About Oblong

Oblong @ Woodhouse Community Centre

Tel: 0113 245 9610

Follow Oblong on:

Facebook: oblongleeds

Twitter: oblongleeds

Charity number: 1120379

Company number: 3147855

Address:

Woodhouse Community Centre

197 Woodhouse Street

Leeds

LS6 2NY

Woodhouse Community Centre has been at its present location since Victorian times, and has been used for several different purposes over the years. It was managed by Leeds City Council as a community centre for the past few decades.

A big commitment

Oblong took over management of the building in April 2011 through a process called Community Asset Transfer. The building had become under-used, and the council was losing more than £60,000 each year to run it. As a condition of taking responsibility for the centre, Oblong is required to refurbish the building. Oblong successfully sought funding for this through the Communitybuilders fund. As a result The Social Investment Business are providing over £400,000 of investment to pay for the building works. About three quarters of this is a loan, which Oblong must repay over ten years.

In your hands

Now the building is in the hands of the community, and it will be up to us all to make it the vibrant, busy place that local people want to use. Oblong have responsibility for managing the building, keeping it maintained, paying the utility bills and loan repayments, looking after room bookings and letting office space – but all of this also depends on people taking advantage of the opportunity to use and own the space!

There really is no ‘behind-the-scenes’ here: everyone who uses the building is needed to help keep it up and running. This can be through simply choosing Woodhouse Community Centre for hiring rooms and office space and spreading the word about the facilities available, or through getting more involved. Oblong is here to help volunteers learn how to run the building – by doing things like covering reception, participating in users’ groups, helping with publicity, or suggesting other ways to get involved.

Supporting the community

Oblong is committed to supporting local people to access resources and develop skills to create an active, flourishing community. We want Woodhouse Community Centre to be a huge part of the activities, projects and ideas that local residents want to do (and are already doing). It belongs to the everyone, so we’ll need to work together and all put in our ideas, time and effort to keep the centre going, and make it a great place to use and enjoy.