A NEW community centre which has been four years in the making is set to open its doors in Halesowen next week.

Halesowen and Dudley Yemeni Community Association have spent the last 10 years raising more than £1 million to fund the centre in Highfield Lane.

Local residents, as well as dignitaries including councillors, MPs and the Mayor of West Midlands, have all been invited to attend a special opening celebration, which will get underway at 11am on Friday, April 13.

Marwan Bakaili, chairman of Halesowen and Dudley Yemeni Community Association, hopes the new centre will “bring the whole community together”.

He said: “We decided to build a new centre as our old one was getting too small and was no longer meeting our needs, so we needed a bigger space.

“We do a lot of work in partnership with the local community, especially Halesowen College, and we provide educational clubs, as well as GCSE evening classes.

“Our work as an educational centre will be able to grow with the new centre, and we could offer greater provision and youth clubs for people from across the whole community.

“We also have strong links with local churches and other faiths, where we work together for the good of our community.

“This centre will be for all of the community, where we can come together and understand each other’s culture.”

Members from the police, local colleges and schools and other faith leaders are also being invited to celebrate the opening of the self-funded £1m centre.

After kicking off their fundraising for over a decade ago, the first stages of the centre's building work got underway in 2013.

Mr Bakaili added: “We have not received any money from the council or government, it has all been self-funded by members of the Yemini Community Association, the community and individual donations.

“It has taken a very long time to raise all the money and we have been building the centre in stages using the money that we had.

“I would like to thank all the people who have provided funds as this project would not have been achieved without the support and wonderful generosity of the Yemeni Community and the anonymous donors.”

More information about the Yemeni Community Association can be found at www.yca-halesowen.org.uk. Community groups who wish to use the centre can contact Mr Bakaili on 0121 585 1261, 07855 019961 or email info@yca-halesowen.org.uk.