Helensburgh Community Hub Update
Argyll and Bute Council · 11 February 2025
Back to Helensburgh and Lomond Area Community Planning Group — 11 February 2025 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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Helensburgh Community Hub – CPG update February 2025 At Helensburgh Community Hub we believe that partnership and collaboration are vital to provide activities and services that our community wants and needs effectively, and this style of working is only going to become more important in the current financial climate and landscape of declining volunteer numbers (SVCO Sector Tracker Summer/Autumn 2024) Two key examples of partnerships we have established are: Launch of Helensburgh Repair Cafe (with Jean’s Bothy and A&B Climate Action Network) - January 2025 Repair Cafes offer a way to address climate change at a local level by prolonging the life of common household items and keeping them out of landfill; they also provide an opportunity to create community connection both among the volunteers, and with the people who bring items in for repair. With seed funding from the ABCAN Climate Action Fund the Helensburgh Repair Cafe project was launched on 27 January at Helensburgh Community Hub. Around 50 people have expressed an interest in being part of a repair cafe whether it's helping with admin, hosting the cafe or the repairing itself (everything from sewing skills to nuclear engineering!). The next steps will involve visiting a Repair Cafe already operating, training and using resources from membership of the Share and Repair Network, part of Circular Communities Scotland. We are aiming for a soft launch around April/May time followed by a public launch this summer. For more information go to https://abcan.mn.co/spaces/17961684/feed Helensburgh Book Festival – the third year of Reading Minds (with Jean’s Bothy and H&L Carers Centre) - March 28-30 The Reading Minds Helensburgh Book Festival (March 28-30) aims to showcase reading for pleasure in a community-focused way and features 19 different events across six venues including the drawing room of Hill House, Colgrain Primary, Hermitage Academy and Helensburgh Library as well as the three partner organisations. Reading for pleasure is hugely beneficial to our health and wellbeing and is highly significant in supporting children’s life chances. This year’s festival includes sessions aimed at families and young people.
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It also supports local writers through a pitching event and offering tips on getting published. We are also delighted to have best-selling authors such as Jenny Colgan and Ambrose Parry (the pen name of Christopher Brookmyre and his wife Marisa Haetzman) at the festival this year. Most events are at low or no cost, and are accompanied by refreshments to encourage community connection. The Reading Minds Helensburgh Book Festival is supported by funding from Scottish Book Trust, Helensburgh HEART and The Bridge Awards. The programme is available at: https://www.eventbrite.com/cc/helensburgh-book-festival-2025-3959653?utm- campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm- term=odclsxcollection&utm-source=cp&aff=odclsxcollection Growing the Hub’s work and impact – next 5 year plan We want to continue great collaborations on big and small projects and we are working with Community Enterprise to create the Hub’s next 3-5 year business plan. We are keen to involve all our stakeholders in shaping the services and activities delivered through Helensburgh Community Hub so Community Enterprise will be engaging with our partners and the wider community in the coming months. We would be really grateful if partners could contribute to that discussion. Development Manager Gill Simpson 01436 678088 / 07498 528747 manager@helensburghcommunityhub.org.uk Registered Company SC645409 Registered Charity SC05045.