Co-op Warm Spaces Funding Boost has provided £1,085 of match funding
The Thomas Project Warm Spaces and Food Bank
Walsall, West Midlands, United Kingdom
Aim
We will reduce the impact of food, fuel and financial poverty for people by providing a warm space, activities, support and a foodbank.
Who are we?
We are a Christian charity in Walsall that serves our local community, helping those in hardship, need and distress. From our community hub in Aldridge, we work alongside other local charities and community partners, to offer a range of activities and support services to everyone in our community, regardless of faith, and bring people together. We are increasing our support and services, and growing our charity, enabling us to meet diverse needs, help more people and reduce the impact of poverty on people’s lives. The Thomas Project is already working in the community, reaching people in food, fuel and financial poverty and we are open to, and welcome, everyone from all parts of the community.
Community impact
For our community, our aim is to reduce loneliness and we are trying to provide a community for them where they will feel welcome, safe and ultimately feel that they are a functioning part of that community. We, as an organisation, the people we already support, and the people we want to support, have also been and continue to be impacted by COVID and now the cost of living crisis and inflation. In order to reduce the impact of economic, fuel and food poverty in people’s lives we have already increased our offer of practical help by providing various types of support and want to grow this to ensure we can offer:
- A Place of Welcome serving free refreshments, a Warm Space where people can come to save on fuel costs and an IT Café providing free internet access and help and support with basic IT
- Arts and Crafts projects and activities, a walking group, games mornings, hobbies clubs, and various community events to bring people together
- Free food, toiletries and cleaning products via our foodbank
- Support helping unemployed people find employment and access benefits information, information, help and advice with budgeting to help people manage their money, and partnering with other organisations who offer debt management and other support services
Why are we crowdfunding?
We know that the cost of living crisis is having a serious and profound impact on many people in our community and we want to do everything we can to help mitigate some of the worst effects of this. We want to ensure everyone has access to a warm space, food, companionship and support and we rely on donations to help us to provide this. We are really fortunate to receive donations of food to support our foodbank and to have so many wonderful and committed volunteers, which helps us to keep our running costs as low as possible. But over the last few years our costs have increased, for our facilities and utilities. The money we raise through financial support will help us to cover our running costs and stay open, and also grow our services to meet with the increased needs of the people who access our project.
This project successfully funded on 7th April 2023