Shropshire Star

Telford community centre continues to offer help while its doors are closed during pandemic

A Telford community centre has been finding ways to offer help to those in need while it remains closed during the Covid-19 outbreak.

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Terry Yarnall at the community centre

The Hub on the Hill in Southgate, Sutton Hill, may be shut for the time-being, but its staff have been helping with people's shopping and making calls to residents to check on their wellbeing.

It is also helping to deliver breakfast packs for children on free school meals.

And with help from Lloyds Banking Group, staff have been able to introduce more activities online and produce a newsletter for the community.

Centre manager Terry Yarnall said: "The newsletter will tell people what we've been up to and how we are helping."

He said the centre runs a virtual youth club and was now launching cooking lessons online.

During the pandemic its cafe has been closed, but it is doing takeaways.

Mr Yarnall said: "We've wanted to stay connected and keep in touch with our community.

"It's been challenging, it's not without its stresses but we have fantastic staff and volunteers.

"We've adapted to the changes and some changes we will take forward."

As well as the help from Lloyds Banking Group, as part of its charity response forum, Mr Yarnall said Telford & Wrekin Council had also helped by offering a small pot of money.

Meanwhile the centre is looking to find further funding from other sources.

Dan Sharkey, from Lloyds charity response forum, said he had helped by discussing the advantages of using social media to promote the community centre's activities.

And Nicola Walton, also from the forum, helped the community centre to produce its first newsletter.

She said: "There's quite a lot of the community that might not have the resources to get online.

"One of the things Terry wanted was to reach all those people that might not have the power to go online.

"We really wanted to reaffirm the message that they are still there and working hard to support the community."

In 2016, Sutton Hill's community centre faced closure.

Realising its importance to the community, a group of residents came together to find a way to keep it open.

By 2017, an official charity called Sutton Hill Community Trust was formed and is responsible for the full management of the Hub on the Hill.

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