Celebrating 25 years of Ravensthorpe Community Centre

I’ve been workong alongside Ravensthorpe Community Centre on a project to mark their 25th anniversary.

The aim was to document and celebrate the centre’s long-standing role in the community through photography & film.

The centre has been a constant presence in the area for a generation, offering support, connection and space for people to come together.

As part of the project, I photographed groups, services and events that happen in and around the centre, and filmed interviews with some of the staff, volunteers and local residents who’ve been part of that story.

We also ran a participatory photography session with a group of children aged 5 to 11. A photo treasure hunt around the centre and its surroundings to get them comfortable using the cameras. After the session, we looked at their photos together and talked about what the centre meant to them.

The words they came up with were: love, friendship, calm, peaceful, happy, and fun. Those words found their way into the final film, alongside the children’s photographs, as a way of reflecting not just on the past 25 years, but also the kind of future the centre continues to help shape.

The whole project came together at a two-day celebration event in March 2025. I was there to document both days, capturing the atmosphere and the ways that Ravensthorpe Community Centre has made a difference to local people.

Big thanks to everyone at Ravensthorpe Community Centre for inviting me in and making me feel welcome, and to TSL Kirklees and The National Lottery Community Fund for supporting the project.