Charity founder turns college campus into community hub

Adeem Younis, from Wakefield who founded SingleMuslim.com and the Penny Appeal charity, is turning his former college campus into a community hub.

Penny Appeal bought the complex Thornes Park campus, in 2018, but Adeem has big plans to turn his former stomping grounds into a busy hub for the community, lending its space to local charities, groups, and national initiatives.

The charity 's founder, Adeem Younis, was a student at the college, and, following the immense success of the charity, now plans to give back to his hometown by investing into local infrastructure and communities as well as creating new jobs.

He said: “Wakefield College has always been a huge part of my life. To have had the opportunity to invest in my old campus and turn it into a hub for the local community is a dream come true.

"Penny Appeal has achieved so much on both a global and local scale, and by creating a local footprint in Wakefield and investing in infrastructure, we will be able to continue our work supporting local communities right here in the city where it all began. ”

Covid-19 has limited the type of activities allowed to take place, however, there has been an enormous amount of interest from the local community in the many opportunities that this space will provide.

Penny Appeal has given campus space to a gymnastics club, who lost their sports hall in a fire last year. The club will resume use of the space after the lockdown ends.

In the meantime, the campus is currently being used for police dog training, and Friends of the Park have been using the site. All of this has been free of charge to make it easy for the community to use the site as needed. Further to this, the charity has been fulfilling its social responsibility by providing lighting in the park, covering the cost of the electricity bill.

Thornes Park has much to offer from sports hall facilities, a theatre boasting of 240 seats, impressive outdoor space, a large car park to a restaurant that can cater for 250 people.

The site, set at the heart of the popular local green space, is a long-term investment for Adeem and Penny Appeal who, despite calls to move to bigger cities, plans to stay local and will be moving their headquarters to the first floor Thornes Park, keeping plenty of space free for community use. As restrictions reduce and the facilities are able to open to the public, the site will become a place for organisations, groups, clubs, and families to reconnect and come together once again.

Pictured: Adeem (centre) observing the dog unit at work