Select Page
← Back

What is a Winter Welcome Centre?

All across the UK voluntary Community Groups and organisations including Men’s Sheds are answering the call in order to help set up a network of winter wellbeing spaces that can support people, providing not just warmth but a warm welcome and a place for coming together. 

The cost-of-living crisis has seen a rise in inflation caused by a multitude of factors which has led to food and energy prices soaring out of control.

The fear for all concerned is that people just will not be able to either provide and heat a warm meal or be able to heat their home sufficiently this coming winter. Plus due to cutbacks in council services over the last decade have led to diminishing resources. That is why local councils in England & Wales have been offering winter hardship grants in order to help various charities, churches, community groups and organisations to set up Winter Welcome Centres.

Pontypridd Men’s Shed: Winter Welcome Centre

Pontypridd Men’s Shed, in partnership with R.C.T.B.C (Rhondda Cynon Taff Borough Council) who have offered a Winter hardship grant of £2,000, plus Pontypridd Town Council who offered to pay our hire and heating costs for the duration of the project is opening up as a Winter Welcome Centre.

The idea is to open up our community centre every Monday from January 9th till the end of March 2023 (12 weeks). Our community centre where we are based is in an area known as Treforest, which is known locally as the student hub of Pontypridd due to the siting of South Wales University campus in the village – so we are expecting to cater for a lot of cold, hungry students and young families during the new year.

How we will help keep our community warm 

We are hoping to offer a shelter for both our members and the public to shelter out of the cold in a warm and friendly atmosphere. This will give the local community a chance to come together and join with our members in order to socialise. We’ll be offering breakfast in the form of toast and lashings of tea and coffee. At dinner time we’ll be offering a basic soup with a roll.

We are currently putting together warm packs made up of public donations of hats, scarfs, gloves, hand warmers, hot water bottles, and cosy blankets.

We’ll also provide activities in the form of games, quizzes, and puzzles to help keep people entertained. We are also hoping to work in partnership with Cwmpas who operate on behalf of Digital Inclusion Wales to offer free digital inclusion activities including free group wifi, mobile phone charging facility, plus various laptops and digital tablets for people to use.

Our Ethos

We are able to offer a warm welcome and a warm place for people to come together

Every time someone enters our community centre, our members and volunteers will be available to offer a warm welcome and we can signpost people to a range of services they may require.

Everyone is treated equally, with dignity and respect

Everyone has a right to be warm, so everyone in a Winter Welcome Centre will treat and be treated, with dignity and respect. There will be a zero-tolerance approach to verbal and physical abuse for everyone.

Our Winter Wellbeing Hub will be a safe space

Our Winter Welcome Centre will follow the safeguarding policies and procedures that are currently in place within Pontypridd Men`s Shed, and it will abide by food hygiene rules too. Mandatory training will have been undertaken by registered Winter Wellbeing Hubs.

Confidentiality is maintained unless permission is given

Our Winter Welcome Centre is a non-judgemental space. If an individual would like to share their reasons why they accessed our Winter Welcome Centre, someone will be available to listen, and will respect the individual’s confidentiality, unless permission is granted to share information. Safeguarding procedures must be followed if any concerns are raised.

The recreation of a social club

We hope to run the project until either it is no longer needed or we run out of funds to run it. Our goal is to prove the concept of providing pro-active preventative support mixed with various social therapeutic and digital inclusive activities. We hope to recreate a modern-day interpretation of an old-fashioned social club.

Volunteer Members:

We recognise that no matter the age or ability our Volunteers and Men’s Shed Members have they can still contribute fully within society. They will be helping to bring a little bit of warmth and joy back into the community. By offering their bucketfuls of experience, skills and ability they can make all the difference this winter.

One of our latest Wednesday morning sessions where the young ladies from the Cwm Taf Morganwg Memory Assessment services who came to talk to the Shed at Taff Meadow Community Centre, Treforest.

Some but not all the members of our Creative writing Group having their photo taken in Santas Grotto.

If you’re in need of a warm space where you are, you can check those who are registered nearby to you with Warm Welcome Space at warmwelcome.uk.

← Back

Looking for something?

There's a lot going on at Men's Sheds so make sure you take it all in. Search for topics, resources and more here:

Subscribe to our newsletter

Sign up for our monthly newsletter, Shoulder to Shoulder.