18 months of impact at Carrow House

Eighteen months into its three-year meanwhile lease, Carrow House, home to Norwich Unity Hub, has become a cornerstone of Norwich’s VCSE sector, delivering measurable social, economic and wellbeing impact across the city and beyond. Read on for the impact report

In an exceptionally challenging funding climate, Carrow House has provided something increasingly rare: secure, affordable and accessible space. For many organisations, this stability has meant not just survival, but growth, innovation and deeper community impact. Carrow House is now home to 25 charities, CICs and community groups alongside 28 artists and has a growing membership of 50 local VCSE’s. Nineteen organisations are currently on a waiting list, with new enquiries arriving weekly, underlining the urgent demand for affordable civic infrastructure.

Several organisations, including Tend Collective, Carrow House Creatives and Rippleacts, were only established because affordable space at Carrow House made their work viable.

Jess Luce-Rackham, COO of Your Own Place, describes the effect: “Often as a smaller organisation you can feel up against it all, but being here we feel mightier.”

By the Numbers: Tangible Impact from January 2025 to January 2026

The breadth of impact delivered from the building in just 12 months is striking:

• 12+ tonnes of clothing diverted from landfill by ReDo, doubling their previous processing capacity

• 1,920 hours of social volunteering generated through ReDo’s community volunteering model

• 4,500 hours of specialist mentoring contributed by volunteers at Tastebuds Collective to support social supermarkets and SMEs

• 74% of participants at Rippleacts progressed into volunteering, training, education or employment. Research estimates that returning one person to work delivers £12,000 in public benefit

• 72 children supported onsite by Brave Futures in their trauma-informed services

• 106 Deaf people accessed activities in a single month through Deaf Connexions

• 420 customers served by Stepping Stones’ student-run café in just three months

• 700+ adult learners enrolled through Norfolk County Council Adult Learning provision

• 600 attendees at Glasshouse Studio wellness yoga sessions

• 350 participants engaged through FUSE Network workshops and events

Collectively, these figures represent preventative social impact at scale, reducing crisis service use, improving employment outcomes, strengthening the local economy, and increasing inclusion.

Inclusion at the Heart

Accessibility is fundamental to Carrow House’s success. Frozen Light has established a fully accessible Sensory Home for artists and audiences with profound and multiple learning disabilities (PMLD), training new Sensory Artists and rehearsing work that tours nationally. A new Changing Places toilet is being installed to further increase access.

Musical Keys delivers multiple inclusive music groups onsite, supported by accessible ground-floor studios and 10 disabled parking spaces.

For many tenants, Carrow House provides facilities that simply are not available elsewhere enabling wheelchair users, Deaf participants, neurodivergent adults and those experiencing trauma to engage without barriers.

Strengthening Mental Health and Preventing Crisis

Organisations including Norfolk Clubhouse, Village Orchard East and Tend Collective report measurable improvements in mental health outcomes among their communities.

Norfolk Clubhouse has expanded from two to three days per week and reports that consistent, trauma-informed support is reducing members’ reliance on crisis services such as A&E.

Village Orchard East has increased the number of clients able to access reduced-fee therapy from three to 11, reinvesting rental savings directly into frontline care.

Economic and Environmental Gains

Carrow House is also strengthening the regional economy:

• Social enterprises are attracting new funders and partnerships simply through increased visibility and credibility.

• Weddings and events hosted onsite generate income for local suppliers and small businesses.

• Collaborative working reduces duplication and overheads across the VCSE sector.

• Environmental impact is reduced through active travel, shared infrastructure and large-scale textile diversion from waste.

More Than a Building

Tenants consistently report improved staff wellbeing and morale. Many have moved from unsafe, poorly maintained or unsuitable domestic spaces. Carrow House provides not only physical infrastructure but a sense of belonging.

Informal connections in corridors and shared spaces have already led to new projects, early years groups, arts collaborations, work placements and heritage tours.

As one member described it:

“This hub is a unique and magical place where infinite energy, creativity, passion and dedication come together and multiplies in its social impact through togetherness and collaboration.”

A Vital Piece of Civic Infrastructure

Taken together, the evidence demonstrates that Carrow House is already functioning as essential civic infrastructure:

• Affordable and fully accessible

• Preventative in its social impact

• Economically contributory

• Environmentally responsible

• Deeply collaborative

In just 18 months, it has strengthened Norwich’s social fabric and delivered tangible benefits in employment, environmental sustainability, mental health, cultural production and community cohesion.

With demand growing and organisations waiting for space, the case for sustaining and expanding meanwhile civic spaces has never been clearer.

Carrow House enables investment in people, place and purpose and Norwich is stronger because of it.

Chair of Trustees Maria Thornberg says: “As one of the founding members of Norwich Unity Hub, I am so immensely proud to see in real time what we have and continue to achieve in Carrow House. From that first meeting at The Forum what now feels like a lifetime ago to here, today. What we have created is a vibrant, inclusive and flexible community that goes well beyond “just” providing a space for individual groups. Don’t get me wrong – affordable space is essential and transformative, but Carrow House is more than four walls. It’s a place for growth, connections and collaboration. Where we share resources, knowledge and skills, but also laughs and cries. We meet as people rather than titles and we care about each other. And above all: We create change! And better still a fairer, healthier, better, more accessible and more sustainable Norfolk through that. How magic is that.”

Cllr Carli Harper, cabinet member for finance and major projects at Norwich City Council, said: “Norwich Unity Hub has made a fantastic impact while being at Carrow House with the amount of work they have been doing for Norwich and its communities.”

To mark 18 months of impact at Carrow House, Norwich Unity Hub is hosting Senses of Unity – a free, immersive showcase event on Thursday 16th April from 3:30pm to 7pm. Come and experience the community behind these figures for yourself. Through interactive exhibits, live stories from our resident organisations, video case studies and a closing concert from Musical Keys, Senses of Unity brings the data to life in a way that no report ever could. With tickets still available, we’d love to see you there. Visit Norwich Unity Hub.

Featured image of some of the Norwich Unity Hub community based at Carrow House – supplied