Cullen Haven Centre offering a warm welcome to all in bid to banish social exclusion
A warm welcome is always guaranteed to all ages at a brand new community café and hub.
The Haven @ the Centre - which is based at Cullen Community and Residential Centre - was declared open by no less a personage than Princess Anne herself during her recent visit to the town.
The café also features a child play area where parents can enjoy a cuppa while keeping an eye on their little ones as they enjoy playing with the selection of toys on offer.
The driving force being the five-strong, all-volunteer team at The Haven is local resident Anne Welford, who revealed that the project came about quite by chance.
She said: “I was at the centre volunteering at the community lunch, which is run by the community council, and I noticed this room lying empty.
“I approached the board [of the Three Kings Cullen Association, which runs the community centre] and asked if we could maybe set up somewhere for parents and kids to come. They asked me to come up with a business plan to let them see how it was all going to work.
“In between that time, we did strawberry teas during Wimbledon and raised about £900 off of it, so the board agreed that I could use that money to try and revamp the place. I said I’d take on the place on a three-month trial to see how it’d go and it’s been a real success.”
Transforming the room into what is now the bright and cosy Haven entailed a lot of work, but generosity from far and wide worked its magic on the area formerly used by the playgroup. A donation of a second hand kitchen, complete with appliances, was a major boost with a local café, New Denver, offering their second hand furniture at a very reasonable price.
The room has now been redecorated and the ceiling lowered, with an air pump providing heating.
Bringing people together and fighting social exclusion is very much on the mission statement for The Haven.
Anne continued: “The majority of people, especially the mums, are desperately needing somewhere where they can come where they can chill out and the kids are safe, they're right in front of them.
“They're all liable for their own kids - we don’t have any to do with them at all, apart from preparing their food and so on. Originally it was always going to be for mums and dads and kids, but when we did the strawberry tea, we realised that the whole community needed somewhere, because they all came in droves. The same people were coming back every day, because they just thought it was great that we were getting to come up here and get a nice piece. So that's why we decided that we would just let everybody come in, but make the play area separate.”
The Haven may be the new kid on the block, so to speak, but it has already generated its share of heart-warming tales. One Anne highlighted was that of two young mums called Claire who both had young girls, one coming to the Haven of a Friday morning, the other on a Friday afternoon.
Anne spotted an opportunity here, as she explained: “The Claire in the afternoon was saying that she was in Findochty and she was looking for friends and she loved coming here
“So I said to the morning Claire the next week ‘Why don't you come in the afternoon and meet the other Claire?’. She said ‘Maybe I will’, so they came in and now they're actually really good friends. They're delighted that the kids are going to be friends throughout school life and everything.
“So it just shows that the social side of it works.”
Anne went on to say she was keen to expand usage of The Haven into the evening and weekend, with the space already playing host to a camera club on a Wednesday evening and, once a month on a Saturday, a menopause café. The Haven is also available for other events and has already hosted a birthday party.
The visit of the Princess Royal was to be the cherry on the cake for the café as it formally opened.
Anne said: “Everybody got to meet the Princess and speak to her.
“She seemed very nice and was very interested in everything we were doing. She was lovely, really nice and it just gave the whole community a boost.”
During her visit to The Haven, the Princess cut a specially-baked cake and a special plaque will be put in place to mark the occasion.
Three Kings Cullen Association chairwoman Brenda Gifford welcomed what The Haven has already brought to the wide offering provided to the community by the centre.
She said: “It's all about bringing people in to support anybody who's at home, particularly on their own.
“Just like everything else that we do in the centre, it's just about health and wellbeing. We’re very, very happy to support ideas that come in from volunteers or members of the public because anything that comes in as a seed of an idea is something that we can support and guide through the process.
“That's worked really, really well with The Haven because people have supported it and Anne has put every effort into it. We've had donations of toys and equipment and furniture. It's just been wonderful and it's working as a really good meeting place for people who are isolated, not just elderly people, but young people as well.
“We want to encourage more of that and intergenerational work as well.”
The Haven is one from 9am to 3pm on Monday. Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.
Follow the Haven’s Facebook page for updates and news.
