Tang Hall Community Centre: a non-profit charity organisation investing in the community through food.

 

Tang Hall was built after the first world war as a social housing estate, with the aim of clearing the slums and solving the housing shortage. Community was at the heart of the design, which is why Tang Hall includes large areas of green space, gardens, parks, and allotments. Identity and pride have definitely shaped the area, and its former reputation as one to be avoided is long gone – in its current iteration, this is a place where community is strong, creativity is endless, and projects are thriving.

The Community Centre was built by the council in 1992, and we took over in 2014. It is run by a small charity of the same name, with one large aim – to make Tang Hall a better place to live, work and play. Primarily a venue, providing an affordable, accessible place for local groups and individuals to hire, we are led by what local people want, and based on what we’ve learnt over the years and what we’ve seen work, have also come up with our own project.

The Tang Hall Food Cooperative brings together our values and the needs, pride and creativity of the local community. The aim is to address the many levels of disadvantage and inequality that poverty places upon people – and we’re doing it through food. Food brings people together, evens the playing field, gives everyone something in common, and eating well makes you feel better. We grow our own, we buy in bulk, we sell at cost, we teach people to cook, and we eat together. The ethos is simple – people should have food security, affordable access to better quality food, and the skills needed to have control over their food choices.

Learning about the nutritional value of food, and how to cook with real ingredients is empowering, and alongside the availability of affordable, good quality food, it allows people to make real choices about their diet, their health and their futures. We’ve found that communal cooking and eating builds community, which we was evident in its fullest form this summer, at the Tang Hall Big Local Big Picnics. People tried new food, accessed support informally and formed friendships. Tang Hall Food Cooperative exists as a genuine alternative to the current failing food system.

Whilst there’s a long way to go in getting people to believe that they can shape their future and make choices which influence the whole area, community activism is becoming a very powerful force here, and there are people from all over working hard to build connections, develop community, improve Tang Hall, and create better opportunities.

Tang Hall SMART: Sound, Music, Art, Recreation and Training

 

I have worked in Tang Hall since 1993, when I first starting teaching at Burnholme Community College. I was aware from the outset of the negative reputation that the area had, not just from newspaper stories, but also from hearing about the area when studying to be a teacher. I knew that statistically Tang Hall had higher crime and unemployment rates than other areas of York, and is in the lowest 10% Index for Deprivation. The lived experience was so very different to the reputation; I loved working at the school, I loved the pupils, and over the years there, I had a great time. But in the end the school just couldn’t shift its reputation, which ultimately led to its closure in 2014. When confronted with a choice of sending their children to schools with more affluent catchment areas, the view that Tang Hall is a rough place to live and work acted as a detriment.

I decided to remain, working on the same site, and set up a social enterprise with my husband Alex, offering a range of music-based clubs, classes and activities to the local community. Using the words ‘Tang Hall’ in our name was a deliberate choice, a kind of standing-alongside-the-community gesture, rather than using the more palatable names such as ‘Apple Tree Village’ that the area is sometimes called. Within our first year we had a sufficient base to build up our vision of working with those who had the most difficulty in accessing mainstream life.

Four years on, and we have moved to the brand-new community centre, where we run employability schemes for those furthest from the job market and provide start-up business support… but mainly we do A LOT of music! We see daily how music is for everyone; it provides recreation and the opportunity to do meaningful and creative things in the company of others; it helps us to connect and communicate; it keeps loneliness at bay and gives people a sense of purpose and joy. With performing and recording comes a sense of achievement, a growth in self-esteem, and then real change takes place as people start to view themselves differently, more positively.

The music activities, and complimentary provisions alongside, include a record label, an electronics workshop, live shows, a recording studio, and three delivery rooms where we run art and drama, all of which are not only for community groups, but for people with learning disabilities, and adults who have problems such as homelessness, addiction and mental health. We have seen music have a role in people’s lives that have been totally transformed.

Jonny, a rapper who has down’s syndrome, was a 15 year-old when we opened in 2014, and immediately endeared himself to staff with his cheeky humour and friendly nature. He wanted to rap, but was a bit shy, and needed some encouragement. Now, Jonny the Wolf is proud of his identity as a rapper. He has performed at The Duchess, Fibbers, and York Barbican, busked in York centre to help raise money for homelessness, acted as a mentor on our summer school for young people with learning disabilities, performed in several videos, been profiled by Youth Music, and has just released his own EP. Jonny raps about his life, love, friends and family – but also what it is like to have down’s syndrome, and how there is much to hope and aim for.

Neil, who I first met at a homeless hostel December 2016, has moved from being a long-term drug-addict and alcoholic who regarded himself as ‘written-off’ by society, to becoming a full-time member of staff, 18 months sober, and living in his own flat. As a music director, he oversees the quality of our exam courses, is our company secretary with responsibility for finance, produces all our record label output and videos, and has released three of his own albums as D.Ni.L. I have never in my life met anyone as musically talented, as ferociously hardworking, as fired-up as Neil, but nobody could have predicted his life transformation from that first meeting.

That’s what I love about Tang Hall SMART the most – the real chance we get to work alongside people, sticking there for the long-haul, and plugging some of the gaps we see in services – to affect people in such positive and life-changing ways!