Warm Tiger Days

Tiger Community Hub opened April 22 to provide a warm, welcoming space to the community.

People who are feeling lonely or anxious about going out and about can visit us for friendship, a whole range of activities, and competitively priced food and drinks in our cafe.

How did it start?

The Hub was born out of the work we did during Covid and the lockdowns. Faced with the prospect of stopping our public facing workshops we looked around for how we would be able to continue to work with and support the community. This led to us coordinating the Nottingham Group of For The Love Of Scrubs. Working with hubs around Nottinghamshire, our team of volunteers produced scrubs, scrub hats, facemarks, laundry bags, headbands and ear savers for NHS and frontline staff, giving away 33,000 items.

After 18 months this finally allowed down and we were assessing how we moved forward when we were told we had to move out of our premises at Carrington Street as the council were handing back the lease.

Our choice became: do we go back small, working from home and running workshops and projects with local groups? Or take a risk and go big, providing a space for the community we had been working with to come together?

The over riding feedback over the previous 18 months was that our volunteers felt part of the community, those shielding looked forward to our drivers picking up makes and dropping off supplies as their only contact in a week. They said how much it had helped their mental health to have something practical to focus on, and to know they were supporting the frontline.

So we decided to go big, find a space that would be big enough to invite the community in, to take part in lots of different activities that would continue to support mental health and wellbeing.

In order to support the costs we also needed a cafe and shop, which in turn provides further volunteering opportunities to those who want to give back, or get some work experience.

Since opening we have been able to work with a great number of organisations to widen the support we can give to our community. 

Refugee Roots ensure there is vital support and assistance to refugees in Nottingham including a women's group, art classes, English classes and a hot lunch on Tuesdays.

Brave offer peer support for those suffering from trauma and are with us every week.

Trent Dementia will be running monthly support sessions for anyone affected by dementia, starting January 23.

In addition, volunteers help us run Crafty Babies, Menopause cafes, Dyslexia support, a regular Gig Night, along with lots of arts and crafts activities every week.

What are we fundraising for?

Since the financial crisis has been biting hard we have also introduced Warm Tiger days and this fundraising is to help us continue to run these until at least the end of March.

We believe that if you are going to help someone it may as well be worthwhile. That's why our Warm Tiger Days are aimed at saving our visitors a full day's worth of energy. Open 10am - 4pm visitors get a warm welcome when they come through our door. Hot drinks and activities are available all day, free of charge. In addition a hot nutritious home made meal is also given to everyone. When they leave us they have benefitted from staying warm and having a full belly as they make their way home.

Our Tiger Warm Days are open to everyone in the community to join us, removing any stigma from those most in need, who don't have to identify that need. We also take donations from those who are able to and want to donate. Helping us to continue our community activities.

If you really want to know who we are and why we do this please watch this video from Steph