More than 30 different organisations in Plymouth will receive funding to open their doors for additional hours to provide a warm and welcoming environment for local residents to spend time in this winter.
Plymouth City Council received £2.2 million from the Department for Work and Pensions’ Household Support Fund to help residents throughout the winter months. More than £100,000 from the Fund is now being handed out to community organisations, charities and churches to enable them to run a Welcoming Space from December to March.
Welcoming Spaces give people a warm, safe space to spend time in and many of them provide extras such as free Wi-Fi, cooking facilities, activities or refreshments.
The 34 organisations that have received funding to provide a Welcoming Space include:
- Southway Community Group: Offering a warm space for the whole community with free refreshments, activities and access to further support from the community centre’s Wellbeing and Family Hubs.
- Memory Matters CIC: Aimed at older people, the community hub will provide a low-cost (or free through buy-it-forward vouchers) soup and drink offer in their upstairs room in the city centre.
- YMCA Plymouth: Provide a warm space on Friday evenings in Honicknowle, with free hot drinks and games, with staff on hand to signpost attendees to other support services.
- Character Creation Roleplaying: Working with the Rees Centre Wellbeing Hub to open on Saturdays, the warm space will provide free use of the kitchen facilities, food including breakfast and lunch as well as tea and coffee throughout the day and a self-service board games café and crafting activities.
- Plymouth Scrapstore: Offering new ‘repair café’ sessions for clothing, which give people the chance to learn how to sew, knit, crochet or darn for free, with free refreshments on offer too.
Councillor Chris Penberthy, Cabinet Member for Housing, Cooperative Development and Communities, said: “This is our third year of funding welcoming spaces in Plymouth. While the intention is to provide people with a warm and safe space to spend time in when the weather is cold, we know they have become much more than that and have also helped to cultivate community connections by bringing people together, which helps to tackle social isolation and improve mental wellbeing.
“I’m really pleased that this year we’ve been able to fund more welcoming spaces than ever before, and we’ve tried to ensure that there is a wide geographical spread and targeted support for different groups of people, so that as many people as possible can benefit this winter.”
There are currently more than 50 Welcoming Spaces listed on the Council’s online map, with venues ranging from libraries and wellbeing hubs to community centres and churches.
See the full map of all the Welcoming Spaces in Plymouth at: www.plymouth.gov.uk/welcoming-spaces.
Find more cost of living support at www.plymouth.gov.uk/costofliving.