Crawley warm hubs call for more working with local authorities
It's after a report found only 59 people used six council-run hubs over the winter
Last updated 5th Apr 2023
More people attended an independent warm hub than the 59 who used Crawley Borough Council’s six locations in winter.
Independent community hub, Love Your Neighbor Crawley, acts as a warm space. It recorded 103 attendees in December and January whilst running on reduced opening times. They were not funded by the council at this time.
They have had a further 148 attending the hub in February and March this year.
Meanwhile the six warm hubs funded by the council had 59 visitors over a similar time period of two months with varying opening times at each hub.
In a full council meeting, it was shown that the council spent just over £17,900 to run - equating to £303 for every person recorded visiting them during that time.
Ceri Turner, the Social Action manager at the Love Your Neighbor hub said:
“I think the benefit that comes along with offering warm spaces in existing places, is that the community feels a sense of belonging. What works really well at the Love Your Neighbor Hub is that people with existing needs before the cost-of-living crisis were already familiar and already comfortable with coming and speaking to our team of volunteers and asking for help.”
“I think when you start up something new, it takes a while for people to find out about them and feel comfortable visiting them.”
Ceri also suggested what works well for people visiting hubs for help:
“The trick is to keep it simple, so have set dates and set times across the weeks. Keep it flexible. I think when you open up a warm space, it's something that we've learned is that you can't have a set thing in your mind. Not one-size-fits-all. So, you have to constantly adapt to the needs of the people who are coming in to receive help and support.”
Expenses shown at the council meeting showed that the hiring of the halls, overtime costs for staff, equipment, catering, printing and signage cost the council almost £17,900.
Sue Millins, cabinet member for community engagement and culture at the meeting said: “it was a worthwhile and positive action to take, to support our residents at a very challenging time.”
This was after questions were raised about whether the hubs were "the best use of taxpayers money.
Councillor Millins added: “I was really impressed at the dedication and enthusiasm from staff members who took part. Many of them provided extras for visitors to the hubs, like biscuits (chocolate even), art materials – drawing and colouring sheets, craft packs, etc. out of their own pockets. They went above and beyond, just changing their workspace to Community Centres.”
The Love Your Neighbor Crawley hub wants to work together in future to help those struggling in the community. They had been signposting people to the council’s hubs after reaching capacity on some days.
Cer Turner said: “We have a great relationship with the team at Crawley Borough Council… and it doesn't look like the cost-of-living crisis is going anywhere unfortunately, not anytime quickly anyway, and I'm hopeful it will be recognised that there is a wonderful opportunity to support warm spaces and existing grassroots level organisations.”
Ceri added:
“I definitely wanted to get across that there's no blame. I think the fact that 59 people attended Crawley’s warm spaces doesn’t suggest it was a waste of money.”
“I think when you're trying to help people in the community, there's no room for that.”