Eindhoven volunteers put their heart and soul into the community centres in their neighbourhood. Managers of local meeting places tell how important these places are for the neighbourhood – and how difficult it is to keep them running. Studio040 investigated two community centres in Strijp and Woensel. “Residents are very involved”.
“We actually run into two things”, Souad Hellaoui, manager of community centre Boemerang in Woensel, says. “The financial picture and the crew ”. It is difficult for Hellaoui and her community centre to find new, young volunteers.
To partially solve this problem, the manager has made arrangements with tenants who use the community centre’s facilities. “In the evenings, several choirs and music groups practice here. We have agreed with them, that they also help with bar services”, Hellaoui says.
Two and a half years ago, she stepped in as the manager of Boemerang. The then manager was retiring. “Before that, I had been volunteering for the community centre for eight years. I felt it was important that this place continue to exist for the neighbourhood residents, which is why I immediately said yes when I was asked for this role”.
Strijp
Jack Feijen has been doing volunteer work for about 45 years, 14 of which he has now been the manager of community centre Lievendaal in Strijp district. The handyman puts his heart and soul into the community centre, the neighbourhood, but above all the people. “You should know how involved residents are. If we organise something here at Christmas or Easter, for example, we easily draw a crowd of 150 people “, he says proudly.
Still, there are things Feijen runs into. “As a handyman, I tackled a lot of things in the building myself but I have been waiting for a while now for the municipality to renovate our toilets and improve the insulation”. Yet the volunteer in his heart does not let that put him off. “When I see what we are getting done here in Lievendaal, it makes me enormously proud”.
Hellaoui hates to think that community centre Boemerang wculd cease to exist. “That would mean that people in the neighbourhood would no longer have a place to meet”. Indeed, with the growth of the city -there will be about 60,000 new people- she believes the role of community centres will only increase.
Meeting
In total, Eindhoven now has 35 community centres, the municipality recently informed Studio040. City Council set aside more than €1,000,000 extra this year to stimulate get-togethers n the neighbourhoods. Neighbourhood centres have a role in this, but the municipality is also looking at online meetings and pop-up meeting places.
Source: Studio040
Translated by: Bob
