Mansfield District Council
Working to develop pride in place through renovated community spaces, and develop local people and skills through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund
Following 23 community projects delivered across Nottinghamshire through the Community Renewal Fund, including The Old Library in Mansfield and West Nottinghamshire College, we’re now working to renovate 4 additional community spaces in Mansfield, co-funded by the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF). Spaces/clubs offering sports or physical activity are also match-funded through our national partnership with Sport England.
Mansfield Town Community Trust
Mansfield Town Community Trust, began working across Mansfield, Ashfield and the surrounding areas in 1990 to unite people through the power of sport. The charitable arm of Mansfield Town, the Trust plays a strategic role across Mansfield supporting people and organisations through various different projects some of which include support with energy bills, mental health sessions, education and healthy eating. The spaces we redecorated for them, supported through our partnership with Barclays, will provide a space for the community on match days, a space for men struggling with their mental health and host the new girls Weetabix League football teams which have recently started through the Trust.
Social Action Hub
The Social Action Hub‘s vision is to bring people together by organising social action projects and delivering services that make a difference to the local community and boosting mental health and wellbeing, particularly for vulnerable adults, families and children and young people, all from low socioeconomic backgrounds. We’ve helped to create a new usable safe outdoor space which will allow them to run a forest school which will give local young people the opportunity to learn about nature and become more creative, and offer their own holiday programmes, where they currently have to travel to another venue – which they can no longer afford to do. The space will also serve as a safe space for weekly parent and toddler outdoor messy play sessions.
Queen’s Walk Community Centre
This popular community centre is a u003cspan style=u0022font-weight: 400u0022u003evibrant part of the Meadows area of Nottinghamu003c/spanu003e, relied on by many in the local community as a space to socialise and run various activities from, including zumba, line dancing, after-school clubs and English language classes. Their tired, dowdy spaces were in dire need of improvement to invite more groups and classes to run from here. With the help of u003cstrongu003e18 local young volunteersu003c/strongu003e, and u003cstrongu003e10 volunteers from Johnsonu0026amp;Johnsonu003c/strongu003e (above), the rooms have been revived to be fully utilised by the centre. We also created a bespoke refreshment station using kitchen worktops, for members to have refreshments following classes.
“Thank you so much for the opportunity. Jacob got so much from it! All your staff were so good with him and the others. It was not easy to get him there, but on the first day he was proud to take his work high-vis home! His sister told me he had left a note for her to wake him the next day at 8…he’s never done that. So thank you so much… it really was a huge breakthrough for him.“
Simeon Hartwig, Nottingham Education, on behalf of Jacob, 16, VIY Volunteer at Queen’s Walk
Hyson Green Youth Club
A youth centre dating back to 1939 in an area of high crime in the city, Hyson Green were looking to expand their offer to local people as winter approaches in the form of au003cstrongu003e breakfast club for school children, wellbeing cafe and warm space hub for the elderlyu003c/strongu003e. To help them put this plan into action, we u003cstrongu003ereplaced the existing kitchenu003c/strongu003e in the youth wing and u003cstrongu003erevamped the gymu003c/strongu003e and other areas of the building through redecoration, to make it a more attractive, rentable space for the community to keep active and host community events.
Nottingham Arts Theatre
u003cspan style=u0022font-weight: 400u0022u003eWe helped this city centre theatre turn their large hall upstairs, previously unused due to water damage and clutter, into a u003cbu003eusable rehearsal spaceu003c/bu003e – nu003c/spanu003eu003cspan style=u0022font-weight: 400u0022u003eow a clean bright space able to accommodate an extra 150-200 young people during the summer holidays for theatre and arts groups, and for external exhibitions and local eventsu003c/spanu003e. We alsou003cspan style=u0022font-weight: 400u0022u003e transformedu003c/spanu003e u003cbu003eless than desirable dressing rooms into creative spaces u003c/bu003eto attract more acts and groups to hire the theatre. u003cbu003eAll to ensure financial stability and a brighter future for the theatre.u003c/bu003e
Match-funded by Barclaycard, who we’re working with to boost grassroots music and arts venues across the country.
Community Record Studio
A brilliant youth work space/charity in St Anns, helping young people learn/master film, music and video skills, particularly those involved in, affected by or at risk of gang violence/crime. We’ve u003cstrongu003eredecorated various rooms insideu003c/strongu003e with vibrant colours – all thanks to our partners at u003cstrongu003eu003ca href=u0022https://volunteerityourself.org/viy-dulux-paint-partnership/u0022u003eDuluxu003c/au003eu003c/strongu003e – with the help of 27 young people from Nottingham College Basford, Nottingham Care Leavers, Westbury Academy and the JobCentre.
The Chase Centre
The Chase Centre is also known as the St Anns Advice Centre. The centre offers a range of services to the local community including a subsidised cafe which offers hot food at low prices, benefit, welfare and debt advice as well as a food bank. We’ve u003cstrongu003erepurposed and redecorated a room to create a more useable spaceu003c/strongu003e with storage to allow them to host more sessions which benefit local families and residents, as well as allow them to generate income from training and meetings.
The Lenton Centre
The Lenton Centre offers a safe, friendly place to swim, workout, meet new people and learn new skills, whatever your age or ability. u003cstrongu003eBy refurbishing/decorating and reconfiguring the storage in the main hallu003c/strongu003e we’ve made the room more desirable, opening it up to more diverse audiences. We’ve also u003cstrongu003egiven the cafe a new lease of lifeu003c/strongu003e to encourage more visitors to meet and chat and help sustain the space financially, following the recent kitchen refurb.
Chayah Development Project
u003cdivu003eA wonderful u003ca href=u0022https://www.chayahgroup.co.uk/u0022 target=u0022_blanku0022 rel=u0022noopeneru0022 data-saferedirecturl=u0022https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.chayahgroup.co.uk/u0026amp;source=gmailu0026amp;ust=1716301325267000u0026amp;usg=AOvVaw3a-c-FsDgnP2t2-FwXOP8-u0022u003ecommunity organisationu003c/au003e supporting a vast array of diverse audiences and needs in St Anns. Our project has supported their u003cstrongu003eu003ca href=u0022https://www.chayahgroup.co.uk/services/boyzmen/u0022 target=u0022_blanku0022 rel=u0022noopeneru0022 data-saferedirecturl=u0022https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.chayahgroup.co.uk/services/boyzmen/u0026amp;source=gmailu0026amp;ust=1716301325267000u0026amp;usg=AOvVaw0b57FKFFJimwo2dEBCcia6u0022u003eBoyz2Menu003c/au003e programme and other male mental health support groups/sessions,u003c/strongu003e through au003cstrongu003e garden renovation to create growing spacesu003c/strongu003e including veg beds, polytunnels and benches – to enable sessions focused on improving male mental health.u003c/divu003e
We’re working to connect our VIY alumni with positive next steps into further education, training or employment, through our national partnerships with employers like Dulux. Like Ali, who was supported by VIY to secure an apprenticeship with Dulux contractor, Ian Williams.
Ali (pseudonym) first joined us at Evolve Community Centre in Nottingham, a project part-funded by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund via Nottingham City Council. He was referred via Al-Hurraya, who support young people from ethnic minority and refugee communities in Nottingham to overcome the effects of addiction and crime. He’d dropped out of uni, been injured and out of his beloved boxing, and had been working security since, which he didn’t love.
He told us he wanted to learn as many skills as he could and wanted to renovate houses afterwards. He gained a City & Guilds accreditation in bricklaying with us at the project in Nottingham, and was offered employability support through our Progressions team – who helped him to successfully apply for an opportunity with Ian Williams.
Ali’s now 3 months into his apprenticeship and thriving. He’s currently working on void houses that need general maintenance – things like slab laying/removal of tiles/filling/changing taps and refitting broken doors. “My favourite part is working with my two colleagues and learning from them, they are like my bosses. I’m really enjoying it.”
