FireFit Youth and Community Hub; Ten years of impact
This year, FireFit Youth and Community Hub celebrates an incredible 10years of helping to make a difference for a range of ages across Toxteth and the wider Liverpool community.
The Hub’s story first began in 2013, when the government’s Myplace initiative funded a network of 63 new youth centres across the UK. Each was designed to provide safe, fun spaces where young people could be themselves and strive to reach their full potential.
The centre started as Toxteth FireFit Hub and was built as a unique collaboration between the Department for Education, Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority, Liverpool City Council and young people from the local community of Toxteth and wider Liverpool.
During 2016, work and plans were undertaken to merge the Hub with the charitable and community activity of Liverpool Mutual Homes (LMH), which later became Torus, to support its operations. On 10'" January 2017, it officially became part of the LMH Group of companies and joined the wider charity ComMutual.
Following the amalgamation in 2019 of two of the North West’s largest social landlords LMH group and Torus from St Helens and Warrington, the charity rebranded as Torus Foundation. A proportion of commercial profits made by fellow group members HMS and Torus Developments, is donated through Gift Aid to the Foundation, helping to fund vital initiatives that enable the team bring people together and change lives.
FireFit has continued to be a flagship of the Foundation and over the years has grown into a valuable community asset for South Liverpool.
In addition to daily visits from young members, the Hub welcomes wider community members and groups, along with local businesses when hiring the sports facilities and meeting spaces, with FireFit’s team and partners delivering a spectrum of collaborative wellbeing projects.
FireFit continues to go from strength to strength with last year marking the most successful year in history for the Hub, with more young attending the Hub’s youth work programme than ever, the highest number of members the Hub has ever registered and more adults than ever accessing community health & wellbeing sessions such as SisterHub, Restart and Re-Engage.
We’ll be showcasing some of our highlights and projects during this week, leading up to our Community Day at the weekend.
To help mark the 10yr milestone, the team are opening the doors to welcome people to the Community Day, 11am – 4pm, Saturday 22nd July.
Get involved with taster sessions for activities and find out about the support available from the wider Torus Foundation team.
