The Ewe Space
Supporting resident leadership in Matson
The Ewe Space is a community hub in Matson, supported by Community Roots in partnership with the Matson and Robinswood Residents Group.
The space is increasingly shaped and run by local people. Volunteers take responsibility for a growing range of activity, including the community pantry, Advice First Aid, and the day-to-day community offer. Through support from the Good Things Foundation, the space is also able to provide access to SIM cards for people who may otherwise struggle to stay connected.
Alongside this, the Ewe Space has developed a small community tuck shop and a breakfast club, creating more informal points of contact with residents. The space and the residents group also play an active role in helping to organise and support local events and community activities, creating further opportunities for people to meet, get involved and contribute ideas.
The Matson and Robinswood Residents Group are at the heart of how the space develops and what it offers, while local volunteers increasingly take responsibility for delivering and supporting activities.
Community Roots provides community organising support, mentoring, training and the practical infrastructure needed to help residents take increasing responsibility. The aim is not for Community Roots to run everything indefinitely, but to build local capacity, confidence and leadership so that residents are increasingly able to shape and sustain the space themselves.
The Ewe Space provides a strong example of the Community Roots approach in practice. People can begin by attending an activity, using the pantry, coming to the breakfast club or accessing support; they may then become a volunteer, develop new skills and confidence, take on greater responsibility and ultimately help shape decisions about what happens within their community.
It is this progression — from participation, to involvement, to leadership — that sits at the heart of the work.
Westgate Community Corner
Westgate Community Corner is our community hub in Gloucester’s Westgate ward.
The hub is based in a Gloucester City Homes building, and their support has been fundamental to making Westgate Community Corner possible. They have been an important partner in enabling Community Roots to establish a permanent neighbourhood base from which the pantry, community activity and wider plans for the space can develop.
Westgate began with support from Comic Relief, administered by Feeding Britain, to develop a social action hub and community pantry. The longer-term vision has always been broader: a community-led neighbourhood food shop focused on store-cupboard basics and fresh food, with a supported pantry offer built into it for people experiencing food hardship.
Today Westgate combines affordable food with a welcoming community space, helping people manage pressure on household budgets while providing opportunities to connect with others and become more involved in their community. As the hub develops, we also want it to provide an accessible place where people can find information, connections and early support before difficulties become crises.
We are now entering the next stage of the work. A wider community conversation will help us reach beyond the people already involved, understand what residents want from the space and test how the hub, pantry and future shop model can develop in a way that is useful, inclusive and increasingly sustainable.
We are beginning to open up more volunteering opportunities at Westgate, with longer-term plans for the space to become an important base for training, work experience and mentoring across Community Roots. The aim is not simply to run services from the building, but to create opportunities for people to participate, develop skills, take responsibility and become more involved in their community.
Gloucester Park Community Cafe
Gloucester Park Community Café grew directly from community listening.
Community Roots worked with park users and local residents to understand what they valued about Gloucester Park and what they wanted to see there. One of the recurring ideas was an affordable, welcoming café offering food, drinks and treats that met local needs.
Working closely with Gloucester City Council’s Green Spaces and Wellbeing teams, and with support through Community Infrastructure Levy funding and later Shared Prosperity Funding, that idea developed into Gloucester Park Community Café.
The café is one of Community Roots’ social enterprises. As a working café, it needs people to help operate it, and this creates a practical environment in which we can offer volunteering, training, mentoring and real work experience. Through our community networks we identified a local resident with a catering background to help lead the café. Community Roots has supported and mentored her over several years as her role has developed, and she is now a Director of Community Roots CIC.
We are also working with the Gloucestershire Employment and Skills Hub to develop opportunities for people who can benefit from practical experience, skills development and supported routes into work.
The café is still developing, but it has already become a well-used part of the park and provides Community Roots with a visible trading base in the heart of Gloucester. Its location does, however, mean that normal café trading is highly seasonal.
We are therefore developing activity beyond the kiosk itself, including small-scale catering, market trading and community events, alongside our wider food-enterprise collaborations.
This includes Gloucester Soup, developed in collaboration with We Cultivate CIC and We Are Project Grow CIC, producing soup in Gloucester using locally grown, seasonal ingredients, and Social Source, our collaborative artisan-product strand.
Together, these activities are helping us explore a more resilient, year-round enterprise model while creating more opportunities for people to gain experience, build confidence, develop skills and contribute to a working social enterprise.
Our work focuses on:
Strengthening community capacity and local leadership
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Increasing community participation by supporting residents to identify the issues that matter to them and take collective action.
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Building stronger local leadership and voice through community organising training focused on listening, understanding power and developing routes to action.
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Supporting communities to develop sustainable, resident-led structures and initiatives, including residents’ groups and associations.
Improving mental wellbeing and reducing social isolation
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Providing safe, welcoming community spaces where people can meet, build relationships and feel part of their community.
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Supporting regular activities and events that bring people together across different ages and backgrounds.
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Creating volunteering opportunities that can provide purpose, confidence, routine and social connection.
Preventative wellbeing and early support
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Providing accessible local routes into advice, information and support around issues including health, housing, benefits and financial wellbeing.
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Building trusted relationships that can help identify problems earlier and connect people with appropriate support.
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Strengthening community resilience by developing networks of residents, volunteers and local organisations that can support one another.
Supporting people experiencing health inequalities and cost-of-living pressures
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Supporting people to improve their financial wellbeing and access appropriate advice and support.
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Increasing food security through our community pantry and wider community food work.
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Providing accessible community-based support in places where people already feel comfortable and connected.
Building confidence, skills and pathways to opportunity
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Providing volunteering and work experience opportunities through our community hubs and social enterprise activities.
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Supporting people to develop transferable skills, confidence, routines and experience.
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Creating accessible pathways for people who may be furthest from employment, training or other opportunities to begin participating at a pace that works for them.
Ways to support our work
You can support Community Roots by:
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funding community-led wellbeing, resilience and neighbourhood projects;
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partnering with us to deliver inclusive and preventative community-based support;
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investing in volunteering, training, community organising and local leadership;
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supporting our community food and food security work; or
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commissioning Community Roots to undertake community conversations, engagement or training.