The future of Swinnow Community Centre appears to have been secured after the community stalwart who runs it reversed her decision to stand down.
As reported by WLD earlier this month, community stalwart Yvonne Allman, who has run Swinnow Community Centre for eight years, announced she was to stand down for personal reasons and that the centre would temporarily close on 21 March.
But this week Yvonne has announced a U-turn on her decision and the centre will stay open – but she’s appealing for more volunteers to help with the running of the lifeline centre, which hosts a number of lifeline groups, activities and services.
Posting on social media, Yvonne said: “Due to an amazing response to me leaving and Pudsey Community Project’s campaign to save the Swinnow Community Centre, we have decided to retract my resignation and keep running. With the help of Leeds city council, and Cllr Dawn Seary this has all been made possible.
“Today we have the pleasure of announcing we are staying open. We are still in need of volunteers to help keep our services going, if you could spare an hour that would be a great help. Also we are asking for donations to help towards events and every day running costs.
“Thank you so much for all the fantastic posts, support and love, onwards and upwards to the future.”
Yvonne also announced that the centre was looking into setting up as a Community Interest Company, a special type of limited company which exists to benefit the community rather than private shareholders.
If you’d like to get involved, please e-mail: swinnowcommunitycentre@hotmail.com or pop-in and say hello to the team and collect an application form.
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Lets hope that those campaigning to keep the centre open actually do something to help this lovely lady run the place, rather than just leaving her to it once the dust has settled. The clue is in the word “community”.