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Steve Morgan Foundation

Home-start Conwy is extremely excited to receive a grant from the Steve Morgan Foundation to support its work with families and children in the County of Conwy. Without their help we wouldn't be able to continue to deliver our extensive support to the Community.

Community Centre Refurbishment

We have been very fortunate to receive a grant from the Welsh Government Community Facilities Programme to upgrade the exterior of the Community Centre. Work has been ongoing during March and just look at the result!

What a difference this has made to the appearance of the Centre, it has preserved the exterior and extended the lifespan of the building for many more years to come.

Garden Refurbishment

Along with our community centre refurbishment, we have also had a makeover of the garden to the rear of the centre. The garden has been tidied, a new playhouse has been built and painted and a new fence has been put up around the back to make it much more secure.

We are also in the process of having some garden planters positioned at the side of the centre where we are going to grow some fruit and vegetables. The planters will be accessible for all who would like to tend to them and the area is wheelchair friendly.

We are on the hunt for some volunteers to form a Home-Start Conwy gardening group and help maintain the planters over the growing period on a casual basis.

Volunteer Training

Since September we have delivered 2 home visiting volunteer training courses. Following on from those, we have successfully recruited 5 volunteers that have now completed the training and are looking forward to being matched with a family. The courses went very well and all that attended offered positive feedback and thanked Bronwen & Danielle for delivering the well praised course with a lovely lunch included each week.

‘I thoroughly enjoyed how the course was delivered in a very professional, interactive, and light-hearted manner, ‘especially given that some of the topics can be heavy and triggering’.

Another volunteer said the course had helped her to ‘Revise aspects of working with families, safeguarding, and confidentiality. Feel positive about being part of a team and volunteering’

Volunteer Get Together

We held our Christmas volunteer get together in December to show our appreciation to our volunteers for everything they do to support us. These lovely get togethers give volunteers the opportunity to meet each other or catch up if they have met before. The get together is also attended by our trustees so our volunteers and trustees can get to know each another. We put on a Christmas buffet for all to enjoy along with the popular zerozecco which is always a hit. We are looking forward to holding another one again very soon.

Toy appeal

Christmas is a challenging time for many families, particularly with the rise of the cost of living. Last Christmas, some families were worried about how they were even going to pay for necessities, such as energy bills, let alone providing presents for their children. We are so grateful to everyone who gave so generously to our Toy Appeal, as well as those local businesses who offered to be donation points for the toys.

The contributions from the local community enabled us to provide our families with new toys for their children at Christmas. Many of our parents became overwhelmed when they were presented with the gifts and expressed how grateful they were by the kindness that people from the local community had shown. It makes everything very worthwhile when we receive touching messages from our families:

‘I have been meaning to message you to say a massive thank you for all the lovely gifts. It made me cry as our Christmas wasn't a Christmas with not being able to get out, plus not having the money, but the kids understood. I hope you had a lovely Christmas and new year’.

Christmas hampers

We are very grateful to Shavonne from Catherine & St John the Baptist, Old Colwyn for coordinating a collection of food from several Churches in the Aled Mission area and putting some lovely Christmas hampers together for us.

The Christmas hampers contained mince pies, selection boxes, hot chocolate and other edible goodies, as well as a £10 gift card to help with the increasing cost of living.

The Christmas hampers were put together and beautifully wrapped by volunteers from Catherine & St John the Baptist’s, Old Colwyn, as well as our own volunteers at Home-Start Conwy. They were then collected from our centre by our volunteers and delivered to the families they support.

The way in which our local community pulled together and the kindness and generosity people have shown has made such a positive difference to families this Christmas, and we are very grateful to all of those involved.

Food Share

Our partnership with the North Wales Food Share programme continues to be an important community service. We provide free and subsidised food to anyone finding the cost of living crisis challenging. There is also an environmental aspect in that a lot of food goes to waste from supermarkets as it approaches its sell by date. The food share programme helps divert this into the community.

Sewing Group

Our sewing group of Fridays continues to be very popular. This provides an opportunity for people to learn to sew and make new garments, but also recycle clothing and materials as part of an environmental project. We always know when this group is in the centre due to all the laughter and high spirits.

Home-Start Conwy Gardening Volunteer

Do you enjoy gardening?

Would you like to help establish our new community garden?

At Home-Start Conwy we have a new gardening project ready for plants/veg/fruit of choice. We are looking to gather a team of keen gardeners to drive this project forward, all wheelchair friendly for anyone to enjoy.

If you are interested please e-mail us on info@homestartconwy.org or call us on 01492 515477

Home-Start Conwy Community Transport Volunteer

Do you enjoy driving?

Would you like to make a difference to someone's day?

Home-Start Conwy are looking for Volunteer drivers to help with our exciting new Community Transport Scheme.

If you're interested, please get in touch with us:

E-mail: info@homestartconwy.org

Telephone: 01492 515477