Community Focus – #2 – Pudsey Community Project

Pudsey has a number of wonderful groups and charities within the town. Each month we want to shine the spotlight on them and tell you more about what they’re up to. Today, it’s the wonderful Pudsey Community Project.

Pudsey Community Project has been a shining light for a lot of our community during the COVID-19 pandemic, helping delivering food parcels and much much more. Read on to find out more about the group, what it is they are doing to support the community and how you could get involved.

Tell us about yourselves, where it all began and your ties to Pudsey?

Pudsey Community Project was launched by Pudsey Parish Church just before the March 2020 lockdown, and now we’re an independent registered charity. We’re all local people, volunteering to make Pudsey a better place, especially for the people who are most vulnerable and isolated.  We have a few dozen amazing volunteers, a part time Project Coordinator, and a lot of commitment to our strands of work especially Pudsey Foodbank and our Children’s Clothes Project. We are currently based in Pudsey Parish Church and cover an area serving 20,000 households – Pudsey, Swinnow, Tyersal, Woodhall, Farlsey, Calverley and Rodley. We have fed people with tens of thousands of meals in the past year, and are looking forward to restarting all kinds of youth provision, and mental health support, as soon as restrictions allow.

We can be found at www.pudseycommunity.org.uk, or www.facebook.com/pudseycommunityproject

How would you describe your group/charity in one sentence?

Pudsey Community Project offers a range of services for Pudsey and its surrounding areas, espeically for those who are most vulnerable and isolated, be they young or old – Pudsey Foodbank, Children’s Clothes Project, Jigsaw Library, befriending service and – with the lifting of restrictions as the months progress – youth provision and mental health support and more.

What makes you do what you do?

We are passionate about seeing Pudsey and its surrounding areas a thriving place for everyone, so we work in close partnership with Pudsey Parish Church, local schools, other charities and anyone else!

We want to help those who might otherwise get left out or left behind.

We are inspired by the individuals we are privileged to help – the young mums choosing between feeding themselves or their kids, and desperate not to let on how close to the edge they are; being able to support women fleeing domestic violence, or older people getting a helping hand to stay connected.

We do what we do for a better future for Pudsey and work for the common good here.

Tell us more about what you’re up to in the community

We run Pudsey Foodbank, delivering food parcels to people’s doors six days a week.

We run a Children’s Clothes Project collecting and offering children’s clothes from baby clothes to 11 year olds, and including shoes, coats and more – all free. This also includes primary and secondary school uniform.

We run a popular Jigsaw Library, for free borrowing.

We are planning to roll out and expand our Youth Provision when the restrictions properly lift – including youth clubs but possibly also a youth cafe, lego club, and cooking classes for teens and more!

We are planning to offer Mental Health Support services when the restrictions lift enough for us to do so – to help people recover from the past year but also to help people cope with the storms of life in general by supporting one another.

Are there opportunities for the community to get involved with you or support you in any way?

We are open at Pudsey Parish Church Monday to Saturday 10am-12noon for donations of food, toiletries and good-condition preloved children’s clothes and school uniform.

We are grateful to St John’s in Farsley and the New Inn in Calverley for collecting donations for us there also.

We are hugely appreciative of our dozens of volunteers – if you want to help, contact us at www.facebook.com/pudseycommunityproject or email jo@pudseycommunity.org.uk to offer and we will see if we can find a match.

We REALLY appreciate financial donations if you’re able to give, which you can do at our drop off point; or by card online at https://givealittle.co/campaigns/95f58467-36ec-49fe-aa78-78dcd79ae889

If you want to support us on a regular basis – or if you’re a business wanting to sponsor us or give a gift, we’d love to hear from you.

We can be found at www.pudseycommunity.org.uk, or www.facebook.com/pudseycommunityproject