Bringing people together

While bricks and mortar are important – it is the people who make a community.

By giving residents the chance to get together in support of each other and for themselves, Back on the Map has boosted community spirit, injecting pride and confidence back into its streets and, with that, the beating heart of Hendon gets louder and stronger.

Carnegie Community Corner – The big library takeover 

When the council had to close Hendon’s library in 2013, locals were upset. The library was not just a place to borrow books – it was a place to meet, learn, work and to even shelter for some.

With the backing of over 200 residents, Back on the Map successfully tendered to take over the building on a small rent. The space – renamed after it’s original benefactor, the Carnegie Community Corner – was transformed, creating a vibrant, resident-led, multi-use community facility which now provides a whole host of social, educational, cultural, employment, training and welfare services.

Spurred by the success of redeveloping the old library, a year later Back on the Map won a five-year Big Lottery Reaching Communities award of £428,000. This has helped over 3,000 people combat isolation, social and digital exclusion and improve their mental ill-health and wellbeing.

Supported by the growing team of volunteers, thousands of local people enjoy a vast and varied range of community activities that cater for people of all ages and abilities.

Based on a commitment to bring people together in friendship and peer support, activities focus on supporting well-being through helping people to improve their physical and mental health, to combat loneliness, to learn something new or even just to live better on a budget.

Along with the strong resident volunteer team, the active Volunteer Committee codesigns, steers and delivers the programme of activities and events. 

The Workshop – Responding to Residents  

But Back on the Map didn’t stop there. Following a local consultation, residents told them that Hendon needed more community spaces and that the high street needed to be improved. In direct response Back on the Map purchased a large run down shop on Villette Road and, with capital grants from Suez and Garfield Weston, transformed it into a community space, providing facilities and services that couldn’t be accommodated in Carnegie Community Corner. The Workshop was born.

Due to open to the public in March 2020 the opening was halted by the pandemic. Being the dynamic organisation that they are, Back on the Map repurposed the building to be used as a outreach space for their crisis support throughout the pandemic. Creating a pick up point for local families to collect much needed supplies of food, cleaning materials and PPE. The space was also used to shoot a bank of educational videos designed to engage those isolated at home in meaningful activities. The space now encompasses three vital initiatives that address identified local needs; Social Kitchen, Social Shed and the Community Pantry.

The added benefit of the development was a direct improvement to the visual amenity of Villette Road, boosts footfall to an underused high street and limit the number of empty retail premises contributing to our Better Place objectives.