Always on
This project successfully funded on 11th June 2024, you can still support them with a donation.
Otley COMMON Donations
Otley, United Kingdom
Aim
Raising funds to renovate Otley Common to turn it into a thriving community hub.
Thanks to the support of hundreds of people we have now managed to purchase Otley Methodist Church and we are in the process of renovating it to develop Otley Common.
Our initial fundraising raised over £830k, which surpassed our Minimum Target of £709k. We are now pushing on to reach our Optimum Target of £927k. Every extra penny we raise will enable us to renovate and develop the building further and offer more to our community.
What is Otley COMMON?
The aim of Otley COMMON is simple: "To create a space where the Otley Community can come together to thrive and make good things happen"
We want Otley COMMON to be accessible, multi-purpose space that is widely used by the local community.
The realisation of this project will be a COMMON space for all ages, providing a broad range of essential services and projects, that, together, create a vibrant common and shared space to support the local population to thrive.
The different spaces will accommodate:
• Community and social groups, from uniformed groups to yoga and art classes
• Local small businesses, artists, and start up enterprises
• Co-working space encouraging people to work together
• Large events including music, speakers, weddings
• Theatre and performing arts
• Life-long learning opportunities
• A vibrant community cafe and meeting space
• A showcase for decarbonation and sustainability (both the Common and the cottage)
• A Community Action Hub, run in collaboration with our partners, Otley 2030
A COMMON Manifesto
This is a story about our towns, our streets, our buildings and our community. The spaces and places we all share, should share and need to share. They lead us to a deeper sense of place and connect us to each other.
COMMON places that we can meet, learn, teach, work and enjoy.
Places that make us feel proud.
Places that speak to us, that we have helped create,
we can have a stake in, that we build for the COMMON good.
To create a new history — reinvented, renovated and reimagined.
What our old COMMON buildings can be.
These buildings were never constructed to serve the few, they were created in eras of civic pride, constructed for the common person.
This is our collective commission —
to become custodians of the building, to give it a new purpose, a new lease of life and meaning for the future and value to our town and all of us that live here.
An open building that becomes a beacon, an inviting place for us all to use, to communicate, to comment. A place that combines the wealth of a community, its people, its resources and its spirit. Created from a cooperative approach and a true sense of duty.
The building will be a place we all have in COMMON.
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made