The Pavilion Community Centre – Meon Vale
A parish council run community centre serving Meon Vale and the surrounding villages. Includes a vibrant coffee shop open Monday – Saturday 10am-4pm. Community centre is available for functions and is also a central hub for a food share operation and other community lead schemes.
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
Residents will recall the super work organised by the Parish Council and community volunteers during the Covid crisis. At that time, our aim was to assist the most vulnerable by providing a range of support services including the provision of a Neighbourly FoodShare charity operation for families who were impacted by the crisis.
Our achievements included:
- An agreement with FareShare and Neighbourly to collect date up produce from leading supermarkets including Waitrose, M&S and Morrison to prepare food parcels for families and individuals who were struggling through the crisis. At its peak, this was a 5 day a week logistical operation involving volunteers to collect, sort, pack and re-distribute ‘surplus’ food;
- Organised community projects for residents struggling with isolation including the ‘Great Village Bake Off where ingredients to bake orange shortbread were distributed to families to bake the biscuit according to a specified recipe. Judging was organised via an on-line panel for “best-in-class biscuit’ with 1st, 2nd, & 3rd prize;
- British Bird Watch Study with a bird identification, information pack and community plant a tree day, around the local play area.
BRINGING THE COMMUNITY TOGETHER.
Following successful negotiations with Men Vale developer St Modwen, the Parish Council acquired the tenancy of the Pavilion Sports building. Sited in a large green open space with a covered canopy, the Pavilion was ideally located. The outside covered area provided an ideal seating area for families with proximity to a playground and sports pitch.
Realising the Pavilion needed to be remodelled to suit our intended purpose, council members, residents and local businesses combined forces and resources to create a space for community projects. This included FoodShare, a meeting room and a vibrant coffee shop supplying coffee, cakes and snacks all sourced from local businesses and retailed at not-for-profit prices.
Volunteers helped to refurbish the Pavilion and with the generous support of a leading restaurant chain, the community centre finally opened its doors in the summer of 2021. Since then, the centre has evolved into a vibrant meeting place for residents and the wider community.
The Pavilion building offers a range of amenities including:
Dedicated space for community FoodShare project that operates twice weekly;
Volunteer programmes including Eco Workshop adults with learning difficulties attend The Pavilion once a week for a work programme including training on our barister coffee machine, table service duties and organising the food share rota;
Parkinson’s club working with the Leisure Centre (adjacent to the Pavilion), the club provides a stimulating and physical exercise environment, including a lunch with topical discussions;
Job Club, this is new initiative working with local businesses, and the job centre to provide a ‘help to work’ programme. This includes assistance with CV writing, courses, volunteer opportunities, and deploying local resource to benefit the community. We are currently refurbishing a side room to support this project and other ‘work’ schemes currently in the pipeline;
Social Infrastructure status, the Parish Council were able to secure agreement from Warwickshire County Council to treat the Pavilion as Social Infrastructure, as such it now receives CIL monies which is funding further remedial work and improvements to the building.
WHAT NEXT?
We are currently buidling a dedicated website and engaging the skillets from local villages to assist with the project. This includes student artists, IT technicians and the Pavilion Working Group to create a quirkly and engaging interactive site. The Parish Council would like to thank all volunteers for helping to make this unique project possible.