Changemakers: Reducing isolation and inspiring connection in West Yorkshire

Fiona Thompson, chair of Keighley Big Local, says a monthly coffee morning for carers of autistic children has helped her and others feel less isolated. Here, she shares more about the project, and the other ways the West Yorkshire town has benefitted from Big Local.

Fiona’s story

When he was four, my son Eden was diagnosed with autism. It was upsetting but I was relieved. I knew, deep down, that he was neurodiverse and thought I would instantly get support and help.

But that’s not the reality of diagnosis. I was given a leaflet and sent home. I was left floundering and felt isolated. I wanted to know how other parents coped and what worked for them. I needed that peer support.

That is how Café Eden was born. I knew that if I needed support like this, other parents and carers must be struggling too.

A safe space for parents and carers

Café Eden is a monthly coffee morning and support group run by Keighley Big Local for parents and carers of autistic children. Between 10 and 20 people come to the group, which meets at Keighley College.

People share a wealth of invaluable information that isn’t in books. It’s everything from who to contact when your child is struggling at school to filling in your Disability Living Allowance form. It’s about passing on what you learn to other parents.

You live on a knife edge as a parent of someone with autism and the group is a space to breathe with understanding people.”

Rachel, from the local autism charity Airedale and Wharfedale Autism Resource (AWARE), comes to the meeting and has lots of educational knowledge. Local MPs have visited the group to listen to parents and carers who are struggling with their child’s school and begging for reform of the education system.

Funding from Keighley Big Local pays for parents and carers who regularly come to the group to go on courses to learn more about autism and become members of AWARE to get support.

It’s lovely to see people just relax because they’re in a safe space where they won’t be judged. They feel cared for.

They get a drink and a biscuit or cake, and an opportunity to speak and share their experience. You live on a knife edge as a parent of someone with autism and the group is a space to breathe with understanding people.

Creating connections for a better place to live

Café Eden is an example of how Keighley Big Local has brought people together who may have lived on the same street and not talked to each other before. We all want to not be isolated in our own homes.

I live in the centre of the area that Keighley Big Local covers and am chair of the partnership of 13 people who run it.

I first got involved in 2016, when I got a leaflet through the door saying that there would be an ice cream van on a Monday evening down my road. The Big Local was offering free ice cream in exchange for hearing people’s ideas for how the area could be improved.

I had an idea to transform a patch of grass on our street doing urban guerilla gardening and went to find out what was going on.

A focus for our Big Local has been the outdoors and supporting more children to play outside, to learn life skills they might be missing.”

At first, residents who got involved had their own agendas about what they wanted to use the money for. But, quickly, we all saw other people’s visions and wanted to support them. It was about making a deprived area a better place to live.

Supporting children to play outside

There are 7,605 people in the area covered by Keighley Big Local, which is a diverse and unique little town.

It used to have a metal and wool industry. Now there’s a lot of social housing and the challenges faced by people include unemployment, anti-social behaviour and coping with the cost of living crisis.

A focus for our Big Local has been the outdoors and supporting more children to play outside, to learn life skills they might be missing. Before, there was just a rec with nothing on it. It was heartbreaking to see children having nowhere to play.

We managed to secure the rec land from the council. They aren’t building parks anymore and were happy we were doing something for the community. We spent £86,000 on the park which now has eco-friendly playground equipment, basketball and tennis courts.

I feel very proud that we achieved this and have seen people taking pride in the local area thanks to projects like this.

Being involved in Big Local has given me a new career.”

We have a group of volunteers who are involved with River Worth Friends. They keep the River Worth, which runs through Keighley, clean, so wildlife can thrive. Volunteers itemise everything they pull out of the river, which can be over 500 bags of debris a year.

In 2022, our Big Local secured £50,000 from Keighley Towns Fund to help restore the River Worth. The work the volunteers do is sustaining wildlife in and around the river. I live close to it and see a lot of herons.

Inspiring social enterprise

We’re recognising people working in the community and helping them to create even more social impact in the town.

We’ve supported 11 new social enterprises with grants of up to £5,000 and business advice. Then, in 2020, we started to sponsor the Social Enterprise of the Year award at the Keighley & Airedale Business Awards. A business that introduces photography to people won it one year. It has also been won by a suicide prevention peer support group.

As a partnership, we vote on what projects we want to support. We’ve told residents that we’re not meant to do the things that the council does. But we’re also fluid – we had to be when Covid happened. Then, we delivered meals to people and still do this in the school holidays.

We also responded when older people told us that they couldn’t get out of their houses in winter. There’s a lot of steep streets in Keighley and older people were too scared to leave their homes because it was so slippery. So, we have paid for salt bins to be installed locally, plus benches on long stretches of road.

We have also allocated 128 grants since 2021, totalling £73,020. These have been spent on everything from community celebrations to arts and crafts workshops, bringing people together.

Continuing the work of Big Local

As chair of Keighley Big Local, it’s a pleasure to get out and take on other people’s problems for a while. It’s been really nice to involve myself in things outside of my house.

In fact, being involved in Big Local has given me a new career. It was six years ago that I was asked by someone at the college where Café Eden is based to take on a part time job supporting students with additional needs. They had seen how passionate I was running the café.

Then, two years later, I became an attendance mentor at Keighley College, looking after students who are at risk of failing their course. I absolutely love my job. I’ve probably brought a lot of restorative justice practice from my job into my role as chair, in helping to resolve conflict and getting everyone to have a voice.

“I’ve felt most proud to see how, after getting some advice and nurturing, Café Eden has helped struggling parents to thrive.”

Keighley Big Local closes in March 2026 and we are looking into becoming a charity to continue our work. People who have been involved have made really good friendships and social connections.

Café Eden will continue through the partnerships it has formed with Keighley College and AWARE. As the Big Local chair, I’ve felt most proud to see how, after getting some advice and nurturing, Café Eden has helped struggling parents to thrive.

Seeing people in a dark place come out of that is what we’re there for.

Interview by Trina Wallace.

Read more inspiring stories in the changemakers series on our Voices page. You can also hear from people making change happen in the latest series of our community power podcast.