On 02 April 2024, members of Aberystwyth Community Ambassadors Youth Group presented a wellbeing bench to Aberystwyth Charity, HAHAV. The bench will be placed in the garden at Plas Antaron for clients, visitors and staff to enjoy.
HAHAV is a volunteer-led charity providing free support to people across Ceredigion who are living with an incurable or life-limiting illness. HAHAV’s centre at Plas Antaron, Aberystwyth, is HAHAV’s headquarters and Living Well Centre. A former hotel, Plas Antaron offers a range of facilities and spaces to develop new services and meeting opportunities for HAHAV clients.
Aberystwyth Community Ambassadors is a small group of eight young people aged between 18 and 20, led by Ceredigion County Council’s Youth Work and Engagement Service. The group meet every fortnight, and organise and deliver various community based projects, awareness activities and events locally. Each year, the group choose a ‘campaign’ and last year, applied to Ceredigion’s Association of Voluntary Organisations (CAVO) for a Youth Led Grant, which enabled them to purchase materials to create a wellbeing bench. The wellbeing bench was designed, created and decorated in partnership with Hyfforddiant Ceredigion Training (HCT). The group worked with HCT’s carpentry department to create a bench that would be suitable for the community.
Aberystwyth Community Ambassadors said: “We decided to apply for a grant to help us create a wellbeing bench, as our chosen campaign last year was ‘mental health and wellbeing’. We had the opportunity to work with carpentry tutors at HCT to create the bench as we wanted it. As a group, we looked at different locations for the bench and we decided to approach HAHAV at Plas Antaron in Penparcau. We are all local to Penparcau and Aberystwyth, and we felt that it would be nice to donate the bench to a local charity that help people in our community. We enjoyed the opportunity to handover the bench to HAHAV’s Arts Group.”
Tess Thorp, Volunteer Coordinator at HAHAV said: “The bench is a fantastic addition to our Wellbeing Garden and we are delighted to have been gifted it by the Ambassadors Youth Group. They are so thoughtful and talented, and the many visitors to Plas Antaron will enjoy it for years to come.”
