Waddington Street Resource Centre - Durham

karl mayhew

Waddington street staff are very friendly and understanding and are very supportive and go above and beyond to help with peoples needs, they made me feel at ease and offered a wide range of activities and help; I would strongly recommend to anyone struggling with feeling alone and have problems with mental health or anxiety issues or even just want somewhere to go to get out of the house or away from there daily struggles with life" they offer activities such as walks, gymn, badminton to arts crafts or even just having a tea or coffee and a bite to eat and chat, would highly recommend this place !

Malcolm Hazel

"Provides a safe place for people with mental health issues." courses & activities, mental health issues discussion, food/ drink available from shop inside

ian mcgregor hart

An excellent Community hub where several groups meet during the week. The Waddy hold a Poetry open night first Thursday of the month with Open Mic night plus 3 guests Poets. A good place to listen to a diverse range of original performance Poetry & Prose & to road test your own material. New Poets most welcome. An enjoyable social night with refreshments available b4 Open Mic starts & during the break. At the Cafe you can buy Tea, Coffee & soft drinks. There is also a selection of Cakes & biscuits.

Victori-ori

For some reason, my review for this I made a couple years back seemed to had gone blank. I'm unsure of what happened perhaps you  deleted it but regardless, 2 years later I think its important to restate my thoughts, hopefully to warn people and to avoid something like this happening again. So I will rewrite.

At age 16, I joined this club at the recommendation of a professional. From what I recall, I initially found the place to be interesting and expressive.

However overtime I found my experience to increasingly decline, and moreover didn't feel listened to in that regard.

I found the behaviour of the "mental health advocates" featured to be extremely wrong. I do not think any advocate should be disregarding someone's experience, calling them a "bitch" or an "attention seeker" for expressing how they feel in an open forum that is for mental health. While everyone else did the same, for some reason I was repeatedly invalidated, ignored and shamed for simply talking about my feelings - much like others at the club.

I felt strongly, and still do about mental health yet I was constantly rejected by long time members- being the youngest at one stage. I was 16 and others were 20+. I do not think this is an acceptable way to treat someone, but for a place that has ties to New College Durham, I'm genuinely not surprised.

I did not like the almost hierarchical system that the long time members had. It was clear they had a clique of friends and were cold and hostile to me being not of their clique.

I do not appreciate having the same people in your videos screaming about how the system must better itself, then turning around to me behind closed doors and telling me I made up my illness for attention.

Do you realise how damaging that is? And moreso, if you are silenced for it?

I also think having an official group chat where they would quite literally gossip about me is totally unacceptable.

If this was supposedly the place for mental health advocacy, they would not shun a member who is doing the exact same things as the others, and expressing themselves.

Clearly, I felt enough pain and rejection to wish to rewrite, and clearly I didn't feel listened to or taken seriously. It's not okay for anyone to bully and second guess an individual - ESPECIALLY in a mental health space.

Another reason for the fact I left was that there was a rehaul and the place became less art focused and more social based. But for what? Any socializing was like walking on eggshells, God forbid you are honest about how you feel in a place that supposedly openly supported it? Also these "advocates" did not give me privacy and told other people my personal things I had told them.

As much as I would love to have had a positive experience, I can't think of anything good apart from perhaps when it was still there, the studio was very nice.

Indeed, a representative from here contacted me well after my initial review but by that time the damage had been done.

I hope that this place has changed since then, as someone who suffers from a trauma based illness, it's pretty concerning how this still crops up in my memory to this day. I think it shows how bad it was that this place is a genuine trigger for me. If you wish to change how things are, you must embrace everyone, to be clear and not show favouritism. I could think of more to say, but I think I will leave it here as moreso of a warning to anyone wanting to involve themselves here.

Tony Bentley

Great crowd, lits of activities; a welcome for all.

Alan Greathead

A fabulous resource centre for people with health issues.... Amazing supportive staff....

Anthony Luke Heslop

Progressive community support organisation with a loads going on. Check out their website.

Steven Black

I know alot of lads who go there with mental health problems.a chat or a cuppa.