Rebecca Houlding, Operations Manager at New Wortley Community Centre, spoke to us about providing a warm space to the communities of Armley: New Wortley Community Centre first opened its doors as a Warm Space back in November.

“We have had to do a lot of learning and listening with our communities to make things work; we had the warm, welcoming space there for people to access, people could access a hot meal for free, but we were getting very low numbers, maybe 3 or 4 people a time.”

Becky explains that it wasn’t until their community workers had conversations with people in the local community that they began to understand some of the barriers to accessing the Warm Space.

 “It’s about being labelled,” said Becky; people didn’t want to be seen going to the warm space as they didn’t want people to know that they couldn’t afford to feed themselves or heat their homes.

“Some families are just too proud; many in-work families face pressure and stigma that they have never felt before. We had to think out of the box, says Becky; the key was making the activities fun and not just focusing on being a warm space.

NWCC learned that many adults would prefer a space that could provide peace and quiet, away from young children, whereas many families were asking for activities for children.

“We now run two sessions, Becky explains, they do provide a warm space and hot food, but they are based around other activities.”

 “We run a film club for adults, and it’s good fun; we polled on Facebook weekly, and the local community can vote for which film they want to watch. We also run out the Young Explorers session each week (astutely timed to cater for families when the local nursery finishes). It provides warm, healthy food and also activities for families and young people.

The key is also to encourage families into the whole support that we can offer at NWCC; it’s more than having something to eat; it’s having the staff and volunteers around to support and signpost and offer people the full range of services and activities we run here at NWCC.

Leeds City Council has allocated funding from the West Yorkshire Mayor’s Cost Of Living Emergency Fund to support organisations that wish to operate Warm Spaces this winter. This fund is being administered by Voluntary Action Leeds (VAL) find out more here: 

#WarmwelcomeLeeds

By Claire Graham
(VAL Project Worker)

Voluntary Action Leeds