Westcroft Community Centre

11/06/2026

Fabulous evening art session last night. We have some very talented residents in Burnage. Thanks to Leanne Thompson for teaching these ladies to draw and paint such amazing work. We are lucky to have such a great artist working alongside them to achieve beautiful pictures like these ❤️

10/06/2026

We are so proud of the children who attend our After School Club. What an amazing job they have done in making flowers for the Burnage Parade. They will be displayed in our garden space at the front of the centre. During the Parade. Great work kids ❤️

05/06/2026

10 years of Westcroft, celebrating the people that make us a place to be proud of: This week we highlight the valued contribution of two people that have been with us since day one. Both contributing thousands of hours of their time to our community over the last 10 years, Glennis Mitchell and Estelita Avilez.
Glennis has been critical to the delivery of services at the centre as she covers reception, office management and supporting with day-to-day management. We have been open every weekday for the past 10 years and that’s only possible because of her trusted support, knowledge and experience.
The knowledge of the space, our commitments to the Burnage community and our partners, along with her experience and willingness to give up so much of her time in ensuring that we continue to deliver our commitments to Burnage residents is invaluable.
For many, she will be the voice at the end of the phone, and the face on reception, helping to welcome, signpost onto support, sharing activity and service information.
But Glennis’s involvement goes much further than that, she is constantly willing to help with numerous admin tasks that may not be the most glamorous, or visible to people, but are essential in enabling us to deliver services efficiently and effectively.
Glennis has also led on service delivery, sharing her passion for crafts, particularly card making, delivering sessions that provide opportunities to engage and learn, and leading on various IT 1:1 support opportunities.
This is where her husband, David played such a big part as a volunteer, planning and delivering various computers for beginners courses and ESOL classes. Sadly, David passed away in 2021 and we are so very proud of Glennis for coming through such a difficult time, and still, whilst hard at times, sticking with us and supporting as she does.
Estelita, without repeating myself too much is another who, without her support we simply would not have been able to open our doors, particularly during the earlier years of our existence.
Estelita will be known by many people in Burnage for her crafting expertise, and for good reason. She has and still does deliver numerous sessions from different settings in the area, providing the opportunity for people to engage, learn, and share their interests. But it was teaching ESOL groups that first got her involved, pre charity days, and still we have people visit the centre who ask after her, stating how much that group was of support to them and helping them develop essential skills.
Her sewing group was a staple part of our timetable for many years, teaching and inspiring others to get involved in a relaxed and social group. She has since been involved in the delivery of countless sessions for families and individuals from Wreath making to holiday clubs, after school sessions to evening classes. Estelita’s energy and constant support over such a long period of time is appreciated and valued by so many.
The charity would not be the thriving space that it is today with both Estelita and Glennis and we’re forever thankful.

04/06/2026

Hi everyone,
We are so excited about being able to bring back our community art show. It will run for a week as part of the Big Burnage Parade. If you love to create and want to show the community your talent, why not display a piece of your art work at our centre. Our communities are full of very talented people who never get a chance to show others how good they are. This is a great opportunity to do that. Also it gives us here at Westcroft a chance to show the local communities what we do . This show is open to all ages. Please do get in touch if you want to know more or would be interested in displaying your art. ❤️

04/06/2026

03/06/2026

We have had an amazing few weeks getting ready for the Westcroft Community Art Show and the Burnage Parade. We are so proud to be involved in helping make the Parade happen. We have so much more going on over the next few weeks. Thank you to everyone that came and got involved and for the fabulous community artists that came and ran some of our workshops. Thank you Leanne Thompson , TOUBIE JACKS,
PHOEBE FOXTROT and HEATHER SKOWOOD for your support. What a fabulous job ❤️

01/06/2026

We really look forward to supporting in the delivery of this session in a couple of weeks time. Whether you are new to cooking, want a bit of inspiration, have lots of experience or just fancy sharing some of your knowledge this will be a lovely one-off session. Contact to book on or have any questions.

27/05/2026

We have some spaces left on the fabulous session on Friday. Please email us if you would like to come along and get craft ❤️

27/05/2026

For our 4th Instalment of stories that celebrate the people that do and have made Westcroft community centre such a vibrant and welcoming community space over the last 10 years we introduce you to Molly-Ann and Ciara.
To begin I think it’s important to highlight that in the world of volunteering, particularly in a setting like ours, that it can be a rarity to have young people involved. So, we are very lucky to have both Ciara and Molly-Ann sharing their skills, experience, and passion with our communities. They not only bring new ideas and enthusiasm, but they also share their desire and determination to make things better, and make things happen, and we love them for that.
Molly-Ann first got involved in 2022, initially helping with one-off children’s sessions and crafts. Her natural ability to engage with children and families was evident from the start and this has been a running theme over the past 4 years, being so influential in the delivery of numerous activities and events that engage and inspire children and their families.
Molly-Ann naturally cares for people; she wants the best for everyone and sees very well the barriers that people face in achieving better for themselves and their families. Her knowledge and confidence in voicing her informed opinions are so important to us, as they are always backed by her core values that I feel, are shaped by equality, fairness, respect and decency.
Ciara joined us in early 2023, also with a keen interest and obvious ability in working with children and families, sharing her creativity and natural flair for the arts to deliver new and inspiring sessions that helped engage a new audience at the centre.
Ciara is so approachable and puts people at ease very easily which is really valued by all at the centre. Her playful, caring and compassionate approach to her work adds a valued dynamic to the team and her consistency is something not to be underestimated as she is a constant source of positivity and energy.
Whilst both Ciara and Molly-Ann are appreciated for their individuality and what they both bring to the team, they are often mentioned in the same breath as each other as they are so often working together to deliver services and activities. That doesn’t quite paint the right picture as most would see them as a pair, a very brilliant pair!
Ciara first got involved through her close friendship with Molly-Ann, they have since proved to be such an important team within the team. But they have also been each other’s support network, they both have had their own struggles with anxiety, low self-confidence and poor mental health that has and does still have such an impact on their lives, often making what many see as a simple task into one that is daunting and difficult.
The support that they have provided to each other, along with the on-going support and understanding from the team around them at the centre has seen both demonstrate great determination in overcoming these barriers, building their resilience and confidence.
For the past 4 years they have been involved in the delivery of our Quid’s In club, taking the role of leads for this service for the past 2 years. They have completed training with Read Manchester to be local literacy champions, developing and delivering a beautiful weekly Storytime session for families with children under 4years. They joined us at a time when we started to deliver our Summer programme of family activities and have since proved influential in its continued development, they plan and deliver numerous art engagement activities during holidays and supporting after school sessions, most recently our Soupper Crafty Monday session. They take it upon themselves to help look after the children of one member so that she is able to attend the women’s group, and are critical in helping at our regular events such as Halloween, Summer and Christmas to name just a few. For the Christmas event they even represent as Mr’s Claus and head Elf! They have developed campaigns to raise funds, and are currently developing a new promotional video for the centre, to be launched this Summer. There will be plenty that I am missing here but that just shows what they do to support others in and around Burnage, a real credit to themselves, the centre and the area.

26/05/2026

Hi everyone due to unforeseen circumstances we have to move this session to Thursday morning. We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause for those already booked on