Co-op Warm Spaces Funding Boost has provided £2,184 of match funding
Holbrooks Warm Safe Spaces
Coventry, West Midlands, United Kingdom
Aim
Winter will be difficult due to rising living costs , so we're opening our doors to keep people warm and reduce social isolation
Who are we?
Holbrooks Community Care Association (HCCA) has been working with and for the community of Holbrooks and its surrounding areas since 1979. The organisation was set up with the aim to improve the quality of life for residents of the most disadvantaged areas in and around Holbrooks.
Holbrooks is a Multi Ethnicity area with a long history of having a ethnically diverse population. HCCA is an inclusive organisation assisting people from all backgrounds, abilities, age and genders.
HCCA offers the following services to the community::
- Welfare benefit and Debt Advice
- Advice, Information and Support
- Digital inclusion courses
- Access to IT and printing
- Credit Union
- Summer family activities,
- Fun days out
- Community Fridge
- Training and learning opportunities
- Data Bank
- A library
- Community events and activities ( such as tree planting, gardening, bands in the park and celebration events ( e.g. The Queens Jubilee,
Warm Safe Spaces was born due to local residents reporting to us that they just could not afford to put their heating on, and it was a “heat or eat” situation for many.
Warm Safe Spaces are open to all in the community who wish to use them, on Tuesday and Thursday between 9:30am and 4:30pm and a Wednesday between 12:00pm and 7:00pm. It provides a friendly warm environment to those who feel they need it, to enable them to save costs on their own energy usage, which they often cannot afford to run so do not turn their heating on at home.
Not only do people have access to a warm safe environment with hot drinks and activities, they have the opportunity to meet new people and form friendships reducing the increasing social isolation that many people in Holbrooks are facing. There is always a member of staff available to provide information, advice and support to those who need it. There is also access to free food from the community fridge that is based at the centre too.
By doing this, it has increased our energy usage dramatically, leaving us with higher than usual utility bills, that as a charity who relies on donations, is a cause for concern. We rely on donations from local supermarkets to provide refreshments, but during this difficult time, donations are spreading thin as there is so much need for them from other organisations too.
Any money raised will be part used towards our utility bills and the other used to purchase refreshments and activity items such as board games and arts and crafts for people to use when accessing the Warm Safe Space
Community impact
The community benefit from HCCA in many ways. Our main outcomes to the community are:
- Reduced social isolation: a majority of our service users are living alone and do not know many people in the community. We support them through our activities and initiatives to form friendships with others in a similar situation. Members of the community are involved in the running of sessions, such as warm safe spaces, and are encouraged to share their passions with others. An example of this is a 90 year old man, who is an avid card player and uses our warm safe space on a Wednesday afternoon, brings his cards in and plays games with other members of the community, often teaching them along the way how to play. This not only reduces his isolation, it enables him to pass on his passion to others.
- Better access to advice support and information: Being based in the heart of the community, we are within walking distance for most of the residents who access us. We have a wealth of information available, and staff on hand to offer support to those who need it. if we cannot help, we have several referral pathways into other services who will come to us to provide support to the residents. An example of this is Coventry Independent Advice Service runs an advice service to support residents with benefit and debt advice. Another is Coventry and District Credit Union who are based with us, who provide access to savings accounts, affordable loans and financial advice to the residents of Holbrooks
- Reduced impact from living in Poverty: We have the ability to make applications on behalf of residents to grant making charities who can provided much needed support to those most in need in the Holbrooks area. We have sought grants for clothing, home essentials, energy vouchers and also provided access to food bank vouchers. We also have the community fridge based at the centre too, which provides the community with free food that they can take home with them.
- Improved mental wellbeing: Through accessing our warm safe spaces, the community have is quote from a warm safe space user.
"I don't know what I would have done without this. I cant afford to heat my home at the moment and its very rare I turn my heating on. Coming here I have met some lovely people, had a shoulder to cry on and managed to get some food in which frees up cash so i can put a tenner on the gas. You really are the gift to me and my friends, that keeps on giving"
Why are we crowdfunding?
We are crowdfunding to enable us to continue to run the Warm Safe Space initiative into the new year for as long as people need it. The money we do have will not sustain the service past January as it stands at the moment so the more donations we receive, the longer the community can access a warm safe space at our centre.
How we’ll spend the money raised
Most of the money raised will be used to help us pay towards the rise in our utility bill due to the whole centre being open to the public and due to it being a warm safe space, needing the heating on at a comfortable temperature throughout.
A portion of the money will be used to purchase refreshments and activity items such as games and arts and crafts materials.
This project successfully funded on 30th March 2023