00:00 Morning everyone, my name's Tom Hayden, I'm the Chief Executive of the Prince Shepherd.
00:04 First off, welcome to the Queen's Building, I just wanted to thank you all for coming this morning.
00:08 It's been a real labour of love to get to this point.
00:12 You've walked in now, you've seen this fantastic building, but it's been a lot of effort.
00:16 So first off, I just wanted to thank the people at Mayleigh Papper, the leader, Kate Lees,
00:21 and the Senior Executive Board of the Council for securing this fantastic building for us.
00:26 Tom, Will, I've been arranging for the Walsh Foundation for their support.
00:30 This started literally a conversation in the morning with us talking about a supermarket that we wanted to get off the ground
00:36 and decided it's fantastic to be here today opening.
00:39 David Purcell, who is here somewhere, and his fantastic team who did the fit out,
00:45 and we kind of brought this building to the state that it's in.
00:49 And from Good Shepherd, Lucy Cox, who's hiding somewhere in the background to escape,
00:54 who's been absolutely instrumental in this project and has worked fantastically hard for the last 12 months to get it to this stage.
01:01 Lucy Tate and the team who are nearly hiding on the back of the machine,
01:05 who's the shop manager who really brought this vision to life for us today.
01:09 So a massive thank you to everyone there.
01:12 It's a really informal event this morning, so I'm going to hand over to our colleagues, Tom Warren and the leader of the Council.
01:19 And then we've got a few people here who've accessed Good Shepherd services in the past,
01:24 who've come through the adjoining employment pathways and training,
01:27 and also people who brought the project to life.
01:29 So feel free to just have a chat, mingle, and most importantly, grab yourself a coffee and a piece of cake as well while you're doing it.
01:35 At the Good Shepherd, we're really ambitious for the people who use our services,
01:40 and I think it's really important for the people of Wolverhampton to have a project like this.
01:44 It's not just about providing people support, it's about giving them training opportunities, employment opportunities,
01:50 and doing that in a dignified way.
01:52 This project is kind of an evolution of our services,
01:55 and it's the fruition of a lot of discussions we've had with key partners in this city.
02:00 So again, thank you for coming. Really excited to officially launch today,
02:04 and I'll hand you over to Tom to say a few words from the Walks Foundation.
02:08 Tom, he's sitting there prepared, but he's got all three of them out of four.
02:13 I'll be saving it to Jim.
02:15 Yeah, no, I think just from a fundamental perspective, obviously, three years ago we launched Feed Our Pack,
02:20 which was a huge project for us, a really, a project that we had a lot of big vision for,
02:25 and achieved a lot with. I want to thank Rich from his church for all the work they did with us on Feed Our Pack.
02:30 Feed Our Pack was a project across three years where we learnt a lot about the local needs of the city,
02:35 and through that period our relationship with Good Shepherd only got stronger.
02:39 So now launching Supporting Our Pack, which is a much bigger project to support the city around much more bigger needs,
02:45 it's a great partnership project. It's something we're really excited about.
02:49 As a foundation, we're a partnership organisation.
02:51 We hear that we want to work with local people to make local people better.
02:55 It isn't about us doing everything ourselves, so it's amazing to be part of this,
02:59 and genuinely really, really excited to see the vision and where it's going to go in a couple of years.
03:03 I'm going to set out another big thank you to Kate as well.
03:06 Kate's been the driving force behind this for all of us,
03:09 particularly the one that's been ringing us, the opposite group going crazy trying to make it all happen.
03:13 But this is Kate's vision, the local authority to drive it.
03:17 So I think if anyone we should be thanking more than anyone we should be, Kate.
03:20 So a big thank you to you.
03:21 I thank you.
03:22 No, it's fine.
03:28 I did want to say that Oli's in the background, but Peter Hack was Oli for three years.
03:34 Oli made it. Oli got all the leaderships with all the food banks across the city.
03:39 Three years ago we had no idea about food poverty.
03:43 I sat on the road and it was quite different. I didn't know what I was talking about.
03:46 We brought Oli in with a bit of experience in his face, and Oli made it from the start, mate.
03:50 He did a brilliant job with it. So a big big welcome to you as well, mate.
03:57 I'll hand it over to you, mate.
03:59 You wouldn't know, every mention of Crow Lamb, what this building means to us.
04:04 And it means about people.
04:06 Because it's people who are going to be using it.
04:08 And if nothing says more than our motto, "Do darkness come as light?"
04:13 It's this building, because it was all locked up, all dark, and now we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
04:19 But more importantly, it's about opening up opportunities for people to have a better life in difficult times.
04:26 What's pleasing for me is the collaboration that we've done between the third sector, the volunteers, and the local authority.
04:34 And that's the way that it should be.
04:36 So it's a genuine collaboration, and hopefully will strengthen our relationships within our city.
04:42 But more importantly, it can give people hope and opportunity moving forward.
04:47 There's plans upstairs to have a community hall that will help to passport people into education and their routine to get full-time jobs.
04:54 Without the partnerships and without the two Toms and their organisations, this wouldn't have happened.
05:01 And again, we have to pay tribute to Kate.
05:03 Because Kate's been there at every step of the way.
05:06 She's been absolutely phenomenal.
05:08 First of all, selling the idea to us.
05:11 But more importantly, what she's just said to me, is our mission is to bank up to food banks within the city.
05:17 This is the first step to that.
05:19 And I genuinely believe that.
05:21 Because it's tough out there.
05:22 But we're always willing to listen and help where we can.
05:27 And that means that we help with our partners to get the best for our city.
05:32 I think this city is fantastic.
05:34 I'll have to decline the interest.
05:36 I think Bilston's a little bit better than here.
05:38 [laughter]
05:40 But no, it really is important that we progress these plans moving forward and we help as many people.
05:47 That's what local authorities and partners and their support.
05:50 It's people, not so much buildings.
05:53 I like to see the ground go up on a building.
05:55 But it's about people at the end of the day.
05:56 We want people to use this.
05:58 And hopefully it will come back in a year.
06:00 And it's how we've developed things moving forward.
06:02 We've got big plans for here and just outside.
06:04 So it's important.
06:06 And I thank everybody that's really helped to make this get off the ground than we are today.
06:11 So at the end of one journey, well we've got this back into it.
06:15 But we're at the beginning of a new journey.
06:17 Which is it should be and it will be inspirational for anybody who needs any help or assistance and opportunities.
06:23 So thank you all for everything that you've done.
06:26 And we'll constantly come back and check and see if we can develop it further.
06:30 I think it's a great model and I think we ought to take it on the road.
06:34 Shall we? I love nothing more than a shower and a bath.
06:36 Especially if I have a city.
06:38 It's really important that we do that.
06:40 And our city is a good city contrary to what other people say about it.
06:43 And I think it's a fantastic city.
06:45 But the people within the city make the city.
06:48 That's our natural resource.
06:50 And fantastic people all around here.
06:52 And especially the husband's side.
06:54 Thank you everybody.
06:56 [APPLAUSE]
Comments