Crowdfunder launched to save former Crossgates Library building

Crossgates campaigners have launched a crowdfunder in an attempt to buy their former library building and transform it into a community centre.

Transcript

00:00 My name is Karen Gray, I'm the manager of Connecting Crossgates, which is a local charity,

00:07 does exactly what it says on the tin, gathers people together for good in the community

00:11 of Crossgates in East Leeds. I'm involved with the library campaign as a charity in

00:17 the area and we want to see this place become a place where people can make community happen,

00:23 make community work.

00:24 About two years ago the library closed with the intention we were told of turning it into

00:31 a state of the art library and community hub. The library has now been put into the shopping

00:37 centre in an empty shopping unit. We've understood that we can't at this point campaign to have

00:45 the library back in this building but what we do want to do is save the building so that

00:50 we can use it for other community activities. It's the last publicly owned building in Crossgates.

00:57 Obviously times are tight for a lot of people, there's not a lot of money to spare and that

01:03 leads into the idea that buildings like this will be even more essential in places like

01:09 East Leeds where there is a lot of deprivation, where clubs and groups need affordable spaces

01:14 to come in the future.

01:16 Everybody was saying to me we need to do something but nobody felt they had much chance. It seemed

01:22 to me that if we came together, if we pulled all those different groups together we could

01:26 start to get some momentum and we can move towards the target which is 350,000. If we

01:32 can do that together we can then start to reimagine what this space could look like

01:37 for the future.

01:38 We've got an amazing community boxing club about to lose its home because the site is

01:42 being redeveloped into something else. We've got arts organisations who are about to lose

01:48 their home in another part of the ward. We've got community groups that need affordable

01:54 spaces coming out of our ears. This kind of project, this kind of building is absolutely

02:01 what we desperately need in this area.

02:04 People were really enthusiastic and angry about what was happening and asking for their

02:10 help and we're trying to get everybody's support together and move forward with this

02:17 fantastic community spirit that we have found in Crossgates.

02:22 What we really need now is to supplement the amazing will there is in the area for this

02:28 project to succeed with a major donor or somebody who will loan us the money. It's served

02:35 this community for 85 years and we'd like it to be able to serve the people of this

02:40 community and East Leeds for the next 85 years as well.

02:43 We're facing many challenges as a community at this time. Loneliness, poverty, isolation,

02:50 families needing support and if what we can do together by joining with lots of people,

02:55 we can get groups, we can get communities, we can get organisations all coming together

03:00 and maybe then we can start to make a difference.

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