New Wortley Community Association fights poverty during Covid-19 pandemic

Before coronavirus the charity was a bustling community centre on Tong Road which also provided essential services like counselling and job skills. Fast Forward nine months and it is now a provider of food, clothes and hygiene products to those in need.

Its CEO, Andrea Edwards, said: “Before the pandemic we were very much a vibrant, thriving hub in the community. We have a community cafe on site so that was always a buzzing area for people to come to. We were running activities such as Zumba, two youth clubs every week, we had lunch and supper clubs for our older people. Then Covid came along and it turned our model on its head a little bit.”

Like many groups, New Wortley Community Association (NWCA) had to rethink its role amid lockdown. Within days it was made one of the Community Care Volunteering Hubs, a partnership between Leeds City Council, Voluntary Action Leeds and various trusted community organisations.

Andrea said: “So we literally got the call on the Tuesday and were live on Thursday. We have dealt with over 1,200 referrals so far during the pandemic, that could be anything from a food parcel to picking up a prescription, walking a dog, or just having a conversation with somebody. We found very quickly that the immediate need was food, but then there are a lot of underlying issues behind that.”

Its cafe became a hot meals delivery service while its community hall became a food distribution centre. A permanent foodbank has also been established on site and the NWCA has also joined a national hygiene bank network to enable them to pick up donations of products. Andrea added: “One of the things that people face, particularly families rather than old people, is sometimes you have to choose between putting food on the table and keeping clean. That is a choice that nobody should really have to make.”

The community association also made sure children had access to clothing and shoes ahead of the return to school in September. It is looking into developing a clothing bank on site. Andrea said: “It’s been a little bit of a model change in that we have become more about fighting poverty than activity provision but it is something we think we will keep going with now because the need is there. It is probably only going to get greater when furlough ends in March and that reality kicks in of ‘Oh my God I’ve not been to work for a year but now I haven’t got a job at the end of it.”

It’s been a tough time funding-wise for NWCA as its cafe, shop and laundry had to shut during lockdown. But the single biggest loss was not being able to hire out its events facilities. However, another income stream - service contracts with Leeds City Council and Leeds NHS CCG - has thankfully remained.

The CEO added: “It’s a little bit of a worrying time because there are lots of cuts going on in Leeds, and the The Third Sector are always the people who kind of pick up the pieces and make sure everything carries on. It’s a case of there will be more work potentially and less funding out there, but that remains to be seen. Who knows what 2021 will bring but whatever it brings we will just get on with it and just make sure we continue to deliver our services and that people get what they need.”

CASE STUDY:

New Wortley Community Association (NWCA) has been helping families in a variety of ways during the pandemic.

During lockdown, it quickly got in touch with seven primary schools and a high school to discreetly provide food parcels to the most vulnerable families.

CEO Andrea Edwards said: “It’s a model of discretion so people don’t have that embarrassment of having to knock on the community centre door and having to say, ‘I haven’t got enough food in this week, Andrea. Can you help me?’. We don’t handle the data, we don’t get involved in that but we work very closely with the schools to identify the most vulnerable families. We were providing up to 80 food parcels a week via the schools.”

It also worked in partnership with staff at Mecca Bingo who cooked the meals and with Leeds Rhinos Foundation who provided staff and the use of minibus to deliver meals.

This week it has also been staging socially-distanced Christmas treasure hunts for pupils at Holy Family, St Bartholomew’s and Castleton Primary Schools at Jailey Fields. Each school has been given 20 pebbles to paint, which will be hidden on the fields over Christmas for others to find and to post on social media. NWAC is also preparing 100 Christmas hampers for families, this is in addition to Christmas Lunch bundles it is providing for vulnerable families.

For more information about NWCA go to newwortleycc.org..