Bullingdon Community Centre trustee, Richard Bryant, reflects on how the pandemic has impacted community centres and their source of income.
Volunteers and voluntary organisations have rightly been praised for their positive work during the Covid-19 crisis.
What has received less attention is the negative impact which Covid-19 has had on the social and financial viability of many voluntary organisations, particularly those smaller organisations which operate at the locality level in urban and rural areas.
I am referring here to community centres, village halls, youth clubs and other community buildings which provide meeting places for local residents and are a vital, if sometimes undervalued, element in civic society.
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The lockdowns during 2020 and 2021 have resulted in many of these groups and community buildings having to close for months and, when they could re-open between the lockdowns, Covid regulations have severely restricted the number of groups and activities which could re–start.
A recent report by Community Matters in 2021 highlights that some community buildings are ‘closing their doors for good’ and that others are ‘reaching the end of their financial reserves’.
For many community centres and community buildings, their major source of income is lets and renting space and this income has dried up during lockdowns.
Richard Bryant. Picture: Damian Halliwell
The Community Matters report concluded that community buildings are facing a ‘potential crisis and there is no clear idea of what lays ahead’.
The situation could be even worse for local youth centres and clubs. Prior to Covid it had been estimated that over 750 youth centres in England had closed since 2012, because of the cuts and underfunding resulting from the austerity policies of the Government. The impact of Covid has reinforced this trend.
A survey of 1,759 youth organisations in England, carried out by the charity UK Youth in 2020, found that ‘58 per cent were operating at a reduced level, with a further 20 per cent temporary closed or preparing to permanently close’.
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The evidence from these reports reflects my personal experience as a trustee of two small voluntary organisations in Oxford – the Bullingdon Community Centre and the Wood Farm Youth Centre.
Prior to the first lockdown, Bullingdon was used on a weekly basis by fourteen groups and activities.
Because of Covid regulations, the use of the centre dwindled to five activities between the lockdowns and currently only one group, which is permitted by the regulations, is using the centre during the present lockdown.
The trustees and some groups have continued to meet online but this has proved a poor substitute for face-to-face contact and real interactions.
Richard Bryant and fellow Bullingdon Community Centre trustees in 2018
For some community centres, youth centres and community buildings, the long term loss of income from lets and renting space could result in closure, despite the availability of Government grants, for example the Local Restrictions Support Grant.
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The social dimension to the crisis is more complex and challenging. Community buildings should provide the base for a wide range of activities – a meeting place for local groups, a venue for public events and family parties, a contact point for local community services and a springboard for collective action which responds to the ‘felt needs’ of local residents.
What happens outside of the walls of community buildings is as important as the activities which occur within the buildings.
The networks of relationships and mutual support which are build up around these activities constitute the ‘social capital’ which is generated by community buildings.
Social capital is slowly built up over many years and the impact of the Covid lockdowns is likely to have fractured some of these networks and relationships.
Lost social capital will be difficult to replace.
Rebuilding community resources in the aftermath of Covid will be a challenging task.
It is a challenge which cannot be left only to the often hard-pressed volunteers who manage community buildings.
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