Plymouth City Council has given £54,000 to fund the provision of warm, welcoming spaces across the city this winter, thanks to the Government’s Household Support Fund.
The funding will support 19 different warm spaces, enabling them to open for longer during the day or at evenings and weekends, and to offer refreshments. Some spaces will also offer cooking facilities for people to make their own food.
Plymouth’s map of warm spaces was launched in October 2022 as a result of the city’s Cost of Living taskforce, which was established earlier in the year and has brought together organisations from across the city to work collaboratively to offer support to local residents.
There are currently more than 55 warm spaces listed on the map, with venues ranging from libraries and wellbeing hubs to community centres and churches.
The venues and organisations that have received additional funding to provide warm spaces this winter include:
- Routeways Centre in Devonport Park: Offering a warm space for people to cook and share food, with use of their large kitchen space and food from the garden available to pick and use in cooking
- Improving Lives Plymouth: The Veterans Hub at Ernest English House will be open to veterans and their families, with additional support available including hot evening meals on a Wednesday and a drop-in breakfast on Friday mornings
- Union Corner in Stonehouse: Open as a warm space three times a week, offering free bowls of soup and a communal kitchen for anyone to use
- Moments Café in the city centre: Specialises in supporting people with dementia, but families are also welcome to use the warm space which offers phone charging facilities, a TV, books and activities
- Wolesley Trust in North Prospect: Will offer three warm spaces in churches and the Wellbeing Hub, offering hot drinks and soup as well as advice and guidance, plus practical help including the distribution of ‘warm packs’.
Plymouth City Council received £2.29 million from the third round of funding from the Household Support Fund. Nearly £1 million has been used to help families with children eligible for Free School Meals to cover the cost of meals over the school holidays until Easter 2023. Funding has also been given to local food aid organisations to help provide free and low-cost food over the winter months.
Visit our Cost of Living online hub to see all the support available in Plymouth including the full map of warm spaces with addresses and opening times.