Eastside Community Trust is landlord to two nurseries run by Raised In – Raised in Bristol at Easton Community Centre and Raised in Bristol at Felix Road Adventure Playground.
Raised In is a not-for-personal-profit social enterprise dedicated to providing first rate early years education whilst supporting community organisations.
Their first ever nursery opened at Easton Community Centre in 2017 when part of the centre was repurposed as a nursery space. The centre was struggling financially and the opening of the nursery enabled the centre to stay in community ownership. Since then, the nursery has been an anchor tenant paying rent which provides much needed income for the community centre.
In 2020, Easton Community Centre merged with Up Our Street and Felix Road Adventure Playground to form Eastside Community Trust. In 2021, Eastside opened a second nursery with Raised In – a brand new bespoke building at Felix Road Adventure Playground.
Both nurseries are a key part of Eastside’s sustainability as their rental income helps support the running of the community spaces enabling them to remain open and accessible for local people.
The nurseries also provide an essential service for local working families by providing much needed childcare as well as employment and training opportunities for local people.
As well as paying rent, Raised In had an aspiration to share a portion of the nursery profits with the community host organisation. Since 2017 this has been challenging as the twin financial pressures of COVID and inflation make business difficult for many. The childcare sector has been facing rising costs with funding failing to keep pace, and staffing pressures making it an extremely challenging business to operate.
Despite this, Raised In remains committed to its core purpose of supporting community organisations and in 2025 made their first donation of £20,000 to Eastside Community Trust from the Raised in Easton nursery. Eventually, Eastside Community Trust will receive up to £40,000 a year on top of rental income which will go towards core running costs and investing in the buildings.
This marks a huge milestone for Eastside and Raised In. It has been a long journey with both partners investing time and money into their joint enterprise. In 2025 Eastside and Raised In are signing a new lease at Raised in Bristol at Easton Community Centre which will see the nursery as a secure tenant for a further 20 years.
We want to take this opportunity to thank everyone at Raised In and all the families who help make this possible. We also want to thank the funders and investors who believed in this idea and provided financial support for Eastside and Raised In to make it happen.
For more information on Raised In visit https://www.raisedin.org.uk/about-us
