We've just got back from a meeting in our favourite local cafe to discuss ideas that initiated from chats between a few friends, have begun to be formulated in to practical action by a few key individuals and are now been thrown open wide to all interested parties on how to improve our local town using the energy, enthusiasm and skills of local people. All of which were represented overwhelmingly this evening - inspiring and encouraging in itself. One idea is to take over a disused building in the town (there are many), and use it a a central community hub. From discussions tonight I realise, as is to be expected, that everyone one has different ideas on the building and what it could and should be used for. While the ideas are still buzzing round my head, here is my vision of the hub, as it stands at the moment, although this will change as my ideas continue to evolve. I hope it will be of interest to those local friends, and for those of you further afield, I'd be interested to hear if what I describe would appeal to you.
My vision of a community hub is a large, glass fronted building, centrally located in our town. It is large so that parts of it, maybe an upstairs if it has one, can be hired out to to small business start-ups, as low cost, low risk investments, to provide an income to cover the basic running costs of heating, lighting and staffing the building. It is glass fronted so that the community can see in it, see what is going on, and there are no barriers from stepping inside. It isn't a very beautiful, historically important listed building because this will be costly to maintain, difficult for people to see in to, and perhaps have the courage to enter, and will potentially have significant limitations as to how the space inside can be configured.
The building's entrance is wide, the doors open easily so buggies, walking sticks and wheelchairs feel welcomed. Inside the entrance are large and small lockers, similar to those at a public swimming pool. The lockers are large enough for bags, buggies wet coats, umbrellas and shopping so people can free themselves of their belongings as they enter. There are light, bright, spacious, warm, clean toilets, baby change and baby feeding facilities. Everything is designed to be safe and easy to access for children, older people and disabled people, or as I like to call them in my head, differently-abled people. There is possibly a manned reception desk where everyone is welcomed with a genuine, pleased-to-see you smile.
Inside the building is made up in such a way that there are movable wall panels that mean that meeting rooms of almost any size can be created as well as a huge open space when they are all removed. There is easy access to power sockets, network or wireless connections and where needed, projectors and screens. The space is light, bright, airy, warm and clean. The flexibility of the venue makes it attractive to hire. There are plenty of comfortable places to sit.
I hope you are getting an idea of the building and the space. So, what will you do when you are in there? The possibilities are endless, but here are a few.
There could be art displays from local artists, local children, visiting collections, some of which are visible from the outside to catch the eye of passer bys and encourage them in. Displays would regularly change to encourage repeat visits. There could be workshops - we recently attended a bread making workshop organised with friends that was a fantastic social as well as learning experience. Cooking, craft, gardening, writing, sewing, IT, the list goes on. Semi-informal gatherings where those with skills and experience share with those keen to learn. Costs are kept to a minimum for each workshop or where possible are free. In order to support local businesses as opposed to taking away trade, partnerships are established where for example, a local chef, knitter, IT trainer offer a taster workshop at the hub. An opportunity for the local business to advertise to an interested audience, an opportunity for someone to try something out with out financial or long-term commitment. Space could be hired out by groups including, but of course not limited to those that offer children's activities.
Key to the success and long term viability of the hub are the links it facilitates between the generations and different groups of people (in my world, the hub is for everyone, with appropriate safeguards in place. If Alcoholics Anonymous want to hire a room, great). I'm not sure if the hub has a dedicated cafe area open in the day (as much as I do love the idea of spending my days baking cakes for people and making them tea). There are a number of excellent independent cafes in our town centre. I wouldn't want the hub to become competition. However, I would want it to have kitchen facilities available for cooking workshops. I also love the idea of holding communal cooking evenings. There must be plenty of parents who find themselves thinking what do I feed the kids tonight? I'm certain there are single people and elderly people who don't want to cook for just one, again. So, we get everyone together, share the cooking, sit and eat together, wash and clear up together. Kids have playmates and new people to learn from, lonely people have company and the opportunity to be reminded what it is like to see the world through a child's eyes and tired parents get an escape and practical support for one evening from the drudgery (if that's how it feels) of feeding their ever hungry children. Bedtime stories could be read by willing volunteers and hot cocoa served - or maybe that is a bit too Enid Blyton. To take the communal eating idea one sustainable step further, we try and use ingredients from local suppliers including grocers and butchers that is on the edge of not being suitable for sale.
I think those are most of my current thoughts. What do you think? Does the hub in my head appeal to you? Want to come a real, communally created version of it? Let's make it happen.
