Dyke House, in the heart of Hartlepool, is a neighbourhood of 5000 people, where unity in crisis protects our most vulnerable, where community spirit thrives, and kindess is shown in loads of ways, all the time.

Here, in our square mile, are friendly people whose hopes for the future are too often left unfulfilled, it’s where, out of necessity, resilience thrives, and where people have come together and said we need things to change.

Our Vision

For too long, communities have been asked to twist and turn what they really want to make their places and lives better to suit an external and often different agenda by bidding into predetermined pots of funding.

Well, we want to try something different.

We – the Wharton Trust, our community, partner organisations and community businesses - have spent a considerable time, working together to produce this Prospectus for our place. We’ve even used evidence gathered from multiple sources to create a blueprint to make Dyke House better over the next ten years and beyond.

For some of the things we want to happen, we know exactly what is required and these requests are specific; for others, we aren’t so sure, so we are asking for your help. We want you to explore this vision and see how what we are trying to do fits what you are trying to do and for you to join with us on the continuing transformation of Dyke House.

We know this is different; we know that it might require you to think differently about how you do what you do; but that’s no bad thing. We know that Levelling Up and Take Back Control speak to decades of policies not achieving what they were intended to do – we’re offering you a chance to work in a place that can help model the transformation you are seeking.