All together in tune to put community at the centre

IN the middle of a sprawling inner-city council estate, community elders hunch over pool tables and PlayStations – the joy of this first encounter lighting up their faces.

This is the Highfields Centre – a community-run resource which easily incorporates facilities including a music studio, gym and pre-school area alongside a licensed bar and a prayer room.

“It’s a place where people integrate and come together,” says joint manager Priya Thamotheram. “We’re a secular organisation so we work with everyone. That’s understood by everyone.”

Built in 1974, Highfields has been at the heart of this Leicester community ever since. Priya joined in 1981.

Taking us on a tour of the local estate, he underlined the importance of this vital building: the Highfields area is faced with high unemployment, overcrowding, and poor life expectancy.

More than a quarter of residents are on benefits – way above the national average.

Priya tells us: “Highfields is like many inner-city areas of the UK – it’s largely disadvantaged. It’s been the initial arriving ground for people moving into the city.

“So the Irish in the 19th century, the Huguenots, post-war the Afro-Caribbean people and people from the Indian subcontinent.

“In the 90s, the Somali communities, then in the 2000s new arrivals from Africa, the Middle East and Afghanistan.

“Most recently it has been the Eastern European people.”

Since the community took over the centre fully in 2010, records show 600,000 people have passed through the doors. Priya estimates with the previous 36 years, it could easily be in the millions.

Showing us round the centre, he enthuses: “There are some fantastic stories here. My favourite is one that just shows how it’s the community that drives need.

“We have an elders group and for some reason they couldn’t use their normal room, so we had to hold it in the area where our young people usually go.

“And it was a fantastic result – one of the best things I’ve seen happen here.

“They were playing on the pool tables, the table tennis and the PlayStation. You had all these older people who had never been exposed to anything like it.

“They were doing things that you or I would take for granted but they had never had the chance to do them before.

“It was the sheer joy on their faces. It shows that people should have the chance to do as much of these things as possible.

“And that’s where a community building like this comes in. We have a licensed bar – that’s been a problem in some community buildings, but not here.

“But equally we have a prayer room as well.” Priya has other many stories that he believes show the importance of the building and its place in the community.

He recalls: “We had a young Bengali woman who couldn’t really speak English.

“She took part in one of our programmes, like an access course. Then she did a degree at De Montfort. Then a Masters. Just seeing her go through the process was incredible. There are so many examples like that.”

The centre’s place at the heart of the community has never been in doubt. But Priya says they were struggling to respond to what local people were asking for.

He said: “People kept asking, why can’t we use the sports hall for major social functions? We had to say that the funding didn’t cover it.

“With Power to Change we can now revisit that. They’re helping us to set up for major events on the weekends, things like weddings, dances, conferences.

“It’s something the community have been crying out for – desperate for it. Now people are really looking forward to being able to put on events, staying in the area.

“It’s the people who know what they want. The demand and the needs are there and established over several years.”

Work on the project funded by Power to Change is expected to start as soon as possible. And Priya believes it will help protect the future of this vital resource.

He adds: “The major physical change will be improvements to sports hall access. That’s going to make it much more accessible as a venue for large-scale events.

“We’re also moving the café from the first floor to the main community entrance. That will generate a lot more interest and boost the centre’s income.

“It’s going to be a busy time – but it’s going to help our future and make sure we’re around for a long time.”