A CHARITY for young adults with learning difficulties has launched an urgent fundraising appeal after being forced to move to make way for a new GP surgery.

Team Domenica, which launched less than a year ago to help young adults with learning difficulties find work, has been told to move out of the building it is renting in the Old Steine, Brighton, after plans for a 12,000 patient doctor’s surgery to take its place emerged.

The charity has taken over a derelict former warehouse in Preston Road - which will offer more space for the project to expand but is in urgent need of investment to bring the facilities up to scratch. An industrial sized kitchen also needs to be installed. It needs to raise £35,000 by the end of August so the building can be ready for when term time begins on September 4.

Founded by campaigner Rosa Monckton, the centre is a place where adults can study and learn skills to get jobs. It has a café run by students which is open to the public and is named after her daughter Domenica - a goddaughter of Princess Diana - who has Down’s syndrome.

Ms Monckton said the £1.6 million GP surgery was “desperately needed”, adding: “We had a lease for three years and the council always had the opportunity to break it in a year. So we are now moving our training centre to Preston Road. It is a derelict building so it needs a lot of work. We have already received a pledge for match funding if we raise half of our target.”

The Old Steine café has closed but re-opens at the beginning of September until December 17 in the Old Steine building. It will then close ready for building work to begin in January but has been permitted to return to the site in September 2018. This will run alongside a much larger café on the Preston Road site which will open all year round.

She said: “The council has been hugely supportive in allowing our café to come back. It will be brilliant.”

The industrial kitchen particularly will be a huge asset because there are a number of keen cooks among the students, she said, adding: “We have learnt a lot in the last year.

“We’re very pleased to be able to come back to run the café next year - it will be our second café with our Preston Road site being our main one. We found our students tended to get a bit lost in the holidays so wanted something they could work on all year round.”

The charity is due to take on more than 30 candidates.

So far four have found employment, at the University of Sussex, Brighton Palace Pier and working for the Co-operative.

To donate visit uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fund/teamdomenicaprestonroad