Shared ‘hub’ spaces can provide purpose and a permanent home for charities

For years at Finding Your Feet, Scotland’s leading amputee charity, we relied on the goodwill of business owners and office managers to provide a home for us, either for free or at massively reduced rates. Since our inception in 2014, this agreement enabled us to deliver much-needed support, events and activities for the limb loss community who have come to rely on us. 

While support with office space was always greatly appreciated, we faced a continued challenge – our workspaces weren’t permanent. With the need for our support increasing, we needed somewhere permanent to base ourselves. Somewhere that offered our team a secure place to continue providing vital services for those who have been through an amputation.  

That permanent space came in the shape of our current facility in the heart of Paisley. Initially we moved into the unused St James House, taking up a corner of the ground floor. We worked there up until the Covid-19 pandemic when, unfortunately for a building with so much potential, it became empty once more. There was something there to be capitalised on though, and we did just that when we were able to safely switch back to being office-based. By securing the entire building – four floors and a car park – we knew that there was an opportunity not only for us to thrive, but to open the door to other local charities which may have had the same struggles in the past. 

Fast forward a couple of years, and with plenty of generous donations and successful grant applications, the FYF Charity Hub is now home to eleven organisations supporting the community in various ways. Help for carers, new families, and people with addiction issues is provided within our walls, as well as short-term rentable spaces available at a reduced rate. With this working well, we set our sights further afield.  

Cor Hutton is the founder of Finding your Feet

In 2022, Network Rail kindly gifted us an overgrown green space underneath the picturesque railway arches that sit behind our building. An incredible, and ongoing, effort from volunteers has helped turn it into a fantastic sensory garden. numerous events.

The longer-term goal is for our sensory garden to be a space, not only for the charities who share our Hub, but for the wider community, too. With the help of Tony Smith, an amputee we support who is particularly green-fingered, the garden is flourishing. We’ve even brought in local graffiti artists to give it a bit of style and several businesses have been regularly volunteering to keep it tidy. 

Collaboration is key here and we’re excited that a new bandstand may soon be built thanks to fundraising efforts from civil and structural engineering consultancy Will Rudd. This is just the latest example of good-hearted people being the driving force behind community spaces like ours.

This year, FYF will celebrate its tenth anniversary. A milestone like this allows us to pause and reflect on the lessons learned over the last decade.  Aside from the various ways in which we have supported amputees, a key lesson is that working together with other charities, companies, volunteers, funders and donors is the true meaning of community. The result is initiatives like the FYF Hub and our garden, which can provide real opportunities for charities and a lifeline for the people we collectively support in these tough economic times

Perhaps we can be seen as a success story of how a shared hub space can allow charities to collaborate, support each other and, most importantly, continue to provide their vital services.  

Cor Hutton, Founder, Finding your Feet