Dewsbury Moor

Enabling community access to a venue for activities

Many community spaces in Dewsbury Moor were operating at maximum capacity or were not seen as inclusive to all residents, and One Community wanted to be able to recommend a venue to grant recipients. Some groups trialled the Children’s Centre for activities, but felt that its association with statutory services for residents, and the resulting stigma attached to visiting the space, led to low attendance.

As a solution, One Community worked with a school to enable access to the Westmoor Community Sports Hall . In addition to promoting the space to grant recipients, One Community helped the school implement a new booking system and apply for funding for maintenance. In early 2025, around 10 groups were delivering activities from the hall weekly. This included community yoga (targeting neurodivergent people, older people, survivors of trauma, and people with dementia), followed by ​‘tea and chat’ sessions to encourage connection.

This project was a key legacy for Big Local in the area, creating an inclusive space for residents, including religious groups who had been unable to use other venues.

Improving inclusion in existing spaces 

Around the middle of the Big Local programme, two Dewsbury Moor community spaces wanted to improve their facilities to be more inclusive .

The first of these, the Dewsbury Moor Sports Club, received Big Local funding in 2018 to build a new community room, space for catering facilities, better changing facilities, and disabled-access toilets. The clubhouse became a more modern space, with more sports teams hosting games and training sessions. A subsequent grant was allocated by One Community in 2024 to enable the Sports Club to complete construction of their café, making it easier for people to participate in watching matches at the club. 

In 2019, the Faizan-E-Madina Jamia Mosque also received Big Local funding to build disabled access, and a community space to support a new female-only programme.

Developing green spaces

In 2024, Big Local funding was allocated to two local organisations to improve access to green spaces.

Transformers North used the funding to kickstart their five-year plan to develop a community garden next to a local primary school. They ran activity days and weekly workshops to encourage people to share ideas, get involved, and build planters (which were made to look like beds for the garden’s ​‘Land of Nod’ theme). Towards the end of Big Local, they planned to continue working with the school and community groups to develop the space, and to run training in woodworking and planter making. 

Moonlight Trust also received Big Local funding for improvements to Dewsbury Moor Country Park. These included a spiritual garden and pond-dipping facility (allowing people to use a net to explore pond life), pathway maintenance, and implementing wheelchair accessibility around ponds. Moonlight Trust also offered volunteering opportunities and outdoor youth activities, which young people said improved their wellbeing, gave them time out, and provided opportunities to learn.

Embedding youth voice in funding decisions

One Community set up a youth grants panel to input into funding decisions in the Dewsbury Moor Big Local area. Their intention was for the new panel of young people (alongside the main grants panel) to read all grant applications and advise on what they would like funded. In tandem, One Community ran a youth programme with Kirklees Youth Alliance, meaning that involvement in the panel could help young people achieve a Young Leaders Network Award and access other training and mentoring opportunities. 

One Community ran workshops in podcasting and graffiti to help attract young people, who then took part in training to assess grants. However, after six weeks of workshops, plans moved away from integrating the youth grants panel into the One Community grants panel; organisers felt this original plan may be too challenging for young people who had not had enough opportunities to build confidence in panels with adults. Instead, the young residents met separately, and their recommendations were included in the main panel’s assessments.

A further challenge was the youth panel meeting venue, which was offered by the local authority as a space for One Community and Kirklees Youth Alliance to host youth activities – as a multi-use community space with no opportunities for change, young people did not see the venue as welcoming . More generally, One Community reflected on challenges with consistent participation over multiple panel meetings; however, they successfully involved new young people in each panel. 

One Community also delivered a youth survey to bring in more (and more diverse) voices and inform future grants panels, aiming to get feedback on unmet needs. The survey received 182 responses, which were considered reflective of the area’s diversity.

Improving youth provision

Big Local funding was invested in a significant number of groups focused on young people in Dewsbury Moor . One Community wanted to better coordinate this provision to ensure it was meeting local needs and that groups weren’t having to compete for young people’s time. 

Towards the end of the programme, after initial work with the council to promote activities, One Community invited all organisations working with young residents to join the Dewsbury West Youth Partnership. The network met three times a year, aiming to define and deliver a core youth work offer in the area. This involved looking at issues like venue capacity, timetabling, and good practice. Results from the 2024 youth survey informed the work of these organisations, as young people had indicated preferred days, times, and locations for activities. 

In 2024, findings from the youth survey led to Big Local funding being used for 36 young people aged nine and over to take part in Bumpy – a skills building and mentoring initiative. This initiative was aimed at young motorcyclists, addressing residents concerns about their wellbeing, particularly as they may have been in peer-pressured situations that could escalate into violence, as well as other residents being inconvenienced. Participants visited Bumpy’s site to learn about safety, the rules of the road, and motorcycle upkeep. As part of their focus on combatting violence, Bumpy also used virtual reality headsets for young people to explore issues around knife crime and gang involvement, aiming to help them understand real-life implications within a controlled environment. 

Big Local funding was also used to help the West Yorkshire ADHD Support Group expand its work with teenagers with diagnosed and undiagnosed ADHD. Working with older young people to redecorate and paint a mural, they created a dedicated, inviting space to meet, spend time together, engage in activities, and access support. The grant panel felt this to be important because most existing services were not delivering to young people with ADHD over the age of 13, and only to those with a diagnosis.

Using outreach to encourage use of services

Reflecting on the significant deprivation in the area, in 2024, One Community made Big Local funding available to organisations supporting Dewsbury Moor residents through the cost of living crisis. This included the Rainbow Baby Bank – a local charity providing families with baby equipment. 

Rainbow Baby Bank worked on referrals from external agencies, providing support for families experiencing financial challenges and domestic violence, asylum seekers with no recourse to public funds, and survivors of human trafficking and sexual exploitation . In 2023, only seven out of 1,250 referrals came from Dewsbury Moor, with the Rainbow Baby Bank reflecting that this may have been because local families did not know how to access their services. 

Near the end of Big Local, plans were in place to use funding to run a 12-month outreach programme at the Dewsbury Moor Children’s Centre, alongside other support, such as midwife appointments and a perinatal group. To encourage engagement , the intention was to allow self-referrals for an initial session and provide free hygiene packs to all attendees.

Growing involvement in sport 

Rugby League was an important and popular sport in Dewsbury. Early in the Big Local programme, the partnership allocated funding towards building on that popularity and providing more opportunities for residents, by expanding the Dewsbury Moor Sports Club and supporting other rugby clubs and organisations. 

Towards the end of the programme, Big Local funding was allocated to the Dewsbury Celtic Amateur Rugby League club to purchase much needed equipment to enable the club to open up more teams. The funding also enabled them to refurbish their community room, and other non-rugby groups to use the space for activities. 

Alongside this, Big Local funding was also used for initiatives by the British Asian Rugby Association – a charity aimed at breaking down barriers for South Asian communities to get involved in sports – which included rugby taster sessions for young people, that supported them to improve confidence and leadership skills. Transport was also subsidised to enable residents to attend professional games across Yorkshire and the North West, aiming to improve inclusion, broaden access to sporting events, and encourage a sense of belonging.