Operating out of The Annexe community centre, Wharton Trust is a charity based in the heart of Dyke House. For 30 years, it has been delivering services to residents seeking to improve the area. Since 2012, it has worked to the Community Organisers Social Action Hub framework by employing community organisers to create the conditions where local people take action on the things they care about. As a community anchor, it supports a wide range of additional activities such as tackling food insecurity, a youth club, community space and library, environmental improvements, support to find work, democratic renewal and so on. It is also widely connected to national organisations and has contributed to policy and research across a broad spectrum of themes.

The Friends of North Cemetery is a small, constituted group made up of local residents, working in partnership with relevant Council officers, Police and others to maintain, improve and protect the existing area within and including the boundary walls. The group work to retain its history and provide a safe and tidy sustainable green space, a peaceful environment and eco-friendly habitat.

St Oswald’s serves the Dyke House area of the town out of a magnificent Edwardian church and an additional community hall and garden. The parish is over a century old and St. Oswald’s is by some way, the longest serving community anchor in the area. The people of the church reach out and are very much a part of the local community.

Our Dyke House Big Local Partnership is made up predominantly of local residents who either live or have a stake in Dyke House. It includes a representative from Wharton Trust which acts as our Locally Trusted Organisation. A Local Trust representative acts as an advisor, and with our Big Local Development Worker and an administration support worker come together to provide recommendations about how the local area can be improved.

Built on Brougham Terrace, it is the first purpose built mosque in Hartlepool. The mosque was built by the Ahmadiyya Muslim community and inaugurated in 2005 by Mizra Masroor Ahmad, the head of the worldwide Ahmadiyya Muslim community. The mosque participates in local community events including the annual Walk for Peace, Poppy Day, community litter picks, and donates hundreds of meals per week in Dyke House and beyond, providing regular services for the wider community.

A new and growing community led housing provider in Dyke House, which aims to give local people a high-quality home, for a social rent, providing the tenant commits to social action on their street. Annexe Housing acquires properties which need improvement, removing unfit accommodation from the market and using local labour and local apprentices to deliver improvement works, building skills within the community. It has an ambition to have an home on every street and an organiser in every home and potentially could become a registered provider for support services.

Based out of Dyke House and with more than half its volunteers coming from the area, Hartlepool Ambulance Charity provides first aid and lifesaving training, defibrillator installation and training and emergency ambulance support around Hartlepool. They provide first aid training opportunities for town residents of all ages and train, equip and support volunteer First Aiders, Medics & Responders that attend community events & patrol public areas.

A local charity which aims to address the problems of social isolation which lead to poor mental health. Through twice weekly peer to peer support groups MfM/WfW enables people to meet, interact and share experience with one another in an attempt to steer them away from loneliness. Through engagement in their “commUNITY” project, their attendees get involved in gardening activities and opportunities to volunteer in our community anchors and community businesses, building connections, confidence and aspirations. MfM/WfW also offers the opportunity for attendees to enjoy organised outdoor activities such as walks and camping trips away from Hartlepool.

An award winning creative business who are experts in building community engagement through creative arts projects. They co-produce projects to celebrate place, identity and heritage and create paid opportunities for freelance artists as a platform for local talent. They are a two-women whirlwind, ambassadors of the arts and crusaders of creativity. Their mission is to highlight the importance of the arts, creativity and making within the community. They want to inspire the next generation of artists, encouraging creative thinking in education and support the use of arts to increase wellbeing for all.

Based in a prominent town centre location, LilyAnne’s is a community cafe that focuses on reducing the experience of loneliness, creating companionship while serving great tasting coffee. Within their community space they have established a number of key projects which support local people who are experiencing low level mental health problems. These activities include social games nights, music sessions, and ‘learn to cook’ activities, delivered in partnership with our community anchors and community businesses. LilyAnne’s also supports veterans and emergency workers with a blue light and veterans breakfast club, pay it forward suspended coffee schemes and has earned national recognition as a leading community led coffee shop.

Founded in January 2015, Run Fit Hartlepool has transformed from an informal sociable running group of seven people, to a fully-fledged community business of over 120 active members with huge aspirations to be a force for good in Hartlepool. In response to the health inequalities in Hartlepool, they are a group of people who come together to run, free from the pressure to be the fastest or to run the furthest. It is about bringing people together to support one other on an individual wellbeing journey; whatever compels them to take that first step they are there to encourage them on the way.