Thank you for offering to open your doors to create a Welcome Space for people in your community.   

We believe that locally trusted organisations are in the best place to deliver support by offering a warm, welcome and safe space for people to come when they want time out of the house for a coffee, a chat, to make new friends or to do an activity.  

In this guidance, you will find information, draft documents and tips for running a welcoming and inclusive Welcome Space.  

Applications for Welcome Spaces 2024 – 25 have closed.

Contact welcomespaces@val.org.uk if you have any questions.

 

Joining the Network  

Any organisation meeting the minimum eligibility criteria set out in our Charter below, for a safe, welcoming space can register as part of the network and be listed as a Welcome Space on Leeds Directory (see below).  

Funding to support third sector and faith-based Welcome Spaces  

Voluntary Action Leeds are working with Leeds Community Anchor Network to distribute funding from The Department for Work and Pensions’ Household Support Fund to make grant awards to third sector and faith based Welcome Spaces in Leeds.  

We are inviting applications from organisations that meet the minimum eligibility criteria and that are appropriately constituted small and medium sized not for profit and Faith organisations  

• have a local footprint  

or  

• offer a service for a community of interest  

Leeds Community Anchor Network members will make grant decisions, balancing offer in their Locality and considering the:  

• geographical spread of Welcome Spaces 

• spread of opening hours 

• activity to foster community connections   

• groups that Welcome Spaces cater for (including underserved communities) 

• We expect that grant awards will be up to £1000 and that most grant awards will be in the range of £500 to £1000 

Grant funding will make a contribution to the running costs of your Welcome Space and could be used for:  

• running costs, including energy bills
   

• staff costs 

• room hire 

• volunteer expenses 

• equipment/resources 

• food, teas or coffees 

Should you receive a grant, it will be a condition of any grant that funded organisations participate in providing light touch monthly feedback.  

You will not be required to submit formal evidence of your expenditure spend, however we may ask for feedback as to how the funding has been utilised, and we would expect you to keep appropriate records in line with your own accounting requirements.   

 

Our Welcome Space Charter  

Keeping people safe is the most important part of your Welcome Space offer.   

We expect that every organisation will have the following key things in place before they open their doors:    

• a warm, welcome and safe space to offer your local community   

• an up-to-date Safeguarding Policy   

• public Liability Insurance   

• an up-to-date risk assessment that is appropriate to offering an open access service to members of the public  

• staff or volunteers that have basic knowledge of services that they could signpost to   

 

Principles for a Welcome Space  

A Welcome Space is welcome, safe and supportive. Here is what we think that might look like: 

 

 

Welcome 

It is important to remember that a Welcome Space is an inclusive, non-judgmental space where people’s confidentiality and privacy are to be respected.   

Any visitor should have the opportunity to have a good conversation if they want one. Good conversations should meet people ‘where they are at’ and should never feel intrusive or make people feel uncomfortable.  

Your Welcome Space should be offered for free, or on a Pay As You Feel basis to people who use it. It should include basic refreshments (for instance tea and coffee for visitors).   

Other things you could consider providing include free Wi-Fi, charging points for mobile phones, reading materials, board games or other activities.   

You could also ask people joining your Welcome Spaces community what type of activities they would like and, even better, invite them to bring an activity or teach a skill to others. If you already run activities in your space, you could think about how to open up these activities or make them more accessible to people visiting you as a Welcome Space.   

The faith sector has played a pivotal role in creating inclusive and welcoming environments for individuals from diverse backgrounds. 

We celebrate the positive impact of Faith-based Welcome Spaces, however it is important to emphasise that individuals of different religions or no religion should feel able to participate in Welcome Spaces without any pressure to conform to a particular belief system.  

Welcome Spaces should be inclusive, but we recognise where organisations serve specific communities or groups of people, it may mean their provision is not open to the general public or is only open to specific people – For example existing service users, people with specific protected characteristics or vulnerabilities.  

If this applies to you, please ensure the following;   

• if your provision is not open to the general public, you must be clear about this on your application form.  We still want to support you but will discuss with you whether it is appropriate for your offer to be made public on Leeds Directory.  

• if your provision is open to the general public, but only to people with particular protected characteristics (for example people with learning disabilities or a men’s group) please state this on your funding application There is no minimum opening period for Welcome Spaces. We would ask you to consider the best offer for people in your community considering issues such as travel time to reach your Welcome Space.  

 We would ask you to be clear when you will be open – ideally this will be the same each week so people can plan their visit in advance.   

 

Safe   

In addition to your existing risk assessment, you should also consider and address additional risks that could occur:   

• people that you might not know coming to the building  

• people presenting in crisis or distress  

• translation or access requirements that you might not have experience with. Covid and other winter related illnesses - We would advise Welcome Spaces to have face masks and hand gel available.   

Risk of burns/scalds from hot drinks/spills – particular consideration required for provisions open to children/young people/families Alcohol  

If your venue is serving alcohol in the same space and time as the Welcome Space offer, it will not be eligible for this scheme.  

 

Safeguarding  

You must satisfy yourself that you have appropriate arrangements for Safeguarding Adults and Children.  

You must have a person who will act as your Safeguarding Lead.  

We would recommend as part of your safeguarding policy you display posters and information on how people can contact the Safeguarding Officer if they have concerns.  

 

Food Hygiene  

If you are providing food, you must ensure that food handlers have a Food Hygiene Certificate Level 2.  

Sources of Information for keeping visitors safe  

You can access more information about how to help someone in a mental health crisis at Mindwell Leeds.   

Remember, if you have concerns that someone is at immediate risk of harm you should call 999 straight away.   

You can find information about  safeguarding adults here, and  safeguarding children here.   

Information about how to get help someone who is being exploited or forced to work against their will (modern slavery) can be found here.   

Emergency out of hours information can be found here.  

If you would like support or advice around your risk assessment, safeguarding policy and training, or Food Hygiene Certification then please contact Voluntary Action Leeds on info@val.org.uk or call 0113 2977920.   

 

Supportive   

The Cost of Living crisis has had a significant impact on people’s personal finances, housing, mental health and wellbeing and in many other ways.   

Visitors to your Welcome Space might need some support. Although you may not have the specific expertise within your Welcome Space, it’s important that you are able to signpost people to the right support if they need it. Some useful links include:   

Information on Cost of Living support can be found on the public Together Leeds webpage.   

Use the Leeds Money Information Centre to find organisations in the city providing free, impartial and confidential advice services for issues including debt, benefits, housing, energy, food and fuel. Free printed materials (including translations) such as flyers, booklets and posters are also available by contacting financial.inclusion@leeds.gov.uk   

Free printed leaflets and posters about health and wellbeing support can also be ordered via the Public Health Resource Centre here.   

The Leeds Food Aid Network website includes online maps showing places to access emergency food or low-cost food and meals. The Worrying about money leaflet for Leeds is also produced by Leeds Food Aid Network and includes contact details for local organisations supporting people around debt, finances, and benefit payments   

  

Support for Organisations   

It’s important to remember you are not alone in the delivery of your Welcome Space; you will be part of a network of locally trusted organisations.   

 

Places of Welcome 

Places of Welcome is a national network of over 600 venues including places of worship, libraries, community centres and village halls which open their doors to their community every week, providing free refreshments and a welcoming environment. Based on a similar ethos as Welcome Spaces, Places of Welcome operate throughout the year. In Leeds the network is supported by Wellsprings Together  

Joining the network is free, simple to do – just visit https://www.placesofwelcome.org.uk/join-us 

 

The Warm Hub  

The Warm Hubs Toolkit is an online toolkit developed in partnership by Community Action Northumberland to provide detailed guidance on how to set up and run a Warm Hub scheme (trademarked). It available nationally and aimed at support agencies including charities. Training modules are available to achieve the Warm Hub model and associated principles.   

Create an account to download the toolkit: https://warmhubs.com/ 

 

Training and Capacity Building for Welcome Spaces   

VAL has a small budget to support organisations in receipt of Welcome Spaces who would benefit from training to support your offer. We expect to be able to offer free training in the following areas that we have identified as likely priorities:  

• Safeguarding  

• Food Hygiene  

• An introduction to positive conversations with people in mental health crisis  

• Signposting sources of support  

This is not an exhaustive list and we will consider providing any training that you identify as a need, subject to demand across the network and our available resources.  

If you have identified a training need in your Welcome Space, please contact training@val.org.uk  

  

Volunteering   

Volunteers are likely to be at the heart of your Welcome Space offer. Firstly, look at the assets around you – people regularly accessing your Welcome Space might enjoy being able to give back as part of using the space (although this should never be a requirement).   

If you would like some support around recruiting and managing volunteers, you can contact Volunteer Centre Leeds (which is a project of Voluntary Action Leeds) for advice and guidance, by emailing volunteering@val.org.uk or calling 0113 297 7920.   

Here are some tips and resources to help with supporting volunteers in your Welcome Space:   

• If you have volunteering opportunities at your Welcome Space, it’s a good idea to write a volunteer role to be clear about what you’re looking for. You could use our template welcome space volunteer role.  

• If you are in contact with other local Welcome Spaces also looking to recruit volunteers, you could consider advertising the post jointly and sharing the volunteer (the V.C can again help you with this).   

• You can advertise your volunteer role on our volunteering platform, Be Collective, where people who are looking to volunteer can see them and apply.   

• If you haven’t used BeCollective before and would like some support with this, you can contact Volunteer Centre Leeds using the details above, or check out our guide to using BeCollective.  

You could also promote opportunities to people who might like to volunteer by displaying posters in your Warm Space for people to see when they visit.    

You can find lots more information about supporting volunteers on our website.   

   

Good News Stories  

Similar to last year, VAL will be publishing a series of blogs focusing on Good News Stories and all the great work you are doing for the project. If you would like your Welcome Space to feature, please do get in touch with news@val.org.uk.