What are Warm Hubs?

Warm Hubs 2024-25

WRCC Warm Hubs are warm, safe, inclusive places where residents can expect a friendly welcome and refreshments all year round – they’re not just for winter!

People can come along on their own, or with a friend, and enjoy talking to others over a hot drink and biscuits/cake or maybe a hot meal. They can get practical tips and advice on reducing energy costs and keeping safe and warm at home and be signposted to other support organisations as may be needed. Funded and supported by Cadent Gas, WRCC officially endorses and certifies 30 accredited, community-led Warm Hubs in Warwickshire and Solihull which are identified by the official Warm Hub logo.

Some Hubs run weekly events, some run twice weekly, and others run monthly events. We’re also working with Hubs to expand their range of events and activities, to help them provide more support to their communities as WRCC accredited Warm Hubs.

Warm Hubs can focus on running lunch or breakfast clubs, community cafes or cooking sessions, craft or community shed activities, board games or bingo events, seated exercise or indoor curling sessions, after school clubs or meetups for carers – or a combination of many other activities aimed at many different attendees. The events are community led and therefore the Hub organiser and their team are free to concentrate on what best suits their local community’s needs. It’s a very flexible model, and the extent of support offered to the community is shown in this quote from Arley Warm Hub:

After the success of our Winter Warm Hubs in 2023-24 (further details below) WRCC has received considerable interest from Hubs looking to become permanent members of our network. However, our model has changed this year, in that we have now more than doubled our permanent accredited Warm Hubs up to 30 and, while we will not be expanding our numbers with Winter Warm Hubs this season, it does mean that we can support our permanent Hubs all year round.

Benefits of being a permanent accredited WRCC Warm Hub include: set up advice; connecting Hubs with community partners and support groups, as well as with each other; access to energy saving, home safety and cost of living support; village hall advice (via Halls Together); directory listing on WRCC website network page; and advice or signposting on other funding/grants available. Membership is of course free, and we are able from time to time to provide additional items such as slow cookers and other practical resources where there is a need.

Thanks to funding by Cadent, The WRCC Warm Hubs Team are able to provide the above support and are also able to offer grants to their accredited permanent Warm Hubs. In the first phase of funding for 1 October 2024 to 31 March 2025 Warm Hubs can apply for up to £1,500 to help with the costs of running their Hubs, or for one off purchases required to facilitate the provision of their Hubs. This will be followed by two further phases through 2025-26.

Following the success of our first Warm Hubs Workshop in September 2023, we’re delighted that even more organisations and community groups are coming together to help our Warm Hubs initiative. WRCC is working closely with organisations like Citizens Advice, Act on Energy, Better Housing Better Health, Fire and Rescue, the NHS and the British Red Cross and many others to get advisers and support out to even more of our Hubs to help people.

We have also connected Hubs with Mature Driver workshops, Police and Crime Commissioner visits, Dementia Friends, Neighbourhood Watch and NFU volunteering projects, in addition to other social prescribers mentioned above.

While we currently cannot accept further permanent, accredited Warm Hubs, we may be able to help and support you with resources and information, so please get in touch.  If you run your own event and would like to have your details on our Network Map as an “Other Community Hub” click here for further information and how to submit your details.  This could help raise the profile of your group and let people in your community know where you are.

Winter 2023-24

Winter Warm Hubs

During Winter 2023-24, WRCC expanded its network to include seasonal Winter Warm Hubs, with 84 hubs in our network. We offered Winter Warm Hub grants of up to £500 to target social isolation and the cost of living crisis, and we also provided each hub with free energy and resource advice packs and carbon monoxide alarms.

Online Training

To support organisers and volunteers we also offered 7 courses of free online training, ranging from Community Energy Champion sessions, run by National Energy Action, to Promoting your Hub, run by WRCC Warm Hubs.

Slow Cooking Courses

Warwickshire County Council funded and Cadent supplied the slow cookers for 12 slow cooking courses around Warwickshire. Each was attended by 12 participants and led by a qualified chef, who demonstrated four different dishes able to be cooked in a slow cooker.  Slow cooking is a cost effective and delicious way to prepare meals. Due to their popularity we are running a further 12 courses through winter of 2024-25, more details can be found here.

Winter Warmth Materials

WRCC Warm Hubs were able to provide a variety of winter warmth materials to accredited permanent Warm Hubs for distribution to their members. These included electric and fleece blankets, heated seat pads, slow cookers and thermos flasks.

Digital inclusion courses

In collaboration with CWCDA and thanks to funding from Warwickshire County Council, we also organised 7 digital skills courses:

Courses ran for 6 weeks with an additional 2 weeks for two venues. CWCDA brought laptops for attendees to use in sessions and people were encouraged to bring their own digital devices as well.  Attendees were also offered resource folders with a range of energy and home safety advice, materials and support information from WCC and other community partners, and carbon monoxide alarms supplied by Cadent.

The following comment from an attendee summed up the feedback received from participants:

“This was a very enjoyable and informative course.  It has enabled me to start filling in gaps in my knowledge of computing … hopefully this could be repeated in due course.”

And local organisers, as at Warwick Methodist Church, appreciated the courses too:

“It has been an absolute pleasure in hosting these sessions.  The mix of phones, tablets and laptops alongside a mix of user knowledge and technology confidence made the sessions quite challenging, however Danielle led the sessions well and everyone felt part of the group, with each having their own aims supported.  It has been a job well done!”

For further information about digital skills courses, or any other Warm Hubs activities and support, please email warmhubs@wrccrural.org.uk.