After two incredible years of running a Community Wellbeing Space by and for the people in Westside Plaza Shopping Centre, Wester Hailes, Edinburgh, The Community Wellbeing Collective (CWC) has to move! Please help us turn our new space into another community designed artwork where we can do much needed work for collective wellbeing towards change.
Who We Are
We are a grassroots group of people living in or connected to Wester Hailes, Edinburgh. We were brought together in 2021 by social-practice artist Jeanne van Heeswijk through a commission by the Edinburgh Art Festival and WHALE Arts.
Our wellbeing is interconnected. By connecting through wellbeing, we resist the suffocation of intersecting oppressions, and create space to breathe and dream together. Through imagining, failing, learning, dreaming, and doing, we are collectively creating futures in uncertain and challenging times.
Our Story
Wester Hailes is a working-class area facing significant inequality in wellbeing. Through public conversations, connecting existing groups, and motivated individuals, we discovered a common desire to take action and address the urgent needs of our community and In 2021, we formed the CWC.
In 2022, we transformed a derelict former off-license in Westside Plaza Shopping Centre into a thriving Community Wellbeing Space. We opened as a test during the Edinburgh Art Festival and were so successful that we never closed! Over 600 people from all parts of the community attend each month. We fill a critical gap by providing a sober, welcoming space open outside working hours and on weekends.
We activating a free public space to gather and build mutual care. We deliver community wellbeing activities ranging from yoga to poetry writing, singing together, eating together, and finding new ways of being together. We take community action on the broader politics of wellbeing through large-scale monthly events, addressing societal barriers like poor housing, the decline of social care, racism, and ableism.
For nearly two years, we have grown something beautiful in the cracks of a system. However, new management at Westside Plaza has plans to commercially revive the shopping centre and has asked for full rent on all units, making the unit we had called home unaffordable to us. Thanks to our members, visitors, and supporters, we have grown as an organisation over the past two years and were able to secure a five-year lease on a different stand-alone building on the grounds of the centre. We are very excited about our new space, but is ten times the cost we have been paying and needs significant renovation for public use!
CWC understands the importance of a central space in Wester Hailes, so we decided to take a financial risk to prioritize the urgent needs of the community. We hope that the rest of the world will recognise the value of this space and donate to this important cause.
Our Dream
Our space will be accessible by drop-in and centrally located, offering a truly community-run environment where lived experiences are shared, isolation is combated, and new ways of being and healing together are imagined.
It will be a unique social sculpture co-designed by the Community Wellbeing Collective and visitors, guided by experienced social practice artists.
Our building will prioritize physical accessibility and a welcoming atmosphere with a culturally relevant design built on community input.
Change will ripple outward, as our location will enable us to advocate for better accessibility in key thoroughfares in the neighbourhood.
Your Donation
Times are tougher than they have ever been, the welfare state is beyond broken and as organisations like us are even more vital, there is less and less funding available. The Community Wellbeing Space has never been council or government funded, though they often are mistaken as such. We are community run and raise our own funds through grants, partnership work and donations like yours.
We need to raise at least £7,500 to make the renovation and sustainability of the CWC possible.
Your donation will go towards materials and employment of local trades people and CWC members to make our dream a reality! Ultimately, it is an investment in our agency to shape our local area, carving out community ownership within private property, and creating the possibility for a space to heal and imagine together which travels beyond Wester Hailes and is urgently needed all over the world.
We welcome donations according to your ability and understand that not everyone can contribute financially. Please share our message, visit the space when we are open, and be part of our community!