A Whitley Bay community centre plans to keep helping locals for "decades" to come, despite its funding coming to an end.
Since 2017, The Whitley Bay Big Local, on Whitley Road, has provided locals with activities and classes as well as helping those in need. This year it has helped various people from Ukrainian refugees to those simply in need of a warm place to go or a food bank.
A "real highlight" for 2022 was the hub's involvement in the Whitley Bay Carnival, according to the centre's chief executive David Carnaffan.
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However, 2022 has been a particularly difficult year for the hub, seeing an increasing number of people struggling to cope with the cost of living crisis.
The provisions in the Big Local's food bank would usually last into the afternoon. But now, once shelves are stocked at 10am they are bare within 30 minutes and queues for the food bank continue to form outside every day. The hub now looks after an increasing number of rough sleepers and families unable to heat their homes or temporary accommodation.
"It has been an awful year, really tumultuous," David Carnaffan explained.
The community hub is now only eligible for one more round of funding from the central Big Local fund. The cash will ensure the hub will continue to provide most of its services until August 2024, after which it will have to seek alternative funding.
However David is confident he and his team will continue to help those in need for many years to come and find new funding. Roof works have also been scheduled to help improve the building.
David explained: "We have had to think about how we generate our own income and reduce costs. We are having solar panels installed in January.
"They are the first step to being less dependent on the grid. It will not only decrease our carbon footprint but increase our financial sustainability.
"We are keen to ramp up our trading activities. There will be some form of pop-up cafe in the building from around April and our gardening social enterprise 'Bay Leaf' is looking to pick up contracts from businesses or the council.
"Some Big Locals will cease to exist come August 2024, whereas others will create a legacy. Our legacy is wrapped up in this building, the building is a hub for local people to use, and it's a place organisations can come and use or hire space.
"It will be here for the community for decades to come and what we are doing now is ensuring the fabric and structure of the building is in a good state to allow decades of community ownership."
The Whitley Bay Big Local also purchased the building in which it operates, a former JobCentrePlus, in November. Despite the challenges of running such a centre, it plans to roll out more community-focused initiatives in the coming year.
Next year, the hub plans to help those struggling with soaring costs of energy. In conjunction with the Energy Saving Trust, the Whitley Bay Big Local plans to help people become more energy efficient in their homes.
David added: "I would like to give a shout-out to all of our volunteers, thank you for coming back again.
"I would like to thank my team, who have been challenged throughout the year with all the changes. Thank you for making sure people have the things they need just to survive."
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