MCT Mission Statement
“Our mission is to work with individuals and groups to identify and build on their strengths to enhance community wellbeing through active participation, volunteering, engagement and empowerment.”
MCT Background
Melin Community Trust was established in 2002 by local residents with a vision of community regeneration and engagement. Twenty years later, we are still at the centre of the community implementing this vision.
We are a community hub that facilitates access to outside services such as Welfare Rights, Western Bay Integrated Autism Service, and Citizens Advice alongside ReadEasy, and Adult Community Learning, to get community members access to the assistance and skills they require for personal and community enhancement.
Who We Are
MCT was created by community members to serve the community. We continue to work towards our founders’ vision of regeneration and engagement by listening to the community and offering the services that they wish to see in the local area, applying for the necessary funding to deliver what our community communicates as its primary needs.
Service Provision
Melin Community Trust services are free and open to anyone in the community who would benefit. Traditionally, our beneficiaries have been from an older demographic suffering with feelings of loneliness and the unemployed.
However, in light of our new projects, our reach has expanded due to the indiscriminate nature of mental health issues.
Current Service Offerings
Social Care
Beyond facilitating external organisations, we also run a Friendship Group to combat loneliness and isolation in the community as well as Digital Inclusion classes that enhance digital literacy and enable online job searches for those who otherwise would not have access to computers or the internet.
Our Hub, Your Home
Our purpose-built Melin Advice Centre continues to be an invaluable asset to the charity and the community we serve. Since our inception, having an Advice Centre has been central to all the charity’s activities. Not only does it provide a base for giving direction to the public where they may seek advice and any other community-linked activities, with 60 to 100 participants each week.
Skills Enhancement & Qualifications
We have recently secured funding for the roll out of a number of courses including first aid at work, paediatric first aid, coping with stress and anxiety and money management, having identified these as among core needs of our service users in 2023 and beyond.
We are aiming to ensure over 100 people obtaining recognized qualifications and new skills that will hopefully stand them in a better position to seek work placements or better their career and offer them sound social skills and development both mentally and physically.
Service Users
Other social groups that benefit from the MCT are the Melin walkers, coffee mornings, the MCT litter pickers, the friendship group and also the
advice drop-in service equate to around 60-70 people accessing our services. That is an average of around 270 people relying upon the MCT weekly to access support, equating to 1080 people month.
Workshops
Therapeutic Drumming
We have a therapeutic drumming class with over 12 people engaged in 10 week workshops at a time. This workshop has just concluded its second period of success with 24 people having learned new skills ranging from music therapy, coping with stress and anxiety, African dance and music history and breathing techniques.
This class is resuming in January 2023 due to popular demand and additional funding has been sought via the Waterloo Foundation.
DIY Mens Support Group & DIY Workshop
One of our many amazing volunteers Ashley offered to set up and deliver a series of DIY workshops in 2022 for men to encourage discussions and remove stigmas regarding mental health, whilst also offering the community the opportunity to learn and improve practical skills and knowledge.
We are delighted with how popular this has been amongst our service users and it has proven to be a much needed and highly valued resource amongst our community here in the Melin.
We are immensely proud of this workshop and grateful to our volunteer Ashley for working tirelessly to deliver it, since it incorporates a perfect example of taking a multi-faceted approach to a variety of modern social issues in a relaxed, fun, engaging, educational manner.
Adults With Learning Difficulties
We provide a safe space for adults with learning difficulties to meet together for social and skills enhancement, facilitating their motivation to collaborate on specific projects of interest or simply to meet, socialise, watch movies etc.
Inclusivity underpins everything that we do and we hope that this offering allows it’s service users to build confidence, removes barriers to social inclusion, develops hard and soft skills and to feel as valued as any other subsection of our wonderfully diverse community.
Examples of their fantastic work include a wonderfully artistic display produced for Halloween 2022 and assistance in transforming our new community garden area.
Computer (IT) Workshop
We secure funding to collaborate with local educational institutions to deliver IT workshops to our service users whilst also facilitating the opportunity for young IT students to work in the community, gaining invaluable vocational experience alongside their studies.
This very much fits into our ethos of identifying the needs of our community and service users, then delivering on those needs in a pragmatic, multi-faceted, accessible fashion.
Community Garden
Everyone at MCT from staff to volunteers and service users alike have collaborated together to create a small yet vibrant community garden that enhances the beauty of our local area, demonstrates a pride in our local community, whilst delivering on wellbeing.
Science is unequivocal on the myriad of physical and mental health benefits of engaging with or being in the presence of plants and natural fauna and we are delighted with the results thus far.
