Adult Education Charity, Aspire Sussex, to close after 10 years of serving West Sussex residents
Aspire Sussex, West Sussex’s leading charity providing Adult Community Education courses, has taught its final lesson as it becomes the latest charity to close its doors due to the crippling impact of the current economic climate.
After delivering adult education programmes across West Sussex for the last 10 years, the charity is unable to continue trading due to the devastating impact of the combination of Covid and the cost-of-living crisis on its operations. Restrictions imposed during Covid dramatically hit numbers of learners, with the charity depleting its financial reserves in maintaining services to its most vulnerable clients through the pandemic period. Its recovery has been curtailed by the subsequent cost-of-living crisis, directly impacting availability of additional financial income and those able to pay for the cost of their courses. As a result, the charity will cease operations and classes as of Wednesday 9th November 2022 and will expect to enter administration on Tuesday 15th November.
Commenting on its decision to close, Chair of Trustees Dr. Norman Boyland said, “This is a deeply sad day for the provision of Adult Education to the residents of West Sussex, particularly those most vulnerable in our communities who we support. On behalf of the Trustees, I would simply just like to say thank you to all our learners who we have had the pleasure of teaching, to our partners, and to the many staff and tutors who have provided first class training on behalf of Aspire Sussex over the last 10 years”
The charity has supported more than 30,000 learners over the past decade since its inception from across all communities within West Sussex. It has delivered hundreds of thousands of hours of training and education, covering subjects across the spectrum. From maths and English, digital skills and English for Speakers of Other Languages, through to languages, arts, craft, health and wellbeing classes. It has also supported a thriving community of Adults with Learning Disabilities across the county, alongside being instrumental in enabling the integration of hundreds of refugees from Afghanistan and Ukraine into local communities through tailored English provision.
The staff and tutors of Aspire Sussex have been proud to serve West Sussex’s residents, improving the lives of so many, raising ability and aspiration, enabling social inclusion, and building brighter communities.