The new hub located in the recently opened Holme in the Wood Communities Arts Café, on Broadstone Way, will enable customers of the social housing provider to access support services face-to-face without having to travel to the Shipley head office.
Customers can drop in without an appointment to speak to a neighbourhood housing officer, report repairs, and access support to help manage their tenancy or finances.
The Holme Wood community hub is open as a drop-in service on Mondays and Wednesdays, from 10am to 12pm.
The hub officially opened last week with an opening event. Incommunities customer Charles Spencer attended the launch. He said: “I think it’s brilliant. It’s good for the community, and it’s nice that there’s somebody doing something for our community.”
Others spoke about how much easier it will be to communicate with staff face-to-face rather than over the phone.
Incommunities has also opened community hubs in Allerton, Keighley and Kirklees with a fifth one due to open in May.
Patrick Collins, Director of Communities at Incommunities, said: “Customers told us that they wanted us to be more accessible to them locally, where they could come and talk to us.
“We listened to their feedback and have so far opened four community hubs, with another one opening within the Light Church in Bradford City Centre on 13th May.
“We chose this location for the Holme Wood Café as it’s a fantastic, welcoming space. This parade of shops is owned by us, and we’ve recently invested time and money into this building to help bring the vision of this café to life.”
The Holme in the Wood Arts Café, where the hub is located, only opened in March and is already proving to be a great success.
Through its partnership with the United Arts Project, the café is providing opportunities for local people to learn new skills, take time away from their daily lives, and enjoy the peace and joy of creating art.
The café is owned and managed by Ursula Sutcliffe, who said about the opening of the new community hub within her café.
She said: “I think it’s an amazing opportunity to bring this community back together. The parade of shops has been a bit of a forgotten area, but with Incommunities and us at Holmewood Community Association working together, we can start building those relationships. It’s a fantastic opportunity.”