Yellow and Blue
Wrexham based community hub Yellow and Blue (YAB) Group is offering support to the most vulnerable members of the community, through a new community hub for all groups of people.
Why is it important? (Work they do)
Pete Humphreys founded YAB as an online charity in the aftermath of his father’s death from bowel cancer, with a long-term goal of setting-up a community hub to help all types of vulnerable people.
A non-profit social enterprise, YAB provides support and activities to vulnerable people, playing a vital role as an activity centre and workshop venue during the day and a community bistro in the evenings.
The project has provided those with terminal illnesses, mental health issues, learning difficulties and homeless individuals a safe space to meet. This has had a phenomenal social impact on members of the community - underpinned by its social mission to ‘Rise Up by Lifting Others’.
How we helped
YAB was initially supported by the Social Business Wales New Start programme but transferred to the Growth programme in October 2020 when it was looking to expand onto new premises in the centre of Wrexham.
SBW provided advice and support during this expansion and assisted in developing and co-ordinating a volunteering strategy and operational framework plan for YAB’s mini army of willing volunteers.
Impact of support
The strategy and operational plan produced in March 2021 has provided YAB with a pragmatic approach to delivering its daily services, allowing Project Managers and key volunteers to take a step back while still ensuring volunteers are properly recruited, supported, and valued at the hub.
Project Manager Pete Humphreys said “I have hugely benefitted on the service and support from SBW. Our Business Adviser Jacqui is someone I trust, and I can call on, and that has got me where I am today. It would be impossible to value the support in a monetary way; it’s simply been huge to me. Thank you so much.”
The influence of this robust framework on the wider the community during the pandemic has been profound, especially for one homeless gentleman who volunteered at the hub. Every morning, he helped by sanding and painting upcycled chairs, and often had food with YAB volunteers. This offered him the chance to get support with personal issues and completely turn his life around. Today he’s managed to sort out his pension, get off the streets and get a job working in trade. From his pension pay-out he even kindly donated a large TV to the hub so people with learning differences could watch whilst at the hub. The gentleman’s hub experience has come full circle and is a testament to the power of community support initiatives like YAB and their social impact.
Social Business Wales is funded by the European Regional Development Fund through Welsh Government and is delivered by the Wales Co-operative Centre.