Centre for Warmth –Windhill Centre
Windhill in Bradford is one of the 5% most deprived areas within the UK, it has a high crime rate, high obesity rate, high level of unemployment, high percentage of people renting poor quality housing many without gardens, most families rely on public transport or walking to access services. Windhill is lucky to have many amenities and local areas of green space to play in, but often families have low enthusiasm in accessing the resources we have.
Windhill Centre are a very busy community centre with a footfall of around 300-350 individual people per week (at least 15,000 per year). They offer a range of activities to suite the people, of all ages and abilities who attend and are in need.
The current staff team have noticed a backlog with more and more families in crisis coming through the door, with reducing availability for funding. The current needs of families vary from being cold at home, not enough food for the family especially during holiday periods, increased social isolation due to limited funds impacting their access to not just enriching experiences but basic essential services. Poor housing conditions including damp, non-repairs and overcrowding, limited access to reliable white goods and increased energy bills have impacted individuals access to quality meals, hot water for bathing and clean clothing.
These factors also impact families in crisis in other areas such as digital poverty and educational deprivation with little or no access to wifi/internet at home and very little engagement with after school and outside activities, often secondary school work is done through online resources laptops/smart phones required adding to monthly costs in the household.
Many families have since suffered with mental health, the feeling of not being good enough, embarrassed to ask for help, not being able to provide the same happy time they had growing up, for their own children. There are adults living alone eating ready meals instead of knowing how to cook a healthy meal.
This project will cover the geographical area of Bradford.