Residents of St Ann’s have spoken of the ‘brilliant’ services being provided by a community group acting as a warm hub for those struggling to heat their homes.
The Chase Neighbourhood Centre, based on Robin Hood Chase, joined the national warm hub scheme in November and has seen the number of people using the service increase with each week.
Kathleen Herbert, 55, who is a regular at the centre, said: “I have been ill in the last seven months, it’s the worst I’ve ever felt. I work, and I just cannot do it anymore.
“They are friendly, we have a good time here and it gets us out of the house.
“If you get breakfast on a Monday, it’s buy one, get one free. Then on Friday, if you get a dinner and a breakfast, it’s only a fiver, which is brilliant.”
Helena Crossley, 66, is another attendee and said: “It’s a place I come to get fed, because I don’t cook.
“I live in my bedroom, and I can fall asleep, so when I wake up my room could be on fire.
“So this is where I come to have my breakfast. It’s not often I have my dinner here, but something I do.
“Everybody is friendly, the people coming here and the staff, and we are here all day, every day nearly, other than weekends.”
The Chase Neighbourhood Centre in St Anns is operating as a warm hub site from today pic.twitter.com/Ipr69pXmao
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The Chase Neighbourhood Centre is combined with the St Ann’s Advice Centre at its facility which was built by volunteers in the early 2000s, and provides a huge range of services to the local community.
These include being a point for the collection of Household Support Fund and fuel support vouchers, as well as supporting the local refugee community, with the warm hub provisions adding to a busy workload for the centre’s 40 staff, 32 of whom are paid.
Rachel Graham, 47, who is the centre’s co-ordinator, said: “I think there is a physical side of it, because of the need to be warm, but then there is the mental aspect in terms of the fact we have seen a lot of people are really, really worried about the future, especially the older generation.
“There is a lot of mental impact that is happening on a lot of people; different ages, different groups.
“We are seeing families frightened for Christmas.”
With Christmas dinners for community elders, presents for children and the continuation of the warm hub over the winter, there is no doubt about the importance of the centre’s work.
“We are into our fourth week of the warm hub; in the first week, we probably started with six [people].
“And then last Wednesday, just gone, we had 24.”
“In the first two weeks, we didn’t see any children, and then the last two weeks, we started to see children coming in.
“So yeah, we have adapted slightly for that.
“We have been focusing on children’s activities and things like that. It has become a need.”
Though resources are stretched more than ever, the centre doesn’t shirk its task of ensuring people’s lives remain stable.
Graham said: “I think [the most rewarding part] is just seeing the joy in the community, but also when they say thank you, and they tell you how grateful they are and how important this is.
“For example, Helena never used to come in.
“She would sit at home completely isolated but once she started coming in here, she has not stopped coming, she comes absolutely every single day.
“She will say, this place has saved my life. It is somewhere to go every day.”
Feature Image Credit: Will Hugall