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A charity which started out helping people collect their shopping and prescriptions during the pandemic now has 300 active volunteers and is a “lifeline” to an isolated community.

Community Volunteers Wales has been run out of the Sycamore Centre in Tŷ Sign for a year, co-founded by Tara Holloway and Dawn Derraven.

Ruth Jones, MP for Newport West and Islwyn, visited the charity’s base to hear about their tireless community work.

Tara said: “We thought it would only last a couple of weeks, but here we are somehow five years later.

“At our peak we were dealing with 170 calls a week from people across the area in need of our support for a list of reasons. We do what we can.”

And Community Volunteers Wales does a lot. Not only through its food pantry on Tredegar Street, Risca, but its baby bank, uniform scheme, community classroom, coffee mornings, nursery, and a lot more.

Tara continued: “All the calls we made during the Covid period really helped us shape our services as people told us what they needed as we filled the gaps.

“For example, Tŷ Sign is a really isolated community up on the hill so our ‘transport to health’ scheme has been a literal lifesaver for many who can now get transport to health settings.”

Dawn estimates the charity has brought in more than £500k worth of grant funding to the area since the service began, but is concerned about the future.

She continued: “If this place goes, there’s absolutely nothing in Tŷ Sign. We have a lease on the building but that’s up next year so we’re looking for ways to purchase it and turn it into our own.”

The former church is divided into three sections, the first of which is the Snug Coffee Shop – which has another branch on Tredegar Street – with two big spaces either side hosting larger groups as well as the extensive baby bank; Tiny Treasures.

Tara said: “We’ve been in this place almost a year to the day. Working with Plattform we’ve had 12 apprenticeships here, 11 of which now have full-time jobs. It’s very rewarding.”

Its most recent batch of grant funding came from Asda, who had awarded the charity £600 to put towards food supplies to help families in the run up to Christmas.

After meeting with the charity, Ruth Jones MP said: “Community Volunteers Wales are unsung heroes for the whole of Caerphilly, especially in the Ty Sign area, and are helping hundreds of families every day.

“I’ll do all that I can to ensure such a worthwhile charity is here for the future, supporting its community through two brilliant women and hundreds of volunteers.”