We recently celebrated the 40th Anniversary of providing domestic abuse support for women, children and young people across Neath Port Talbot. This year also marks our relocation to a custom-designed community hub on the Talbot Road where after operating from a building that had become unfit for purpose due to increased demand on services, an expanding team and lack of disability access has opened up many new opportunities for the organisation and the community.
To coincide with National Safeguarding Week, a schedule of activities was designed and delivered by service users, staff and other local professionals to encourage them all to try something new, expand their knowledge and come together in the new space. The programme featured many activities including smoothie making, fitness, reflexology, messy play, face painting, a clothing and craft sale, a Freedom Programme and Recovery Toolkit taster session, an information marketplace and the premiere Welsh screening of domestic abuse and family court film ‘What Doesn’t Kill Me’ by Welsh director Rachel Meyrick (www.whatdoesntkillme.com) .
The official launch ceremony took place on Wednesday 13th November and was well attended by the Thrive team, local professionals and service users. The event started with a moment of silence to remember the many women who have lost their lives to domestic abuse and was then followed by thought provoking speeches from the words of Survivors, local government official Karen Jones, Miss Wales 2019 Gabriella Jukes, Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner Emma Wools, Chief Executive Officer of Welsh Women’s Aid Eleri Butler and the Deputy Minister and Chief Whip Jane Hutt AM. Also in attendance was keen supporter of the charity Michael Sheen who following donating the winnings from his recent appearance on Pointless Celebrities said;
“We all have to play our part, every single person can make a difference and more and more I feel that we all have a responsibility to do what we can with what we have and to do more good than harm. I hope that you can indeed ‘thrive’ in this new building”.
Our vision is that the new hub will provide a new, sustainable, holistic environment to further embed partnership working and innovative services in the community and to continue their mission to break the cycle of domestic abuse. If you want to know more then please email [email protected] to find out how your organisation can get involved.