Posted on: 4th June 2025

On Tuesday morning (27 May 2025), following the bank holiday, I opened up the shutters at Involve as usual and went in to find a door handle on the mat. Community centres used by lots of different groups often have breakages, but looking around I saw that one door had been badly damaged and wood splinters were across the floor.  So this wasn’t just an accident.

I went down to my office (perhaps naively, as I am often on my own in the building) to find my office door had been broken open, a window had been broken, and my office had been ransacked. It was obvious the petty cash tin had been found and emptied. This is the money we keep to support people who may need bus fare, food, help with bills, clothes, toiletries, etc – an emergency fund for people facing an emergency. Now gone!

The drawers of my desk had also been trashed, where some personal things were kept….

So I left the office as found it and luckily Chris from Getting Clean arrived and the first thing he did was check if I was OK – I think I was probably closer to tears than I thought – and then the practical kicked in – not touching anything, phoning the police, informing trustees, checking damage, planning to get the building secure, checking who was due in, cancelling where we could, working out damage and costs, worrying about what this would cost us and how we would pay…..

But what really happened put all of the above into perspective – Ansar and his colleague (who’s name I don’t know) from Youth Justice came round just to see if I was OK, if they could help; Pete, Sheila and Danny (volunteers and users of the centre) came to see if I needed a cup of tea; the lovely ladies at the library made tea and filled flasks for those who would often get this service from Involve; all of the groups and organisations who use Involve sent in messages, kind words and offers of help and support (thank you to all of you); my trustees – Stewart, Paul and Jane came and spent time with me -thank you for the care, and Fred started to work on making the place look better.

People who use the centre rang me or turned up (Douglas) to see what they could do to help. Messages came from partners and other organisations – Youth Justice (Trevor and Sam), Health For All (Alison), Hamara (Aliya), MHA (Joanne), Heritage Cooking (Shanaz), Opera North (Zena and Jo), Places for People (Louise).

I am sure I have forgotten some of you, please forgive me … People rearranged meetings (thank you Kaye and Claire at VAL and Rhys at WYCAS), and so many people spoke words of comfort. It is this kindness, compassion, care and love that is the abiding memory of this week. So thank you for being the lovely, kind, thoughtful people and community you are. It is a real privilege to be part of the Involve family.

This post was written by Claire Whiteley for South Leeds Life

Photo: Claire Whitely (right) with Trustee Paul Wray