Leeds City council is working alongside Voluntary Action Leeds, voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations to establish a network of Warm Spaces across Leeds this winter. These include libraries, community centres, community hubs and other places offering a warm welcome and free to use for anyone struggling to heat their home.

Over the course of the following weeks we are running a series of ‘Good News stories from warm spaces’  and in our first publication we checked in with Reverend Bev Monck, the Curate at St Paul’s Church, Ireland Wood, to find out how their Warm Space is going.

Bev said:

“It’s great; we are probably getting around 20 people every Monday. We rely upon volunteers to help run this space. I started by asking the regular church volunteers, people with experience in running events and preparing food, but we soon expanded our volunteer pool, and now lots of local people have stepped forward to help.’

The group runs after school so children and families can access the church. They provide hot food and drinks, board games, and activities for children and adults alike.

With help from their local councillors and Voluntary Action Leeds, St Paul’s has attained Food Hygiene Level 2 course for all their volunteers who handle food.

 “There are different options for volunteers”, continues Bev, “sometimes people would rather not be front-of-house welcoming people and would rather just help out in the background; that is really useful too; we value everyone’s contribution”.

Bev told us how their offer to the local community has helped to establish support groups informally outside of their offer.

“There is a group of mums who meet up and go for a coffee together, they didn’t know each other at all before we opened our warm space, and now, they sometimes meet up when the kids are at school.”

“People coming along have been keen to be involved in other activities run by St Paul’s” Bev gives the example of one Warm Space user who has started volunteering at the weekly toddler group and at Baby Basics. 

The more we speak to people running and accessing Warm Spaces, the more we see that it’s not just about people keeping warm this winter. The power and kindness of communities shine through, and they support each other and make long-lasting connections to community groups and to each other.

 Leeds City Council has allocated funding from the West Yorkshire Mayor’s Cost Of Living Emergency Fund to support organisations that wish to operate Warm Spaces this winter. This fund is being administered by Voluntary Action Leeds (VAL) find out more here: 

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Voluntary Action Leeds