Hi, I’m Sarah Rogers,
Friends of Hillfields Library Co-Founder and Project Manager for the Hillfields Library Welcome Space.
I coordinated the Welcome Space in Hillfields Library including recruiting and working with volunteers and setup and management of free food provision. We received funding from Quartet Foundation via BCC and Feeding Bristol.
The Friends of Hillfields Library Welcoming Space was open on Mondays over winter, from 12 – 6pm and it has been transformative. We have seen community members engaging more with neighbours and feeling less isolated. We’ve seen friends being able to come to a community space. For those attending, they have a greater sense of community, being among residents, sharing a cup of tea, listening to music, watching a film and receiving free food has been hugely beneficial.
The help and space offered was always more than just handouts. It was about building relationships with people and providing a truly welcoming space for people to be themselves. I often referred to and treated the Library as a “Living Room Library”, people were welcomed into the “Home” and made to feel comfortable, welcome and at ease. It has given residents a chance to come together, to talk about common issues, learn about other support in the area, speak to experts and get support on their doorstep. We also hosted a range of support services B.E.N, Adult Education, Sustainable Transport, Healthy Teeth Oral Hygienist, and others). This resulted in people being able to forget (even if briefly) about the worry of paying bills or other household issues.
The Living Room Library model has been hugely impactful and has also increased main library use, putting Hillfields Library back into the minds of residents. It is a lesser-known library and yet it is a fantastic asset to the local community. Being able to walk to the library has made a difference to those who do not have private transport and for whom public transport does not well serve.
Ultimately it meant that residents didn’t have to travel for miles on a Monday afternoon for a free hot drink, friendly conversation and some free advice and food.
We have seen a wealth of skills and commitment from our new volunteers, who have so diligently supported this group and many who themselves are in need.
At the first Welcome Space session in December we had one volunteer.
By the end we had 12 volunteers, each turning up
The volunteers said:
- "If you have a community like ours you should be proud of it"
- "The Welcome Space became a family of volunteers and local residents, I liked seeing the same people each week, building new friendships".
- “It was great volunteering at the Welcome Space and then bumping into people in the local area, it was nice getting to know more people”.
- “I felt a greater connection with the community and the local area”
We had a fantastic celebration recently.
I managed to source some free items to put into thank-you gift bags for the volunteers. I wanted them to know how much their hard work and dedication meant to myself and to the Community.
During the hour-long celebration we shared tea and cakes, some of the volunteers had not met before some did early and some did late shifts, and we talked about the things we really enjoyed about the welcome space, why we had volunteered and what we might do differently next winter. It was a nice opportunity for collective gratitude for this new volunteer team, and to reflect on all that we had achieved together.
We also read out anonymous messages from the thank you box that had been put out for Welcoming Space visitors to communicate their own personal thanks to the volunteers.
The Volunteers received over 30 messages of appreciation from the community – here are just some of them:
- “You’ve all been very welcoming and very helpful and for that I thank you”
- “Thank you for all you do to make us happy”
- “we always have so much fun because of you”
- “I want to thank you so much for all the work and effort you put in for us….thank you for being so kind and generous”
- “To the special volunteers, thank you, it’s helped me out so much you have no idea”.
- “I would like to thank all the people who have given their time to help others, including myself, at this time, when everyone is struggling. Thank you”
A thought - Create you own celebration station?
Do you help out at a community centre or public space?
Could your community space host a "celebration station", providing space for anonymous messages of gratitude to helpful volunteers and citizens this Summer? It could simply be a decicated wall space or a community letter box for centre visitors to post messages.