The Beacon Community Centre celebrates first birthday

Celebrate with a free cuppa and a cake at The Beacon, Exeter’s dynamic community centre as we mark our first birthday and a hat trick of successes tomorrow. (Fri May 6)

The volunteer team which runs the centre in Beacon Lane has three reasons to be happy.

• The first successful transition in Exeter of a former county council youth centre, the Knight Club, into a vibrant community centre for Beacon Heath.

• The start tomorrow of its first community weekly Friday drop-in, during May there is a free cuppa and cake on offer.

• The community centre’s first birthday, and on Friday 6th there’s birthday cake!

This is the first successful takeover of its kind in Exeter after county council cuts in youth work budgets. Isca Community Enterprises was set up by Isca Church to run the centre which is open to everybody in the Beacon Heath area.

The church is providing a part-time manager who leads a team of volunteers. Over the past year the centre has had a facelift to make it warmer and more inviting to all members of the community and has maintained the links with young people.

More than 65 young people have been coming along to the two weekly youth sessions which are run by Isca Church.

They play games, chat and enjoy smoothies and toasties in a safe, relaxed space.

The Beacon is used every week day by local groups: a popular toddler group, Action for Children, sports yoga, Refugee Support Devon, Meet and Remember and next door St James School, as well as specialist youth mentoring.

Richard Cummings, centre manager said: “I’m really proud of the team and what we have accomplished in the first year. We have a great facility here and we love seeing it as a home for lots of different community groups and local people.

“We’ve had some real high points in the year such as enabling over 150 local children to meet Santa for free over Christmas and get a present. We’ve seen the seniors’ social group Meet and Remember flourish including having a recent visit from the Lord Mayor and Ben Bradshaw.

“We are excited by the year ahead and want to see the centre being used as much as possible for people to access services, have fun and meet together. We’re especially pleased to see Exeter Foodbank joining us here with so they can distribute from the centre and serve local people in need. There’s a lot more to come!”

Tomorrow the award winning Exeter Foodbank begins food distribution sessions every Friday morning for people referred with a Foodbank voucher. Nearly 20 per cent of its clients come from Beacon Heath.

The Beacon is looking for more people to help with a variety of volunteering roles. If you’d like to find out more about The Beacon or to volunteer call 01392 204979 or email:thebeaconcentre.org@gmail.com