A warm St David’s Day welcome at Blackwood’s Libanus Lifestyle

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Songs, Welsh cakes, poetry, and cawl were the order of the day at a special St David’s Day event at community hub Libanus Lifestyle.

Based at the former Libanus Chapel in Blackwood, Libanus Lifestyle is a not-for-profit community interest company run by volunteers. Formed in November 2015, the organisation has since turned the old chapel, built in 1929, into a thriving hub of community activity.

As part of its services to the Blackwood community, it receives Welsh Government funding to open as a ‘welcoming space’ also known as a warm hub.

This year’s St David’s Day coincided with one of its regular Wednesday warm hubs – and Libanus Lifestyle decided to make the most of it.

Karen James, who runs Libanus Lifestyle, said the ‘welcoming space’ funding had made a huge difference – not just to the people who attend the sessions, but the community hub itself as it struggled with rising energy costs.

She said: “We have never had so much support like this before. From our point-of-view, this scheme scheme has really helped us out with money to pay our bills. If we hadn’t had this, I don’t know where we would be now.”

The council has put £133,000 of Welsh Government funding into 32 welcoming spaces. The money goes towards energy bills and the costs of running the spaces.

The local authority has previously said it hopes to keep the spaces open beyond winter and spring, into the summer months.

Sarah Coombes, is one of four community development officers working with venues operating as welcoming spaces.

She explained the schemes were a way for the council to battle social isolation and to connect with people who might need its help.

She said: “Each of the [welcoming spaces] has a referral opportunity straight into the Caerphilly Cares team. So if anyone attends they can ask for support and can be signposted to support from the council.”

Sarah also explained that ‘community connectors’ from the council also use the welcoming spaces to reconnect people with others.

For more information on how to become part of the welcoming space network, contact the Caerphilly Cares team by email caerphillycares@caerphilly.gov.uk or telephone 01443 811490.