A Flax Corn Dolly on Blockhouse Park 2023

Last year we delivered a Flax Corn Dolly on Blockhouse Park. We’d like to do this again in April, building on the success of last year’s event, with a series of corn dolly workshops leading to a spectacular finale. We want to reach all parts of the community, bring us all together into the heart of the making and the ceremony. Release the spirit of the nature into the soil and reconnect with our ancestors traditions! The event will lead in to The Village Hub’s Feast and Ceilidh taking place that evening in Stoke Youth and Community Centre.

We Count Too

Our aim is to facilitate a safe space where young people known in the local area, particularly young males can meet once weekly to develop a network where they can make safer informed decisions on how they live their lives.
The development of this work will target and support those who have been effected by social isolation, lack specific life skills where emotions and poor mental health have been a barrier.
Referral demand has increased in this area, we engage well with those in need who help to shape and deliver this work to be successful.

Home Economics – Core Skills for home, life and work!

6 core activities – open to everyone, participants can join weekly workshops to address any of the challenges they face during the cost of living crisis.
Budgeting
Cooking,
DIY
Sewing
Parental Support (Messy Munchkins sessions)
Employment & Careers Advice
Driven by participant input, we will have an adaptable delivery. We have our own premises but also use community facilities to ensure accessibility across Plymouth.
Delivering for over 10 years, with a proven track record. We have a strong membership and following. Workshops have recently finished through cessation of funding. We have a list of EOI’s which shows the ongoing need.

£4 Budget Cinema Ticket for Unwaged or Low Income

The best way to watch a film is to make it an event and see it on the big screen, with an audience. We don’t want people to break the habit of coming to the cinema because they can no longer afford it. We introduced a £4 Budget price (full price £9) in a trial from 1/10/22 to 31/1/23. We sold 241 Budget tickets and welcomed 58 first-time visitors to the cinema. Plymouth Live named PAC as one of Plymouth’s kindest businesses for this initiative. We’d love the chance to make it a permanent offer and develop it further.

Genie Gym; exercise classes with childcare attached

Improving access to a healthier lifestyle and improving the wellbeing of individuals by providing childcare during exercise classes to remove barriers for parents. A series of classes will be run, while children are looked after within the same building (for example, by utilising 2 rooms in the same community centre). The aim is to provide access to classes that would otherwise be out of reach for parents who cannot afford them, and who do not have anyone to care for their children. Exercise improves mental health and by improving the wellbeing of the parents, the children will also benefit.

Get Crafty

Our current popular weekly craft day offers a safe, warm space for people to meet, share stories, develop friendships and connect through art and craft. We want to add a Saturday craft workshop aimed at families. A shared activity creates a lasting memory, brings people together and gives the mind a short break from the pressures of the current cost of living crisis which is affecting us all. We do not want to pass our increased costs on to people already feeling the pinch. Funding would enable us to offer these sessions free of charge to all.

Simply Counselling Cost of Living Crisis

At Simply Counselling we want to address our waiting list for funded places from very distressed people who cannot afford to heat and eat as well as accessing the mental-health help they need. Already the pandemic lockdowns caused huge increases in the number of people who were left abused, lonely or depressed and the current cost of living crisis has culminated in augmenting these problems to conditions of toxic shock for many people. Our waiting lists show the need and our success over the past 16 years proves our validity. We want counselling to be accessible to all in Plymouth.