Create a Community Hub

Izzy: Hello and welcome to the Carbon Copy Podcast with me, Isabelle Sparrow. 

Brad: And me, Bradley Ingham. 

Izzy: We’re back with another episode in our series, Do Something Bigger, where we’re exploring 25 actions you can take to help tackle climate change and restore nature in the place where you live or work. Whether you’re the kind of person that’s used to getting stuck in, or just dipping your toe in, we hope there’s something here to inspire you. 

Brad: Today’s episode is called Create a Community Hub. Now I’ll admit when I first saw we were going to do this episode I was thinking surely we’re not talking about village halls or something? 

Izzy: I can see why you might think that, and in a way it sort of is. It’s about turning local spaces into vibrant, multipurpose places that bring people together, tackle social isolation, support local services, and of course, help address climate change as well. 

Brad: And as we’re going to learn this can be things like warm banks or tool libraries, climate cafes to reuse centres. Community hubs are popping up in old schools, empty shops, and once-forgotten buildings all over the UK. They’re places where people can come together, and where action begins. 

Izzy: In fact, over the past decade, community hubs have become a vital part of local infrastructure. According to Locality, more than 6,000 community organisations across the UK now manage local buildings and spaces, many of them operating on limited budgets, but delivering massive social value for their local area. 

Brad: And of course, the environmental benefits add up too. Community hubs are often where grassroots climate action happens. Whether it’s hosting sustainability workshops, providing space for local food projects, or helping people cut their energy bills. 

Izzy: It all sounds pretty great, doesn’t it? I think just let’s get into it! Our first guest for this episode is Louise Griffiths, Centre Manager at Hwb y Gors – a former primary school in Cwmgors, South Wales, that’s been transformed into a bustling community hub.  

Louise: I’m the centre manager for Hwb y Gors, which is a community arts education and enterprise centre, which is part of Awel Aman Tawe, which has two remits to it, which is, tackling the climate crisis, but also about building community cohesion and resilience. So Hwb y Gors it’s, it’s, it’s driven by the second remit of that community resilience then as well. 

It’s an old school, which closed down in 2015. My children came to this school. So I was really involved in the fight to stop it from being closed. The community really got behind it, but I think the decision was made, and no matter what we did, it wasn’t going to make any difference. So that closed in 2015. And in 2018, Awel Aman Tawe bought the building. 

We live in a really deprived area, we, deprived in all sorts of different ways, whether it’s financially and, and people’s income and transport. And, we’ve got people that are leaving school with, with, either low or no qualifications.  

We have high levels of unemployment, and mental health issues as well. And so we’re in an area where, where there is lots of deprivation and we need to do more, we need to do better, and we need to create opportunities. And so when you lose, a school, you lose a central hub point. It was the same sort of, years ago. It would be the mines or the working men’s clubs, and pubs as well. If you lose that sort of point of just chatting at the school gates and then maybe that community then going for coffee in the morning or that the events within the school that would bring everybody together and, and you lose that and you lose a lot of those meeting points. A lot of those times when people, just stopping to have a chat or “how are you?” and, and, you know, seeing how people are and, and what’s going on and whether people need support or, you know, or finding out about the course that’s going on… or “I’m doing this today” and somebody says “oh, actually, that sounds really good. I’d like to do that!” and just that general sort of point of contact.  

So the idea was let’s bring that back in some way. It’s a school, but it can’t be a school again. So what can we do? And Emily, who is our Creative Director, and, and the wonderful artist and creator herself, can, could see the power of the arts, and what that can do for people, what that can do for lots of the issues that we’d talk about, but also, not forgetting our remit of the climate crisis. And actually we can learn and create and, and, you know, think about the issues and problems and what we can do about it on the, on the level through the arts. So it’s a really creative process as well. So bringing all of those things together was an idea of well, let’s create a space – we’re not the only people to do it – there’s lots of these spaces across the across the country, lots may be exaggerating but there are lots of creative spaces which are doing various different things. And, and we wanted to create it in this community where there isn’t so much of that going on.  

Izzy: It just feels like this project is really very important, and is providing something that is probably missing from loads of communities – particularly in more isolated and rural areas – around the UK. Louise told us how in just a few months since launching the centre, it’s become a thriving and vibrant hive of activity – and there is still so much more to come! 

Louise: So, we. Yeah, we opened on the first of September, but I think it’s going to be a nice we’ll just bring in the existing group. So we’ve been doing a lot of community engagement work for the last few years. And we would just start off small with those groups. Repair cafe, stitch club, we’ve got a garden group.  

And we thought we’ll just get those in to start with, and it’s, it’s we’re full blown already into other groups, which have been incredibly supportive of us, along the way. We’ve got a group called Mess Up the Mess, who, there’s some beautiful pictures of them sitting in the building, when it’s completely gutted talking about what this place could be. So welcoming them through the doors, they’re a local live theatre group, and seeing them in the building last week, working in the building having film-making workshops and creative writing workshops, it was really special. We’ve also got an NHS project, which is, they’re working on mental health resilience with young people. We’ve got a depression support group, which is Shadows, they’re amazing. They meet here fortnightly. We’ve also got a mosaic project, as well, which is creating a mosaic for one of our outbuildings, which we can’t wait to see. That’s started already with the design, and then now they’re getting ready to start making in the next few weeks as well. And, and we’re just about to kick off a warm hub as well, so a warm hub, with a boardgames cafe at the same time and then cookery workshops to follow as well. 

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Izzy: Know someone who’s the heart of your neighbourhood, or always dreaming up ways to bring people together? 

Brad: Why not share this episode with them or send them over to Carbon Copy’s website, where we’ve got loads of inspiring examples of local community hubs doing big things. 

Izzy: Whether it’s a pop-up café, a warm space in winter, or a place to learn new skills, a community hub could be just the spark your area needs. Head to the show notes for all the links, or visit carboncopy.eco to find out more. 

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Brad: So Hwb y Gors is obviously based in a small rural community, but we also spoke to people involved with a community hub in a much bigger and more urban setting. Wrexham, also coincidentally in Wales, is a small city made famous most recently by Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney who in 2020 bought the city’s famous football team, Wrexham A. F. C. 

Izzy: Yep, but this place has more to offer than celebrity sports fans. Wrexham is also home to the amazing Tŷ Pawb, an incredible multiuse community and arts centre, which was redeveloped with funding from the Arts Council of Wales, Welsh Government and the National Lottery; and opened to the public in 2018. 

Brad was lucky enough to get to visit, and met Peter Windsor, Operations Manager, who shared the story of how this fantastic space came to be. 

Peter: Tŷ Pawb is a community hub-based building. It houses a art gallery and market stalls, food courts, and runs events for the people of Wrexham and the wider community. It was built in 2018. It used to be a multi-storey car park and a market hall, and it was retrofitted to meet the needs of the community. And then in 2022, we successfully became part of the Arts Council of Wales portfolio holder.  

Behind us, right now is a art gallery which is houses all international and national and local, exhibitions. And we also have a wonderful rooftop garden, which is a urban rooftop garden utilising part of the multi-storey car park, for volunteer groups to reuse the space and utilising what we have here in the centre of Wrexham. 

So there was a big consultation within Wrexham over how to reuse the spaces. All urban developments across the whole country, are having the same conversation of what to do with 80s and earlier built multi-storey car parks. Cars have got bigger, cars have got heavier. They they’re not fit for purpose these days. 

So we see this happen all over the UK, with reimagining what to do with these spaces. Wrexham has always had a huge, strong market tradition. We’ve still got two beautifully newly redeveloped market halls just up the road from us here in the butchers market and the general market and the, the Tŷ Pawb used to have a market called the People’s Market. So we always wanted to keep a rooted interest in the market. So we now do a lot more pop-up markets and fairs and stalls that come in for one off specialist events, as well as our arts and creative market traders that are here week in, week out.   

Tŷ Pawb is community led, we have an advisory board, where any decision, although we are a council department, as it were. We still have an external advisory board. We consult with the community, about most of our projects. Like, for example, one we have running at moment, which is part of the Shared Prosperity Fund, where we have just commissioned for some new play equipment for children to come and utilise. 

Tŷ Pawb has multiple different areas where anyone within the community can just meet. You don’t even have to spend within our traders. You can just come here and, sit in our flexible space, which is directly behind us right now. Where you’re allowed to just come and communicate. The tables were purposely designed to be food court style tables, which will encourage, different people who don’t know each other to to sit together and to talk. 

Izzy: I love hearing that even in a much bigger place – I mean Wrexham has a population of over 40,000 people – it’s still possible to respond to what the community wants and needs. It’s great that this space is providing so many opportunities for local people and businesses. 

Brad: Yes, and it goes beyond the space itself as well, Peter told me about this excellent programme they run to help start-up businesses grow and succeed. 

Peter: So, one of Tŷ Pawb’s greatest models is the Trader Springboard for for businesses starting up. You can come here as a day trader and have a pop up stall for as little as 20 pound, test your business model out, and then you might want to grow into one of the stalls that are here. And we can grow with you with the the way that the pricing structure works is as you take on more space, the rent grows with it and allows you to to grow your business within Tŷ Pawb. And then when you are ready, we manage the shops out on the front of Chester Street and on Henblas Street, and then the the hope that your business helps regenerate the town and you can go out into the wider parts of Wrexham. I think to date since opening in 2018, we have eight businesses that have gone through this model and are now out into the high street. 

Izzy: Wow, that’s awesome, such a great addition for Wrexham, and as we’ve discussed on previous episodes high streets across the UK are really struggling so it’s fantastic to hear that this initiative is helping businesses to buck the trend. 

Brad: Absolutely. Now, we’ve spoken a lot about the economic benefits to these projects, but I wanted to know how these community hubs are helping with the climate and nature crises. Louise told us about some of the sustainability features of Hwb y Gors. 

Louise: The purchase of the building was via our community wind farm. Which is a mile and half straight up the mountain from the Hwb. That funded the initial purchase of the building. And then from then it’s carried on funding that, but we’ve also had a lot of other funders been involved as well, which we couldn’t do it without. It’s a big project, it’s cost a lot of money. 

It’s a low carbon building and trying to reach net zero or as close to that as possible. So everything that we we do here, we are mindful of what we purchasing and where we’re purchasing it from its its start. You know, it start and it’s end. And and of course the whole sustainable drainage on the whole site. 

You know, it’s a council run building. And what happens is because it was a school, any maintenance that needed to be done was quickly done in school holidays. So there were a lot of issues when they sort of started the building works, they uncovered quite a lot of problems. And the whole place was gutted. Internally it was completely gutted. They went sort of about a metre down on the floors and were hitting sort of quite boggy ground, there was dry rot everywhere, there was an issue on the roof where it’s got sort of like a twin peak roof, and the water would just run down and straight into the building. 

So the whole place was completely gutted and then put back together. And this is where I think that, as a previous parent of the school and, and a member of this community, I think it’s what’s made it really special. Is that Dan and Emily took it with such a care and respect of what it was before. So as they’ve put it back, they’ve done it with a lot of respect for the features, the original features. So we’ve got these beautiful curved walls – it’s a plasterer’s nightmare! There’s no straight edges! There’s all these beautiful curved walls and they’ve put those back in… Or the windows behind me were original windows, and if they were too badly damaged through dry rot or what have you, they were replicated through wood that came from the building whether it was the rafters or various other places and then recreated. So it still looks the same. So when we have people come in, they feel like they’re in the same space, although it’s been modernised and it’s beautiful and it’s changed. It’s managed to retain that feeling that it still was that beautiful school that it was before.  

But obviously there’s lots of things that we wanted to do to the building. It’s retrofitting a lot of green energy, so we have, I think it’s 16 boreholes through the yard, which then creates our groundsource heating for the ground source heat pump. We have underfloor heating throughout. We’ve got a 90kw of solar on the roof as well. And then on the outside of the building the installation, we’ve got cork insulation and then lime render. 

We have a community transport scheme which runs and they’re all EV vehicles. And we’ve also, got a really valuable team of community energy advisors. So they will be working here from the Hwb, and they’re also they’ve been they’re already out in the community anyway, doing various events and home visits and things, which is about helping people understanding their own buildings, but also what else that they can be doing in their own homes and then in the communities to, to reduce the impact on the environment. 

Brad: It’s really great to hear about the effort that has gone into decarbonising this building – it reminds me a lot of what we talked about in the last episode, Install Low Carbon Heating, when we learned that even the oldest building can be retrofitted with the right expertise and technical input. Do go back and listen to that one if you’re interested – we’ll pop a link in the show notes. 

Izzy: And I’m guessing that a concrete multi-storey carpark might also be fairly challenging as a retrofit project, so Brad, have the team at Tŷ Pawb done much in the way of decarbonisation and how is climate action part of their approach there? 

Brad: Yep sustainability is definitely very much part of the strategy at Tŷ Pawb, so here’s Peter to tell us more: 

Peter: So the, Tŷ Pawb was, planned, over ten years ago, which perhaps it’s fair to say that, technology for sustainability has moved on. It is a 80s built concrete structure that was a multi-storey car park back in the 80s. So back then, consideration for sustainability and renewables and certainly insulation weren’t at the top of the build list. So as part of the retrofit, we’ve managed to put in a BMS system, a building management system, which controls and sensors every part of the room, including the gallery, which we are fortunate for ourselves it’s an insulated box inside of the car park, the multi-storey as itself and is climate controlled. So we are able to take on some very specific paintings, materials, because we are able to climate control that entire part of the gallery, which is a must for some very famous artworks that we are able to take on here. 

When we first started this project, the building became, energy efficiency of grade C. I’m very pleased to say in the last two years, the work we have done with our new and upgraded BMS system has put us through to grade B, and with our solar, which is going in over the next month, we are expecting to be grade A within the next two years. 

Tŷ Pawb has a very eclectic mix of events within our programme, we have our own that we manage ourselves, but we also are a receiving house for third party bookings. We actively encourage debate within the community. And sustainability is always one of those hot topics that, that we encourage events for, and the, the actions for climate change. Our performance space lends itself perfectly to debate questions, and, our flexible space is perfect for showing films. 

As part of the traders that we have here, we have, a wonderful group called Stash Busters. They started off in one of our smallest units, moved out to the outer units, which are a little bit bigger, and within one year, they are now taking one of the bigger shops that we have within Tŷ Pawb. And their model is a charity that take, end of life craft or craft that you’ve not needed for that project. You don’t quite need it all, and they resell it at an amazingly cheap rate. And the profits from that go towards, groups and community activity in the Wrexham area.  

One of other traders is called Lend and Mend. It’s a library of things that you can come and lend. You can hire them out. They have an Amazon style locker so that you don’t even have to be in during the work hours to collect these. If you just go to Lend and Mend Wrexham, you would be able to hire out. And it’s very cheap for all the incredible different things that they have and the, the concept behind that is to save people having to buy those one-off purchases, that are usually quite expensive when you only need them to do one little job, and then they’ll sit in a cupboard for the rest of your time. And as part of it, they also run repair workshops.  They run weekly activities covering things from how to repair electrics, how to repair a bike, even cutlery and crockery, was covered the other week. 

Izzy: I love that – so the building itself is more eco-friendly, but the activities happening within it are as well. Fantastic! So, what should you do if you feel your community could benefit from a hub like this, and what have our guests’ biggest learnings been in completing these projects? First, here’s Peter: 

Peter: As mentioned, councils, and, authorities all all across the UK are trying to work out what to do with buildings like this. We often give tours to, to, architects and authorities who, trying to do the same thing or look for ways to repurpose their, their urban sites, the assets within their local towns or cities. I think the hardest one for, for us to get all of the community to understand, what Tŷ Pawb is and what the building was and the route it was going down if we hadn’t have intervened. Doing this sort of project has given it a whole new lease of life and taken it in a completely new direction. And we now get international visitors coming to see Wrexham, because of our art gallery, and come to see the space which we wouldn’t normally have had if, if we’d have kept it as just a market stall.  

Brad: And Louise shared this advice 

Louise: I would say do it. Expect it to take longer than you think. I think it probably, you know, for us, we had the wind farm. So that’s what funded the purchase of the building. Know how you either you’ve got somebody to fund it or whether it’s a building that somebody already owns, and then you just need to convince them that this is a great idea. And to do it, we should be doing more with our empty spaces. We’re really passionate about community buildings staying within the community, that they are their buildings. So passionate, in fact, that we’ve bought the pub down the road as well so that’ll be our next project. But they should be because they, they belong to the community. So they should be open back up to the community. 

So yeah, I think it’s going to be different for everybody. You know, how it’s funded in the first place, how it continues to be funded. That comes down to for us, it was down to Dan and Emily who are just persistent in the grant applications and their, you know, their enthusiasm. And you can’t help but just be swept along with them in the projects that are absolutely amazing. 

So you just need the people that have driven enough to keep on going because it’s hard. You know, we can sit here when we’re open and say how wonderful it is, but it’s it’s hard going and it takes a lot of determination and keeping up that enthusiasm even when things slow down or stop and you just need to keep on going. 

But 100% keep just keep focused and and it will happen. 

Izzy: It’s so inspiring. I love these projects and it fills me with a lot of hope to hear about how people are coming together to make them happen. 

So, to end the episode as always, let’s sum up what we’ve learned. 

Brad: I’ve learnt that sometimes the end of one era can lead to the beginning of another: I think the fact that this really important building in Cwmgors, which the local community had fought hard to save when it was a school is now transformed into something else of real value for local people is a beautiful thing and hopefully inspiring for other places as well. 

Izzy: Yeah, 100%, and I think also this idea around using the infrastructure and buildings that are already there – even a multi-storey carpark – is great. As I think has been said before on this podcast, the most environmentally friendly buildings are the ones that have already been built.  

I’ve learned something about the value that a community hub can bring to people and places, especially those affected by unemployment, poverty and isolation – it’s been wonderful to hear about the ripple effects on the wider community that have happened through the trader programme at Tŷ Pawb for example. 

Brad: Yeah definitely, I feel like a lot of places around the UK have struggling town centres and could really benefit from a hub of their own.  

Izzy: So whether it’s a repurposed school like Hwb y Gors, or a shared space above your local shop, community hubs are proof that big change can start in small, local places. 

Brad: If you’re feeling inspired to get involved or maybe even create a hub in your own neighbourhood check out the links in the show notes. We’ve got loads of examples and practical tips over at carboncopy.eco, that’s E C O. 

Izzy: You’ve been listening to Do Something Bigger from the Carbon Copy Podcast. 

Brad: It was written and presented by me, Bradley Ingham 

Izzy: and me, Isabelle Sparrow. Brad also produced and edited this episode. A big thank you to our guests, Louise Griffiths from Hwb y Gors and Peter Windsor from Tŷ Pawb. 

Brad: Don’t miss our next episode, Use Decentralised Energy, where we’ll be plugging into some powerful local solutions for clean, community-led power. 

Izzy: Until then, thanks for listening and goodbye!