St Matthews After School Warm Hub

Aim

We aim to create a free warm space for the community of Southcote providing food, warmth, activities and a listening ear.

We are a church group based at the heart of a community who live locally and are committed to reaching out with love and support. 

When we read about families struggling to pay for heating and put food on the table we wanted to do something to help. We are already running a lunchtime and early afternoon  warm hub offering soup and bread but this misses a large part of our community.  The after school warm hub will meet the needs of all people in the community young and old, who are finding it hard to keep warm, pay their bills and may be feeling isolated due to the cost of living crisis.

When we posted our intention on Facebook, the comments that we received  were encouraging and confirmed to us that there is a need for the hub: "Our community needs this."  "This is fantastic." "This is a great idea well done." "This is amazing, thank you so much, just what we need."

The hub was launched on 13th January offering a warm space on Friday afternoons.  We had 34 people come along and feedback has further proved that there is a definite need within Southcote.  

Feedback from those attending our first hub

"Friday was very warm and welcoming and just what people need with these hard times and also a great start to the new year.  It’s nice to be somewhere where your kids have a different environment and play with different children and also for us parents to get to know other people; it’s nice to have company especially for those people who are on their own. It's a brilliant idea and I pray that it keeps going.'

"Friday was lovely. It was great to see some old faces from when the children were younger and to chat with new people. My son thoroughly enjoyed himself building Lego and playing cards with Pads (Vicar). Just a really nice relaxed community feel. My husband works at home on a Friday too so it's good to be able to get out with my son so he's not disturbing my husband."

"Friday was amazing, I loved every minute of being part of such a lovely group.  The world is a lonely place and being somewhere you feel welcome and part of is so lovely! And for me its taken me out of my comfort zone; this time last year I never would have spoken to someone I didn't  know but, everyone was so friendly and happy to chat. And for the children to be able to meet new friends and play in a different environment is great, as with everything costing so much not everyone can go out after school to do activities. I look forward to many more."

"A warm, friendly, welcoming non-judgmental space for families to relax, socialise and have a hot meal.  The situation for families at the moment is so difficult and the few hours after school is a respite and is much needed in the community."

How we will use the money raised

Our first hub was funded through donation and we have secured a donation to run one more.  It cost £100 to run the first hub but we have already doubled in size so the costs are only going to keep rising.  Money raised through Crowdfunder will ensure that we have the funds to continue to provide a warm communal space, substantial hot meal and pay for resources for crafts and games to be available during the hub.  It will also enable us to equip our kitchen  better for catering by investing in more cooking equipment, for example an air fryer, replacing our ageing toaster and purchasing an additional slow cooker.

Courses may also be run alongside the hub to support with things like budgeting and money raised would be used to buy resources to run these.

Our hope is that in addition to meeting this need within our community, it will, through meeting new people and forming new connections, contribute to building community in the area with people helping and supporting one another.  

This project successfully funded on 21st February 2023