We are submitting this as evidence to show all the additional work Grassroots Music Venues do to support their community and culture.
STEAM HUBS & PUBS CIC
COVID SOCIAL VALUE REPORT
March 2020 - March 2022
www.theoldabbeytaphouse.co.uk
VIDEOS
https://vimeo.com/steamhubscic
SOCIAL MEDIA : https://www.facebook.com/oldabbeytaphouse
INSTA @oldabbeytaphouse
Overview
The Old Abbey Taphouse is an award winning social enterprise functioning as a pub, music venue, catering kitchen, radio, work space, youth training space and community hub. We are the last remaining building of what was the Greenheys Estate, meaning the pub has a lot of heritage - including being the site where Len Johnson overturned the Colour Bar in 1952. Our community projects are wide ranging but specifically look to build up community resilience, focusing on local culture, history, anti-racism / pan-africanism, food based projects and culture.
We opened the pub in Nov 2016 with support from University of Manchester Just Social Innovation Hub but were unable to take on our first lease as a social enterprise due to our landlords, Bruntwood Works, not recognising CICs at the time. We pitched the pub as a “STEAM Hub”, connecting up residents and academia and providing a much needed community space in the area. In 2017 One MCR supported us by funding a marquee and stage in our large outdoor space, increasing our capacity to 300. We were successful in building up trade in a pub that had no footfall and had not been run as a “pub” for over a decade. We did this by putting on events, serving food, engaging with the heritage of the area and doing a lot of grassroots-led community outreach including pay as you feel meals, door knocking and workshops.
Two years into our five year lease the pub was threatened with being knocked down in a redevelopment of the area. We mounted a community-led campaign with CAMRA, local councillors, residents and our suppliers. This included a Social Value Report and put a Community Asset Lock on the pub. After a hard 6-month campaign we were successful in saving the pub from being knocked down and were allowed to re-sign the lease as a social enterprise. We then converted Galivantes Productions LTD company into STEAM Hubs & Pubs CIC, transferring all assets across to the CIC.
Funding
Pre-covid we had been successful in getting small pots of funding but largely relied on trading. In 2019 we had been selected by GMVO to go for a £50,000 loan and were in-line to receive this the week that the first lockdown was announced. We then were told we were un-viable due to our dependedance on trading. We had to work really hard to show we were viable, and were given the loan after launching a take away service and hatch.
Due to going for GMVO funding we were then unable to apply for the bounce back loan. This made us focus on re-building our trade through take outs, applying for additional funding and short term projects.
The GMVO loan created 2 new roles at the pub - Community Engagement Manager and Event Manager to increase the reach of the work of the pub, develop a community membership system.
Link to our GMVO loan outline: https://www.gmcvo.org.uk/case-studies/steam-hubs-pubs-cic
COVID TIMELINE
March 2020
We launched a Covid Response Manifesto with 4 key aims - to provide for the community, keep connections going, share information and raise people's spirits. We did a call out for people to get involved and were inundated with offers.
- Met with local councillors to discuss food provision for the local community, especially elderly residents and low income families.
- Brought together ACORN, Geeks for Social Change and Gaskell Garden Project to design and deliver an emergency food response, which became Taphouse TV Dinners
- We launched a digital radio, TOAT radio (now STEAM Radio MCR) to encourage residents to stay active and creative, and to keep events / community of artists connected. We created a DIY guide to making your own show for beginners, resulting in 66 regular shows from people with no former broadcasting experience.
- Printed out leaflets with TV dinners and other services, went door knocking to get service users to sign up and offer support for anyone needing assistance.
April / May
- Opened the pub for support groups / welfare groups to use.
- Opened a “Hatch” in line with our licence, providing take-away drinks and pizzas. Residents said we provided “an oasis of hope”
- Successful in receiving £5000 to expand TOAT radio, relaunched as STEAM Radio with two part time paid roles.
July / August 2020
- Launched Family Meal Time. We were aware that many local families could not afford Eat out to Help Out and desperately wanted to get out of the house with their families. We pitched to ONE Mcr to adapt the Holiday Hunger Pack Lunch Fund to provide an evening once a week all summer holidays for families to come and have a meal and evening of entertainment for us. This proved to be a huge success.
Sept - Dec 2020
- Re-opened our pub garden with a large program of events in line with COVID restrictions - our marquee and outdoor stage proves to be a god send!
- Hosted our annual “Drink for Len Johnson” to celebrate Len and Wilf overturning the Colour Bar and to celebrate the Pan Africanism movement within the local area. The event was a huge success, with a podcast made for STEAM radio and Len’s family in attendance.
- Reached out to other Social Enterprises to create a Kickstart Gateway creating 33 Kickstart Roles around Community and Wellbeing.
Dec - April Lockdown
- We continued to run our community emergency food response and outreach alongside Steam Radio live streams.
- Our first 6 Kickstarters started as Food and Community Event Coordinators undertaking 6 weeks of hands on training
- Opened up for emergency mental health support for residents
April - September 2021
- Successful in receiving £63,400 Art Council Emergency Funding which allowed us to programme a whole summer of outdoor events in line with COVID restrictions. This proved to be highly financially successful for us and saw our turnover triple.
- In September we hosted our first Community Feast as part of Ripples of Hope Festival. This proved to be a significant moment for the community as it was the first time many of us had got to meet each other in person.
- We hosted our 2nd annual Drink for Len Johnson - a lot of phenomenal young people turned up to perform material inspired by Len, including Roots 0161 and Lamin Touran. After the event, we got together to launch a new music night for young people, Breaking Bars.
November 2021
- Our second round of Kickstarters starts. This time we take on 10. Lots of organisations who were meant to provide workshops had stopped face to face meetings or community work so we had to rework the scheme. We decided to work closely with the Aquarius Estate and their residents on intergenerational skill sharing, with the Kickstarters going to the Aquarius centre every Wednesday to help run the over 50s session.
- Started to see a decrease in attendance in the venue as the weather got colder and it became harder to run events in our large outdoor space. We looked for ways to heat the space to no avail.
- Launch event for Breaking Bars was a huge success - with a diverse mixture of activists, speeches and performances.
December 2021
- We used up our reserves in November but felt confident due to having a lot of Christmas bookings. However the government’s work from home announcement and another wave of COVID led to all our events being cancelled. We had to make some tough decisions, reducing our work force and cutting most of our community projects apart from TV dinners. We struggled throughout December, almost going into administration on 2 occasions. It took all the Directors working on the bar and putting on a popular New Year's Eve event to get through this period.
- We were unsuccessful in a £10,000 joint bid to fund TV Dinners for the next year.
January 2022
- Applied for Emergency Arts Council Funding to replenish 3 months of reserves at £120,300.
- See a return in people attending events and our trade increase
February 2022
- See trade return to pre-covid levels.
- Our marquee is severely damaged by both the storms - we hoped to send it back to Belgium to be repaired but Brexit has meant there are huge import / export costs. This means that we had to pay for a temporary tent whilst we wait for a new one to be made for us. This has depleted our reserves once again.
March 2022
- Found out that we were partially successful in obtaining £42,000 of Emergency Funding from the Arts Council, which will cover one month of our reserves.
- We hosted a Feast for the Community to celebrate the Spring Equinox, inviting local residents, Aquarius community residents and recipients of the TV dinner program for a free meal and night of music.
Case Studies
CASE STUDY 1.
TAPHOUSE TV DINNERS
Funding : £10,000k National Lottery in 2020 then self funded.
Project duration : from March 2020 - current
Partners : Geeks for Social Change, Gaskell Garden Project, ACORN
Regularity: Every Tuesday
Staff : 1 project manager
Kickstarters : 3
Volunteers : 15 - 30 as delivery drivers
Problem : In the run up to the first lockdown, panic buying meant our local supermarket was completely sold out. Many local people, especially elderly people, relied on buying their groceries daily, and some families were unable to “stockpile” and were struggling for necessities. We realised that some people were excluded from online information completely. We brought together 3 local partners who are activists across Housing, Food and Digital Inclusion. We put together a flyer, built a website and database and went out door knocking and finding residents who needed additional support. We only expected to run this project for 12 weeks maximum.
Geeks for Social Change built us a database with SMS, ACORN provided our delivery volunteers and the Gaskell Garden Project provided surplus food. For the 2 years that the project has run we have tried to send the same volunteer each week, meaning real friendships have developed with service users. Hosting a Feast as we came out of lockdown meant that we finally got to meet in person and users were able to see the pub. Recently, our Kickstarters have created a DIY magazine, ‘The Parakeet’, which includes community updates, feature articles, local listings and useful information to go out to the 70 families.
TV Dinners has been a huge success for us and our community, creating real bonds and connecting us with people who would not have traditionally used the pub.
During the first Christmas lockdown we connected with ‘Manchester Youth Got Talent’, who helped deliver meals to homeless people and came back to have a social distance meal for us to say thank you.
We knew from our previous stakeholder engagement that the Hulme people are proud - they don’t want handouts - and some people hadn’t been in financial poverty before, and didn’t want the shame associated with receiving food. To counter this we rebranded as “Community not Charity” and made it so anyone could sign up for a meal - advertising it as a meal for the community to eat together. This saw uptake in the project increase. We delivered meals in our normal delivery packaging so it looked like a take away and we did little things like use names, rather than numbers on packaging. We tried to offer opportunities for people receiving meals to give back by coming to volunteer - for example at Christmas we did social distance hamper packing which was appreciated. We received local and national press for this work - including through Manchester Evening News and BBC Manchester.
The project has been a huge success for us and our community, creating mutually beneficial relationships and reaching a completely different community from our standard trade audience. It also showed that we were here and active whilst many organisations had shut down their services, as at one point we were the only ones doing outreach to the estates.
Meals served : 5,928 2 course meals served to over 70 families with a hamper and special courses
Areas of focus: reducing isolation and food poverty, building community resilience. Teaching young people to cook.
Kerry Ellis, one of our regular customers said:
“I am low-income self- employed dog walker and pet sitter and in better times, myself and my neighbours would meet/eat/quiz/ experience music and talks at The Old Abbey Taphouse…I got right on to "proud" but what you might call "vulnerable" neighbours, I said, look, this isn't charity as such - it is old- school HULME help your neighbours and kin! The food you can expect would cost you £££ in any gastro-pub and is equally amazing! When I hear of a person who hasn't signed up, I order 1 extra and leave outside their front door with a leaflet!”
Another one of participants, who has asked to remain anonymous said:
“I struggle to cook meals because of my health conditions. During lockdown I felt isolated and having a meal cooked for me made me feel included and part of the community. This service also helped me stay connected with others in the community, I was able to cope with loneliness because of it as the young people who delivered the meals would stay awhile and chat with me while observing the social distancing rules. I felt safe knowing that I can turn to them if there was a problem.”
CASE STUDY 2.
STEAM Radio MCR
We launched STEAM Radio MCR (initially TOAT Radio) in March 2020 and the station has since expanded to include 66 regular shows, with roughly 24 hours of content broadcast live every weekend. Our roster of DJs is incredibly diverse, with an age range from 19-80 and an unusually even split across genders and ethnic identities.
Funding: £5,000 from ‘United we Stream’ in 2020 then self funded.
Number of Resident Shows: 66
Shows produced by at least one woman (including cisgender and transgender women): 32 (48.48%)
Shows produced by at least one non-binary or transgender person: 9 (13.64%)
Shows produced by at least one cisgender man: 33 (50%)Shows produced by at least one person of colour: 26 (39.36%
Number of shows produced in total: 1036 (all 1 or 2 hours in length)
RADIO CASE STUDY 1.
Community Radio Shows for Older People: ‘Small Island Discs’ and ‘Old Trafford New Recruits’
Over the last couple of months we have sought to incorporate the radio station into STEAM and the Old Abbey’s community work with older people in the local area. The closure of day centres and support services during the Covid-19 pandemic created an unprecedented crisis of isolation in these communities, so we were excited to use the medium of radio to give a voice back to them after two very difficult years. We are now proud to be producing and broadcasting two regular shows that celebrate older people’s lives and wellbeing.
The first show, Small Island Discs, was developed alongside the Aquarius Community Centre, with whom STEAM have built a strong relationship over the last four years. The format follows that of Radio 4’s ‘Desert Island Discs’, in that we invite a weekly guest from the local area to share music and stories over the course of an hour. We have recorded two shows so far, with the first episode scheduled to air on the first weekend of April.
The show is hosted by the ‘Queen of Hulme’, Sally Casey MBE, who has lived in Hulme for over 50 years and continues to play a pivotal role in local community organisation and activism to this day. She has a wide-ranging understanding of Hulme’s historical and contemporary challenges, so is in a unique position to facilitate fascinating, personal, and provocative conversations about life in this community.
The second show, Old Trafford New Recruits, features members of the Old Trafford Mental Health and Wellbeing Centre who meet bi-weekly to chat, share and perform music and poetry. This is the DJs’ first experience of recording a radio show, and their genuine excitement in the studio is both infectious and moving. We have recorded one episode so far, and will confirm broadcast slots in the near future.
STEAM’s position as a social enterprise is crucial to the running of these projects. Both shows would realistically struggle to find airtime on revenue-focused commercial radio stations, whilst our in-house recording space and advertisement-free broadcasts do not necessitate commercial viability.
“On a personal level, producing and editing these shows has proved a deeply rewarding experience for myself. I joined STEAM via the government’s ‘Kickstart’ scheme in November, which aimed to alleviate youth unemployment by providing six-month training and work placements across a range of industries. Professional experience, especially paid experience, is notoriously difficult to find within the arts and culture sector, so I feel lucky to have had the space to develop my production skills and to have taken responsibility for the direction of these shows. I certainly feel far more confident in my abilities, and would be excited to take these skills forward into a related career.” Ruairidh Fraser (in-house recording engineer and producer for STEAM Radio)
RADIO CASE STUDY 2.
Beginner DJ Workshops With Shifting Spheres and Queer Mix Club
Problem: There is a serious issue with dance music events featuring primarily, and often only, cisgender, straight, white men on their line ups. We noticed an increase in promoters asking more underrepresented DJs to come forward but felt this was not doing enough to address the root of the problem, which is that underrepresented groups are less likely to learn to DJ in the first place due to a lack of welcoming spaces and communities to learn with.
To address this problem we have set up workshops with highly skilled and inspiring local DJs. So far we have done 2, the first with Shifting Spheres and the other with Queer Mix Club. Each workshop followed a structured 4 hours with breaks and lunch which The Old Abbey Taphouse provided. We also used icebreaker games and encouraged conversation to help attendees make lasting connections. Everyone left well placed to stay in touch and practise together having bonded over their newfound skills and confidence.
Our aims were for attendees to:
· Learn what beatmatching is
· Learn about track selection
· Gain hands on experience mixing tracks on CDJs and on turntables
· Increase their confidence in their ability to continue learning
“I became a part of the Steam Radio crew after attending a Shifting Spheres DJ workshop hosted at The Old Abbey Taphouse. DJing was something that interested me because of my love for music, but I never had the confidence to put myself out there until I saw this workshop advertised. It was targeted at women, non-binary people, LGBTQIA members and ethnic minority groups - which is obviously so important for opening up the platform to marganilised identities. Our hosts, Rach and Romy, incorporated this ethos into their workshop by being so welcoming and creating a safe space for all attendees. On that day I learnt the basics of mixing on CDJs and with vinyl records. I also just had a fun day chatting to like-minded people, who in combination had such an eclectic taste in music. Not long after this, I started sending my mixes into Steam Radio which were played - woohoo! The encouragement I received from Hannah really motivated me and I’m grateful that Steam has given me an outlet to practise my mixing and explore more niche genres of music - without it I never would have progressed. I also moved to Manchester recently and getting involved with Steam has given me a chance to integrate into the creative community here with amazing people and go out to great gigs! I’m excited to get more involved in the future!” Abbie Mitchell, an attendee at the Shifting Spheres workshop
RADIO CASE STUDY 3
Steam Radio X Above The Line: UNDEREXPOSED
UNDEREXPOSED is a new series aiming to highlight incredible work from underrepresented filmmakers. To kick things off, we have been hosting screenings and discussions of female directed films in Ducie Street Warehouse's mini cinema during March to celebrate International Women's Day.
The idea came about when Manchester based film night, Above the Line, joined the Steam Radio crew with their new film-soundtrack inspired residency. With International Women's Day approaching, we wanted to put together a collaboration that would platform both women in the film industry and in our local music scene. It didn't take long to find out that according to a report by the Centre for the Study of Women in Television and Film, only 12% of the top 100 grossing films of 2019 were directed by women. Dismayed, we turned to our radio community for inspiration and the result is a programme of four amazing female directed films curated by Steam's resident DJs.
"Part of what we love about radio at Steam is the chance to share music and other interests in a personal and contextualised way. With music for example, being shown a song on air by someone who loves it creates a very different listening experience to a faceless algorithm guessing what you might like. We want to bring that ethos to Underexposed so each film will feature a short introduction from the woman who selected it, and will be followed by a film inspired DJ set from that woman. So stick around after for some tunes and chat!" - Hannah O'Gorman (Station Manager, Steam Radio)
By presenting each film from a personal perspective and contextualising it with a DJ set following the screenings, we were able to encourage attendees to stay behind after the film and discuss their thoughts on it with each other, whether they came together or not. Our goal in everything we do is to bring people together using creative outlets so we were delighted to have created an atmosphere where people felt confident enough to approach each other.
“Underexposed was a fantastic experience for me as a woman. Watching 'Queen and Slim' with my female identifying friends was amazing, especially knowing it was selected by a fantastic female dj we massively enjoyed seeing perform after. The whole experience allowed us to put the film into a perspective that intersected both race and gender. The conversations we had about the film after, while listening to music inspired by the film, created a full, contextual experience which made us feel motivated, excited and emotional about the issues it raised as well as excited about the power of film.” - Aggie Johnson (UNDEREXPOSED attendee)
With these screenings being in honour of International Women's Day, we wanted to direct any funds raised into directly helping vulnerable women in our own community here in Manchester. All profits will go to MASH (Manchester Action on Street Health), a charity that stands with women who sex work and helps them to experience good health, safety and emotional wellbeing.
Mixmag coverage of UNDEREXPOSED: https://mixmag.net/read/steam-radio-joins-forces-with-above-the-line-to-launch-series-underexposed-news
RADIO CASE STUDY 4
Resident DJ Justin O’Gorman - ‘OG OR Man’
“Justin O’Gorman here, representing my charmingly feckless alter ego OG OR MAN.
I was encouraged to start the OG OR MAN radio show at the start of the first lockdown in March 2020 by my daughter.. I had never even spoken into a microphone before, let alone DJed or appeared on the radio, but I do love music of all sorts and had always wanted to give it a try. What an opportunity!
I started producing a 2 hour show on a weekly basis, which took up all of my free time. That was ok, because under lockdown I had an awful lot of that. The show is now every 2 weeks, which only takes up half of my free time. This is also ok, as there’s nothing I like doing more.
I started with themed shows of my favourite things across a lifetime of music listening. This has gradually morphed into a show mainly focussed on recent releases, mainly DIY or indie labels, and majoring on bands based in or near Manchester.
The show now provides an outlet for many artists who might not otherwise be heard in a show context. I think this is important, because a radio show provides things that a Spotify playlist or a Bandcamp browse cannot – a context for the artist’s music, a sense of curation and a curator who is present and communicating directly to the listener, and bad jokes.
On a personal level, the experience and outcomes for me have been transformative. I have a greater sense of self and purpose when I’m out in the music community. Being in my 50s, it had become harder to find the time and place to connect with people but through the radio I have made many friends that I know I would otherwise never have met, from listeners to artists and other DJs. Getting involved with Steam has allowed me to go from an enthusiastic observer to an active participant in the local music scene. The show is great fun to do, is enjoyed by listeners and artists, and is a creative product that I’m really proud of.
There are 67 OG OR MAN shows (and counting) on the Steam Radio Mixcloud, and I have no plans to stop!”
Links to STEAM Radio MCR in the Press:
https://www.manchestersfinest.com/music/steam-radio-mcr-old-abbey-taphouse-station-hits-milestone/
https://mixmag.net/read/manchester-radio-party-news
CASE STUDY 2.
FAMILY MEAL TIME
Problem : A lot of the families we were working with were struggling with being stuck at home. They felt financially excluded by the Eat Out to Help Out scheme and were looking for free activities to do with their children during lockdown. We asked One MCR if we could transform the Holiday Hunger Fund into a free weekly night out for families over the summer holidays with a 2 course meal, entertainers, goody bag and activities such as table tennis and circus skills. They agreed and we ran the event every Tuesday for 6 weeks. We were oversubscribed from the start, demonstrating the need, and it had a real impact on families’ wellbeing. One lady said that “this is the nicest thing I have been able to do with my son all summer, thank you”.
We hosted 42 families over 6 weeks and the ‘Manchester Youth Got Talent’ group of 30 on our final week.
CASE STUDY 3.
BUILD BACK BENCHES
Funding : £2000 from Social Impact Fund University of Manchester
Participants : 60 (6 per bench, 10 benches)
Partners : Sow the City / The Boiler House
Outcomes: 10 benches
1 day a week over 6 weeks
Problem: Community meetings had become tense & there was a lack of benches in the area for residents. Due to COVID restrictions, we were able to run this project outside in groups of 6 at The Boiler House. People from the community meetings were able to meet each other in a fresh space and work together to build a bench. Local attendees included the Amadiyya Mosque Network, local councillors, staff from the University of Manchester, our young kickstarters and local residents. The youngest attendee was 16 and the oldest was 70.
The project raised awareness of The Boiler House, helped build confidence in participants, allowed residents to meet each other in a more informal space and taught people DIY skills. The benches have real longevity and have been placed around the Science Park. The next part is to engrave community written poetry onto the benches.
CASE STUDY
A FEAST FOR THE COMMUNITY: September 2021 and March 2022
Funding : £300 Ripples of Hope Festival
Participants : 50
Led by our first 6 Kickstarters and as part of the Ripples of Hope Festival: Feasts of Hope, we invited our neighbours from the Amadiyya Mosque, all the participants of TV Dinners, Manchester Youth Got Talent, Aquarius Estate Residents, Food the Love of Food Salford CIC and Hulme Writers Group to attend a Feast. It was a fantastic day, building confidence for our Kickstarters in their abilities and bringing together divergent groups within the community to create new connections.
In the lead up to the event we ran a series of workshops around sustainability, woodwork, decor making and poetry to feed into the Feast. Most importantly, it took place in September as restrictions were lifted, so became a moment of celebration for the community about what we had been through, and allowed us to finally meet each other in person.
With our second cohort of Kickstarters we made the Feast their final challenge. They chose the March Equinox and brought together 50 members of the community for a 3 course meal with entertainment.
‘Running a feast for the community felt like a really good way to put everything that we have learned over our Kickstart to the test! It was really incredible to see everyone come together and play to their strengths. I personally really enjoyed the chance to see everyone that I had worked with in our CommuniTEAS project out in the evening to join us to celebrate’
Iona, Kickstart member
CASE STUDY 4.
Kickstart Scheme
Participants : 16
Jan 2021 - March 2022
Due to having so many conversations with phenomenal young people who approached us offering to volunteer for TV Dinners, we realised many young people were struggling to find work and it was affecting their confidence and mental health. We decided to launch a Kickstart Gateway, bringing together Hulme Community Garden, Coffee Cranks and Manchester Veg Box People.
We were the only partner to successfully recruit Kickstarters. We achieved this through outreach work - even skateboarding with young people, connecting with local families, running an online campaign, working with the DWP, and reaching out to organisations which work with foster and care leavers.
Our roles for the Kickstarters have been titled “Community & Food Co-ordinator'', and included 3 months of training, hands-on workshops and days out focussed on culture, community, food and sustainability. They have been a valuable resource for us in delivering our community work, impressing everyone they have met whilst learning new skills and building real relationships, especially with the older residents of the Aquarius Estate.
“I’ve learnt a lot of new skills on the Kickstart Scheme especially around kitchen skills and community work. The Kickstarter scheme really helped me get back on my feet again after COVID and all the lockdowns, I was quite anxious and going out into the community and meeting people really helped me develop my sense of self.”
Lucia
“I started volunteering during lock down as I couldn’t find a job and I wanted to be active in my community. Through the Kickstart Scheme it helped me find something that I’m good at and I enjoy doing which has been a massive confidence boost. It’s the first job I’ve ever had where I feel it comes to me naturally. I’ve gained a lot of experience in things that a normal hospitality role wouldn’t consider - the community engagement stuff and learning more about the heritage and culture of the area of where I live. I feel a real part of the community now”.
Millie
Our Kickstarters receiving an award from the ceremonial Mayor for their work in their community over Lock Down
CHECK OUT OUR KICKSTARTER VIDEOS HERE
CASE STUDY 5.
CommuniTEA events every Thursday / Work with Aquarius Estate - led by SHAKIRA EVANS
CommuniTEAS has developed out of the growing need of older Hulme residents to gain access to social spaces in their local area. Unfortunately, due to the expansion of universities in Manchester, many older people in the local area have seen their community centres and pubs closed down or bought up by the University. This has a wide range of implications for this generation, who have, in the last two years, faced a pandemic and now a cost of living crisis. CommuniTEA sessions aim to remedy the isolation of the older communities in Hulme by creating a welcoming environment in a pub that many of them used to attend. Through bringing younger members of the Greater Manchester community together with these older residents in a local community hub, CommuniTEA grows intergenerational connections to mutually beneficial ends.
CommuniTEAS has grown out of our relationship with the Aquarius community centre, a long-running community hub situated in a local estate that serves a large population of older residents. Since December 2021 we have offered our space on a Thursday afternoon, which came about after a group of the older Hulme residents were dancing along to Abba at the pub’s community feast organised by our Kickstarters. It was a reminder that people don’t stop enjoying dancing, there are just less welcoming spaces for them to do so.
This started our alternating ‘Daytime disco’ and ‘Curious Creations’ sessions of weekly music and making events. We provide a warm and friendly space that is theirs to socialise within, learn new things and have fun. Creative sessions so far have included making Christmas decorations, note books, homemade pasta, and clay coasters. In the music sessions, tracks spanning 6 decades and many continents have been played, staff and attendees have taught each other dance routines and attendees have brought along vinyl to share.
6 people are regularly attending though there are sometimes as many as 10 local residents attending - this has increased through positive word of mouth from attendees. Many of thepeople attending also go to the Aquarius centre lunch on a Wednesday. Attendees are from a variety of backgrounds including local born Hulme, Jamaica, Pakistan, Ireland and Congo.
The running costs of the sessions each week are approximately £100 per week which includes 2 staff to prepare food, the space and workshops and be present for the session. There are also drinks / cake supplies costs and materials for the making sessions. 2 staff are required to run the sessions well, i.e. helping to ensure everyone feels socially included, facilitating the safe use of tools / materials in workshops and also sometimes assisting with transport those with mobility limitations.
Participants have developed strong relationships with Kickstarters and staff at The Old Abbey Taphouse, and have regularly expressed the rarity of the space for them. Through sharing memories and feelings over creative activities, the space operates as a site of learning both for the young people and the older participants. The participants have spoken of their commitment to the group and the importance of the group for minimising isolation.
The Kickstarters have developed skills in leadership and in community work, with several beginning to take a lead on running the sessions on a weekly basis. For other Kickstarters, other activities have been of more interest, such as baking. One Kickstarter, for example, has learnt how to bake and has been providing cakes for the CommuniTEAS sessions and the pub on a bi-weekly basis since then. The project has given an opportunity for youth-leadership, and has also developed an awareness of participatory models of facilitation. It has also allowed younger members of the team to hear about the history of the local area and re-imagine their local spaces.
‘I have really enjoyed getting to know and getting to spend time with people in my local area, especially people who I wouldn’t usually meet. It’s been really nice to break out of my usual social circles and develop relationships through sharing these creative spaces, because I have learned so much about what I am capable of, especially when I ran a session myself! I also think that learning more about the history of my local area is really important so that I can understand more about the political, social and cultural history of Hulme!’ Iona
‘It makes me very happy to be here. I am here alone and at home alone all week and my flat is cold. It is nice and warm here. I like it very much.Thank you.’
Esperance, originally from the Congo
CASE STUDY 6.
POET LAUREATE - TINA CRIBBIN
Tina Cribbin is a local resident and hero behind ‘Hulme Community Writers’ and ‘On Top of the World Play’. During lockdown she kept the community’s spirits up by encouraging people to write poems and stories on whatsapp alongside using her training as a social worker to support residents to do welfare checks on each other. In her own words she is “a working class Hulme lass” and her focus is encouraging people at the margins of society to find their voice.
We approached Tina and asked her if she would become our “Poet Laureate” for the pub, writing poetry and opening our community events - including our Drink for Len Johnson and Community Feast. It has proved to be highly successful, bringing in an authentic Hulme voice who speaks on behalf of the Aquarius Estate and highlights the issues of concern to our residents - from food poverty to the perception of being used by academics for their research.
We helped raise Tina’s profile by passing her book A Big Dollop of Hope to Andy Burnham, and getting her a slot on the Oxford Road Corridor Festival. Our next steps together is to release a new community poetry book and engrave the poems written during lock down onto our benches.
“The Old Abbey Taphouse has enabled me to pursue a dream I’ve wanted to do for a long time - the honour of being Poet Laureate has raised my confidence to no end and helped me go for things I ‘d never have tried. If it wasn’t for the Old Abbey a lot of older people would be isolated, hungry and excluded from their own community”. Tina Cribbin
CASE STUDY 7.
GOOD NEIGHBOURS - WORKING WITH AHMADIYYA MOSQUE NETWORK
Our nearest neighbour is the Ahmadiyya Mosque. We have always known about each other but due to running at different hours, and outside perceptions of us being a pub, we had never met in person. Through COVID we built a real friendship and connection through doing similar community outreach with food. We were invited down to the Mosque for food by the President, Nadim, to meet the Imam and learn more about Islam and the work that the Mosque does, and they then came to our Feasts and Build Back Benches. We realised that we both have the same aims - we are about helping other people and making our neighbourhood a better place. 
CASE STUDY 8.
A DRINK FOR LEN JOHNSON / BREAKING BARS
Since discovering that the pub was the site of Len Johnson’s 1948 overturning of the Colour Bar, we have celebrated with an event every October led by local anti-racism activists Deej Majik and Lamin Touran, historian Geoff Brown and Len’s family. The event has grown organically from a drink with some speeches to becoming a monthly event featuring music, poetry, food and celebration. Many young people in the area have been inspired by Len’s legacy, with Roots 0161 creating and releasing a song about him. This year we created a mural of Len, which is up on the pub wall.
After seeing all the fantastic young people perform, we reached out to them to support them and help set up a new conscious hip hop and anti-racism event Breaking Bars with an equal gender balance of performers. We have now hosted 3 Breaking Bars events, which have each been huge successes with a diverse range of speakers and artists.
Breaking Bars Instagram Page: https://www.instagram.com/breakingbarzmcr/
CASE STUDY 9.
LGBTQ+ HAVEN
We have always been a safe haven for LGBTQ+ and this is reflected in our events, staffing and output. We regularly run LGBTQ+ events such as Alt Femme, High Hoops and LGBTQ+ History month. Highlights over the years have included bringing over Malaysia’s only queer band Shh Diem, alongside hosting Ajah UK, a local queer Benghali hip hop outfit.
There was a sense within the LGBTQ+ community during lockdown that a lot of the community revolved around nightlife, and people wanted to see more daytime and non-drinking events. In response to this, our Kickstarter Beth started a weekly queer gaming event which has proved highly popular. We also put on lots of workshops over Pride weekend, including banner making with Rebel Dykes Director Siobhon Fahey, and hosting a ClitorArty art workshop with a local artist. Alongside this, STEAM radio has produced and broadcast multiple podcasts around LGBTQ+ history, alongside interviews with queer performers and resident DJs.
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“I’m incredibly proud of our staff and what we have achieved in the last two years. Not only have we managed to survive all the financial and emotional challenges the lock down brought, we delivered our best community work to date. At all points our staff have gone above and beyond to serve our community. At one point my staff and I were the only people doing outreach in tHulme and we saw injustices that we are determined to change with our projects and work. How people feel has been so integral over this COVID period and we managed to make people feel cared for and supported so they would access services we signposted them to - this included driving people to get vaccines. This is where I feel we are most needed - providing an informal space where people can feel valued and access the help they need without shame.
The Kickstart Scheme has been one of the most important projects we have run, seeing the young people find their place in the community and build real friendships with the Aquarius matriarchs has been life changing. Steam Radio has been a huge success, and has brought joy and new friendships to so many people and taught new skills to people who would not have thought to do radio before. Taphouse TV Dinners - a project we only expected to run for 12 weeks - has connected us to people who would not necessarily use the pub and shown how much we care for our neighbours, tackling food inequality and connecting us up with Fareshare. The Feasts have been iconic moments enjoyed by everyone who attended and brought us closer to the Ahmadiyya Mosque and our neighbours. This year, I’m excited to see how we can grow these projects to bring joy to more people.”
Rachele Evaroa,
Co- Founder
Director of Community & Business Development Steam Hubs & Pubs CIC
Find out more about us at
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For enquiries / press / projects contact rachele@steam-mcr.com