Transforming our community centre into a hybrid physical-virtual space to allow high-quality participation both in-person and online
A hybrid physical-virtual space: allowing our community centre to operate in the times of Covid-19
Northwood and Pinner Liberal Synagogue (NPLS), which is also the home of The Northwood Venue, is a lively, warm and vibrant Liberal Jewish community in the heart of Northwood.
Before Covid-19, NPLS was a true community hub with a wide range of social and cultural activities for all, irrespective of faith and background. Aside from the use as a synagogue, our building was used extensively by the local community for events that included: parties, classes, exhibitions and adult education. The classes, run by external instructors or synagogue members, reached adults and children by providing a diverse range of activities: Bridge, Zumba Gold, Keep Fit, Bolly Burn, Gentle as well as Regular Yoga, Hartbeeps, BusyLizzy, NCT classes, classes supporting those with memory loss, to list just a few highlights. All of these activities have come to a halt in the building when the Covid-19 lockdown started. While some of the classes moved online from outside the building, many have simply been put on hold. Due to social distancing requirements, it will be a great challenge to restart many of the classes as the reduced capacity will make it economically difficult for the instructors.
Over the past few weeks, since the Covid 19 lockdown has been in place, our volunteer audio-visual team have worked tirelessly to enable high quality live streaming of services reaching far beyond our community across the UK and around the globe. This prompted us to want to explore the same model for our class providers to enable them to deliver classes simultaneously and smoothly to an audience in the hall and a second audience online – allowing those who will continue to have to shield to also take advantage of the classes as well as increasing the capacity to make it financially viable for the instructors.
We are committed to making these changes to our venue, with the synagogue investing its own funds to buy and install a limited amount of new equipment, such as a camera and an improved sound desk. The extra funding raised through this project will enable us to install an additional camera to provide more versatility of use as well as screens for the instructors to be able to see participants joining in online. If we can achieve the stretch level of funding, as well as being able to complete the installation—creating a truly 21st century hybrid physical-virtual space—we would be able to subsidise the cost of a technician on hand to assist instructors in running the virtual component. Any additional funding that we can raise, will be invested into setting up a pre-paid voucher system that will allow us to offer classes free-of-charge for those who cannot otherwise afford to attend these programmes. To reach those who would benefit the most from this system, we would be collaborating with charities active locally such as the Trussell Trust and New Hope in Watford.
This project successfully funded on 22nd July 2020