local wonderwoman Frances Alexander. So it is a fitting way to celebrate our 25th Anniversary to receive this recognition of the work that we are doing in community building and waste reduction.
Our new, long-term, town centre premises will allow us to expand our reach, increase footfall and lead and develop new activities which unite a community of volunteers and local residents around creative sustainability.
The grant will establish Refresh as a town centre destination for sustainable crafting - connecting a diverse community of sustainable crafters and saving waste. We will build a programme of activities to engage, upskill, learn and connect Wycombe residents through sustainable crafting, repairing and reuse opportunities, workshops and events, alongside a programme of outreach events and activities.
The crucial step that this allows us to take is to move from being a wholly volunteer run organisation, to being able to employ staff, to help us focus on our events, and making sure we are effective in helping to reduce waste.
“We already have really great links across the community”, said Karen. “We work with Talkback, All Saints Church, Wycombe Dementia Action, Bucks New Uni, The Thames Valley Rainbow Trust, Chiltern Rangers, the Front Room, the Museum, Wycombe Arts Centre to name a few. And we have an active schools scheme. But we want to do more. It's amazing what you can do as volunteers, but we need the energy and expertise of staff to take us to the next level” she said.
When the shop opened in 2022 it was just half a day a week. Now it is open 7 days, 10-5, with 1-5 on Sundays. Footfall has increased dramatically since the move to the new location in Church Street. Karen says “for the first time since setting up shop, the preoccupation is not ‘will we survive’ but ‘how do we grow and expand’. Its a lovely position to be in”.