St Mary Magdalene Church Warm Space

Aim

We are running a warm space to support members of our community during the Cost of Living Crisis.

We are St Mary Magdalene Church!

We are the parish church for the Magdalen Estate in Gorleston; a diverse church community of 70 including all ages and backgrounds, needs and abilities.  In an area of high deprivation, together we run a number of activities, events and groups to support our wider community.

Whilst in the Summer we enjoy using outdoor space, whever possible, in the winter we provide a warm and welcome indoor space, a hub for the community.

Ongoing activities including two drop ins (on Wednesday and Friday mornings), a food bank (welcoming clients, Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings), a free lunch club (weekly on a Tuesday, serving approx. 50 people a free three course meal each week), a youth club (fortnightly on a Friday), a parent and toddler group (weekly on Mondays during term time) and a group for over-65s (monthly on a Thursday).  This is in addition to the array of regular meetings and community activities of our immediate church family and providing a space for the local rentals, especially supporting local community groups.

The 'warm space' we offer to our community is our hall, kitchen, main church space, cafe area and a living room-style meeting room.  These are all supported by a small office with 3 full time staff and around 80 dedicated volunteers.

We work in partnership with local and national organisations including DIAL, Trussell Trust, Hope into Action, Great Yarmouth Pathway Cafe and Support Centre, Freshly Greated and Great Yarmouth Borough Council.  And we work in partnership with our local community through our Community Volunteer Team which gives all sorts of people the opportunity to volunteer aslongside the church community, in service of the needs in the area.

Seeking to serve the most vulnerable on our estate, through our foodbank, advice services and warmth in our building, we also seek the transformation of the whole estate through supporting the arts, local schools, hospital and care homes - and every area of need we possibly can.

Our work has been acknowledged by our late Queen as our vicar, Matthew Price, was awarded the British Empire Medal for services to the the community during Covid and we seek to continue to serve together in the midst of the current Cost of Living Crisis.

Our Community Impact

Our warm space benefits all ages and income levels in the community, reducing isolation, but also providing opportunity for pastoral and practical support through the availability of our strong pastoral team, Community Link case worker and Dial Multidisciplinary worker (for budgeting, debt and benefits advice) and additional offering of basic skills courses, such as Cookery and budgeting. 

Different groups and activities we run ourselves, along with various community rentals, mean we welcome a wide spectrum of our local community through our doors.  Over the course of a week about 200 people come through the building for one reason or another.   At special events, such as our up and coming Community Pancake Party we anticipate 200 to visit in the course of one afternoon.

Why are we crowdfunding?

We are always seeking to develop and expand the content and offering of our warm space but during this cost of living crisis have had to focus most of our resources on ensuring we can simply pay the utility bills.  This leaves less resource for developing our infrastructure, and nurturing the content of our groups or expansion of our offering.  This crowdfunding campaign means we can continue to open as we are and without passing on the additional utility costs to any that rent or enjoy the warm space.

How we’ll spend the money raised

We intend to use the money be sure to cover the utility costs. However anything that is may be excess would be used to improve and maintain the high quality content of our various groups.

This project successfully funded on 7th April 2023