Support Us

Support the Launch of Your New Heywood Civic

Heywood Civic is part of Your Trust Rochdale, your local charity committed to supporting everyone across Rochdale Borough to live active, creative, happy and healthy lives.

Heywood Civic is your local community hub, and we are so close to opening our doors once again! We cannot wait to welcome everyone back to enjoy enriching and cultural opportunities together in the heart of Heywood.

As we count down to launch, we’re working hard to make this space the vibrant, warm and welcoming hub that our community deserves.

As part of this, when we re-open we will be launching a brand-new programme of activities to support children, young people and families to thrive – and we need your help!

We’ve already secured some support, but to bring the full programme to life and keep sessions affordable for everyone, we’re proud to be launching a special fundraising campaign to raise an ambitious £12,500.

We know this is a big target – and we can’t do it alone.

If you’re able, please consider donating today to join us in shaping the very first year of activities in our new Heywood Civic – opening up creativity, confidence and connection for families across our area.

We’d be so grateful to have you with us at this crucial moment! Please keep reading to learn more about our plans and how your support will unlock opportunities for families across Heywood now and in the future.

Donate today through JustGiving

Looking Back

Heywood has a long, vibrant history of celebrating local culture.

Over 130 years ago, rows of terraced houses and shops lined the streets, leading to the site where the Civic building would later stand.

Back in the 1890s, the Theatre Royal stood just to the right of this spot and over the coming years lots of new community spaces, like cinemas, popped up.

These venues provided much needed entertainment for local people – an escape from ordinary life in a busy, industrial town.

Then, in 1966, Heywood’s Civic Hall was opened – marking a new era in the town’s social and cultural life.

Over the years the Civic and our other local community buildings have provided something for everyone – from entertainment for children on a Saturday morning, to silent movie screenings for couples to enjoy during the evenings, to teenage discos for young people, to tea parties gathering all ages together to celebrate.

In more recent years, our Charity has been proud to bring new activities and a mix of entertainment to the town. And today, as we look forward to reopening after the exciting refurbishment, we can’t wait to explore what the future holds for Heywood Civic.

The Future of Heywood Civic

Whilst our town has certainly changed since the Civic was opened, our belief in the power of community, culture and creativity to make all our lives better holds just as strong. We’ve been working hard with you, our local community, to develop a vision for the new Heywood Civic, with entertainment, activities and events for everyone.

Within this new space, as well as offering exciting events and shows, we’ll be welcoming you to enjoy a diverse programme of health, wellbeing and creative sessions. Ready to be delivered by our Charity and our trusted partners, we have put together an exciting programme of activities to empower children, young people and families in Heywood at every stage – and now we need your help to bring this to life!

Today, we’d be so grateful if you would join us at this very special moment as we launch our opening fundraising campaign Heywood Civic: Helping Families Thrive!

Your donation today will offer local young people and their families a chance to connect, create and build confidence through a brilliant line-up of weekly opportunities including:

Movement and storytelling fun for babies, toddlers and their grown-ups, packed with imagination and play
Musical sessions to help little ones discover rhythm, confidence and joy together
Break Dance for young people, helping every dancer express themselves and learn new skills
Hands-on Music Production workshops for budding creators
Youth Theatre and Dance opportunities to create and perform, learn from industry professionals and make new friends.

Sessions will offer something for everyone, with many open to the whole community and others created to support young people and families when they need a little bit of extra help.

Why We Need Your Support

We’re incredibly excited about what this programme will bring to Heywood – creative opportunities, new experiences and a space that truly belongs to you, our community.

But to make it all happen, we need people like you alongside us.

To launch these activities and deliver a programme that local people deserve, we need to raise an ambitious £12,500. Your support at this moment will make a real difference!

We’ve already secured some funding to get this programme off the ground, and we’ll be keeping session fees low and accessible as possible so that cost is never a barrier for local families.

But to make sure every activity can go ahead and that every session offers the very best experience, we still need to raise £12,500.

What Your Gift Will Mean for Local Families

Your gift today towards this amount will provide a vital contribution towards everything needed to run these activities over the next year:

Your £10 could provide pens, paper and paint for a family to create and play together
Your £30 could buy essential music equipment, empowering a young person to experiment, express and record their ideas
Your £100 could give families the chance to learn from a professional artist and be inspired by their creativity
Your £200 could support four young people who need us the most to take part in our Youth Theatre programme at a reduced rate, setting them up for a bright future.

So please, if you can, support Heywood Civic: Helping Families Thrive today. Every gift, no matter the size, will add up to wonderful things for local families – together we will be able to deliver over 400 activities in the next year alone!

Please be assured, your donation will be ring-fenced specifically for these activities, benefitting local children, young people and families in Heywood.

Special Recognition

And for those who are able to donate £200 or more, we are so pleased to be able to offer an extra special reward.

If you are able to give £200 or more, we’re thrilled to offer you an exclusive opportunity to ‘Name a Seat’ in our new auditorium!

Marked by a shiny plaque on one of our brand-new auditorium seats, it’s a meaningful way to show your support, celebrate someone special or leave a message for future generations who will enjoy this space.

Thank You – Let’s See What We Can Achieve Together!

We are so grateful to our Heywood community and all the ways we’ve been able to support each other over the years. Now, you can be part of the story of our new Heywood Civic from day one, helping us to shape everything that happens in this space now and in the future!

So please, don’t miss this chance to be part of the brand-new Heywood Civic – donate today! Thank you so much.

We Need Your Support!

We are so grateful to Rochdale Borough Council who provide our Charity with funding every year to open and manage our wonderful community leisure and arts venues, offering provision that benefits everyone. As a Charity we then need to raise additional funds to deliver our targeted programmes of community activity that have been designed specifically to meet the needs of local people who need us the most.

VISIT

Of course, the best way to get involved is to come and visit us as soon we reopen! Pop in to enjoy the new café space, attend a show, or sign-up to a new session or class.

Also, you can help us just by buying a ticket! Many of our shows have three prices to choose from – a fairly priced standard ticket, a slightly lower ticket price for those who need it, and a slightly higher price for those who want to help support our programme.

See what's on
DONATE

Another incredible way that you can offer your support is by making a donation. As an independent Charity, we rely on the generosity of wonderful, dedicated partners and community members, people just like you, to deliver creative and wellbeing activities that already help thousands of people across our Borough every single month.

Every single membership you purchase, every event ticket you buy, or activity session you book onto provides an invaluable contribution towards these costs – thank you so much! We then carry out other fundraising to cover all the other things needed to deliver our activities, making sure we can offer the best-quality, most accessible sessions possible.

As we prepare to open our doors again, we’d love to be able to count on you as one of our very special supporters, standing with us at the very beginning of this new chapter for Heywood Civic. Your support today won’t just help us open; it will create opportunities that will open doors for local people for years to come.

We’d love to be able to count you as one of our special supporters who can help us bring this programme to Heywood, providing opportunities that will open doors for local people for years to come.

Your donation today will directly fund the delivery of activities for children, young people and families in Heywood, bringing joy and connection to our neighbours. Please visit our secure Just Giving Page and donate today.

Make a donation
SPONSORSHIP

Are you a local business looking for new ways to support the community?

Sponsoring Heywood Civic’s new programme is a powerful way to invest locally, driving creativity, wellbeing and opportunity for young people and families.

We would love to talk with you about how we can develop a tailored sponsorship package aligned with your values and priorities. Download our Sponsorship Prospectus here to find out more.

Please get in touch with [email protected] to explore how we can create something impactful together.
VOLUNTEER

As we get closer to reopening, keep a close eye on our website and social media pages for new volunteering opportunities.