The Hub in Newport, Shropshire Celebrate Their 4th Birthday!

Transcript

00:00 So I'm here with Liz and Val from the Hub in Newport and you're today celebrating your

00:07 fourth birthday. Yes. How does that feel to know you've been going for four years now?

00:12 It's amazing really isn't it? Yeah I think on day one we were just happy to get the cafe

00:17 open and if somebody told us then we'd be here four years later I don't think we'd have

00:21 believed it really so it feels like quite an achievement. How much have things changed

00:25 in the last year? All the people that you see coming and going, how is that? How have

00:29 you seen it in the last year? It's just been a gradual thing, building up and building

00:33 up and now we're getting really busy and it's lovely to see how it's been quite successful

00:38 so it's really lovely. We've got a lot of regular customers and we usually get new customers

00:43 by word of mouth through them so it's really nice to have that support, people coming in.

00:47 We've discovered we actually get tourists in Newport which has been really nice and

00:51 seeing people coming through and then come again the following year just to see us so

00:55 that's been lovely as well. So you've faced challenges over these four years with Covid

00:59 and obviously with the hotel next door. Yes. So you've got obviously you've got to be proud

01:05 of your achievements. Yes really. We've always managed to come back like last year when we

01:09 were closed for ten weeks because of the VIC and there was a lot of outcry from the customers

01:14 they really missed us and so you know they wrote to the press and they wrote to the TV

01:19 and we got quite a lot of coverage and it was nice to know that we were missed by people

01:23 and appreciated. How many volunteers do you roughly have? We have probably about 24 young

01:31 people I think. With additional needs. Yes. And then another 17 volunteers and we now

01:37 actually one of the big changes is we've got a paid staff so we've got a paid cafe manager

01:42 and another cafe manager is also being advertised for at the moment so that's really good.

01:47 And we've got a youth worker so that's been nice we've been able to open in the evening

01:53 for the school children after three till five and that's been really nice so after school

02:00 there's a safe place to come and have a coffee and chill with your friends so that's been

02:03 really lovely. And looking ahead of 2024 what kind of things have you got going on this

02:08 year here at the pub? They're going to be opening more hours again we're going to be

02:12 open Monday to Friday so that's really nice, ten till five. And build up the after school

02:20 cafe because that's a really good thing giving young people somewhere to come after school.

02:24 And also some of them gaining work experience because that's the other side we've been able

02:28 to give a lot of young people with additional needs work experience and some of them have

02:32 actually gone on to get jobs which has been fantastic to see them getting paid jobs so

02:37 we're really proud of that. I wish you all a very happy birthday. Thank you very much.