A Community Resource

The XCentre is part of the Exeter Foyer project, owned and managed by the Guinness Partnership. Exeter Foyer provides housing and support to young people, helping them move into independent living. The XCentre is part of that support, offering access to creative media such as music production and film, as well as opportunities to develop living and employability skills.

We don’t just support Foyer residents but work with agencies across Exeter and beyond, to enable a wide range of groups to benefit from our facilities. Our work has included animation, drumming, cooking, ICT, photography, music production, animal care, budgeting and more, delivering to groups and individuals with learning disabilities, aspergers, homelessness, economic exclusion and many other situations which can prevent people having full access to life’s opportunities.

A Business Resource

The business sector also help our work by hiring our Conference Room, Lounge or ICT. In light of the growing awareness of corporate social responsibility, the XCentre offers an important opportunity in enabling businesses to support communities, while always delivering the benefit of our first class facilities and customer service.

From meetings and training in the Conference Room, to internet access or Photoshop classes in the media suite, the XCentre offers a wide choice where you can simply using the equipment, or get support, advice or tuition from our in-house expert. We can offer introductory classes in Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, InDesign, Final Cut, Logic Studio, iMovie, Garageband, iPhoto, iDVD, Mac’s, Stop-motion animation, Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, Outlook, using the internet, Social Networking and blogging and a range of open-source and web based applications. Best of all, every penny spent on learning goes to support the community.

An Historic Building

The XCentre is the conversion of a dryhouse originally built around 1750, and part of the historic Cricklepit Mill site. The mill, now also converted by Devon Wildlife

Trust into a visitors centre, once produced cloth, which would have been hung to dry in the dryhouse. The building has been restored to retain its original layout and many of the original beams and fittings, and you can still see the tenter hooks on which the cloth was hung. There are information boards in the centre and people may visit purely to find out more about its history. We have had visits from architects and schools interested in the building, and we take part each year in the Heritage Open Days, offering organised public visits.