Churches Tourism Association

The Churches Trust for Cumbria (CTfC) was created in 2008, supported with funding from the North West Development Agency and the National Churches Trust. For more details see their website: ctfc.org.uk

The Trust aims to help churches and their congregations to look at extended use of church buildings, the benefits of tourism, management and training for faith volunteers, maintenance/sustainability, and legal/ownership constraints.

The CTfC website provides advice, resources and links for those responsible for maintaining and improving church buildings

Activities of CTfC in brief:

• The website provides advice, resources and links for those responsible for maintaining and improving church buildings
• Consultancy: where feasible we will assist church communities in developing a long term vision for the use of their assets with the support of local people
• Training and events: we organise and publicise our own and other agencies' training for those caring for church buildings
• Networking: we seek to develop partnerships with organisations to involve churches in positive economic, environmental and social change in Cumbria. We connect people with new partners from the public, voluntary and business sectors, and facilitate sharing of information between churches.

Director (part time) Gina Dowding - Responsible for strategy develop and implementation, facilitating strategic partnerships, financial and regulatory responsibility of the organisation (maintenance of website, and volunteer recruitment).

Historic Buildings Support Officer, Jemma Metcalfe-Gibson - Responsible for project support and development of 10 identified church projects across the County per year.