A community group in Ceredigion has gone “from strength to strength”, growing from a small toddler group to an “intergenerational” village hub over 15 years.
Borth Community Hub started as a toddler group in the village’s community hall, and has turned into an “intergenerational” busy community group with its own hub in the middle of the village.
Manager Helen Williams has been at the forefront of the hub since it first launched in 2007.
“We started off in 2007, as a one- -morning-a-week toddler group in the community hall. It’s gone from strength to strength since.
“I was chair of the trustees and now I’m the manager at the hub. We employ a number of people and a number of volunteers, they are fundamental really.
“Gardening, helping us do the waking with wellbeing group, helping out with days like our Jubilee Day. We are desperate to keep the walking for wellbeing group going, but as people return to work and their lives after Covid-19, we want to keep it up.
“We run activities for families, a youth club, and groups for older adults, which is our caring communities, including the walking for wellbeing. The dementia friendly group is on a Monday morning, and the get together for older adults, The Get Together Art Group, on Monday afternoons. We are also setting up a Men’s Shed, we’ve got an job advert out for a co-ordinator for that.”
Helen continued: “I’ve been involved since the beginning, my children were quite little then. Originally we set up with Plant Dewi, but now we are an independent charity.
“It’s so rewarding. What we’ve done all along, how we’ve grown, it’s because the community has led it. Everything we do is based on ideas from people in a group or part of the community that they would like to do something. We test it out, run taster sessions, then we build it into a funding bid.
“The dementia group started before lockdown and then when lockdown hit we started delivering art packs, gardening packs, from that we had a whole group of people doing this stuff at home. So we started the Monday afternoon, The Get Together Art Group.
“It all comes from what the community wants, what the needs of the community are. The café was really to bring people together after so many people have been alone for so long.”
On Friday, 27 May, the hub held a get together in their community café to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee and raise money for the hub’s Dementia friendly group.
The community came together at the hub and, under the sun, enjoyed a singalong with Rae Cashman, food cooked by staff and volunteers at the hub, as well as a raffle. The group managed to raise nearly £300 for the hub and its Dementia friendly group.
The Cambrian News went along to find out more about how the hub serves the community.
Sue Dalton and Ianto Thomas are two volunteers that help to lead the walking for wellbeing group, which Ianto describes as a “walk and talk group”.
The walks, which are organised under Ceredigion Actif, are inclusive for all, with short walks suitable for people who struggle with mobility.
The group aims to tackle social isolation by giving community members a “chance to chat” and time to get some fresh air.
Sue said: “Most people are by themselves. We come to the hub after the walk and it means we can all have a chat.
“It’s good that there are men involved, they tend to fall off the radar. Women tend to have good support networks in place already.”
On the hub as a whole, Sue said you “can see how it’s making a difference to people”.
Trustee Margaret Haynes added: “It’s brilliant for the community. And it’s ever increasing, it’s growing, and it’s inclusive. It’s for mums to the older ones. I’ve met people in Borth that I haven’t known before.”
After Covid-19 community integration and tackling social isolation has never been so important, and the hub ensured that they were able to continue providing their services throughout the lockdowns.
Helen explained: “I think we absolutely did adapt our services, I was amazed for a small team of amazing volunteers, trustees, and staff. We really showed that you can adapt, be flexible, and still reach out to people.”
Looking to the future, Helen said the hub hopes to continue “bringing the community together”.
“We’re starting the Men’s Shed, which is a relatively new project. We ran it online in lockdown, we haven’t had any physical sessions yet. We’ve ran some taster sessions, but we’re planning on having it weekly in the hub. Really we’re all about bringing the community together. We want to do more of that.”
The hub is always looking for volunteers, whether for one of their groups, or for general upkeep of the hub, or even as trustees.
On opportunities for volunteering, Helen added: “You can volunteer with any group, but we’ve also got volunteers to do that garden, you can help out across the board, become a trustee. Others will want to volunteer in a specific way, like the Walking for Wellbeing. We have other volunteers for the clothes bank for families.
“We want to make sure opportunity suits the individual, that way everybody gains the most. You can volunteer as much or as little as suits you.”
You can find out more about the hub and the activities they hold on their website, https://borthfamilycentre.co.uk/cms/services/.
If you’re interested in volunteering for any of the groups at the hub, you can contact Helen on [email protected].
