Fundays
Over the course of 2023, the Beacon ran several fundays throughout the year, during the school holidays. These were all completely booked up within hours of going live and are proving an extremely popular event for local families. During our fundays we provide a low cost family morning, with various craft activities and play areas for families to come together and have fun. We also provide a healthy lunch for those who choose to stay. These events are often supported by local businesses and charities such as Merry Go Round Toy Library, Devon Wildlife Trust, RAMM and Creation Station …
Christmas Fayre
Every Christmas the Beacon host a Christmas Fayre with local businesses and charities hiring a table to sell their Christmassy gifts, toys, jewellery and cakes. We also sell refreshments and have a Santa’s grotto for all the children to meet Santa and receive a small gift.
Devon Holiday Activity and Food Programme
Over the summer, the Beacon hosted the Exeter City Community Trust HAF programme for three weeks. This provided local children with some fun-filled and activity packed days, lots of exciting, fun activities, a hot lunch, and the chance to make new friends. Volunteer Dinner (Dec 2023)
Volunteer Thank you Christmas Dinner
Every year, the Beacon host an evening meal and celebration to thank all of our wonderful volunteers, who come to the Beacon and help run activities, man the reception and take bookings, undertake our never ending maintenance jobs, work in our lovely community garden, bake cakes for our Friday drop in and many other jobs, for which we are very grateful and this is a small token of our appreciation to offer them an enjoyable evening to come and relax and be served (for a change) at the Beacon. This year, we had a lovely meal followed by Bingo.
Defibrillator
In 2023, the Beacon raised the funds to renew the 4 year contract for the Community defibrillator, that is located externally at the Beacon so that it is available 24/7 for the whole community to access should it be needed in an emergency, and hopefully help to save someone’s life. The defibrillator is looked after by South Western Ambulance Service, and as part of their contract they also deliver annual training on use of the defibrillator and essential life saving first aid. We run these courses at the Beacon each year and they are a fantastic and free opportunity for anyone to attend and learn these vital life saving skills. Huge thanks also to the Queen’s Head Annual Bike Show for their kind donations.
First aid course
In October, we offered out places on an emergency first aid at work course. These courses provide a great opportunity for people to update their first aid skills, very useful if you’re looking to gain skills to help you return to work, or just to keep your qualifications current. The course was run by First Aid Exeter and provided us with a thorough understanding of how to treat common injuries and illnesses that we may come across in our daily lives.
Outreach – Surplus food programme – Beacon Heath – Waste not, Want not.
The Beacon has signed up to this programme to enable us to collect surplus food from local supermarkets and fast food outlets and offer it out to the local community rather than it going to waste, we have two volunteers who have signed up to collect this food and it can then be collected from them. They run a WhatsApp group that users can sign up to, please contact Marie on 07806778959.
Full of Life
We decided to try a new adult social and activity group, encouraging people to come along and try some games, including table tennis, pool and board games, as well as social activities on a Wednesday morning. Check out Full of Life in action here
Warm Spaces
In 2023 we received grant funding to offer the Beacon as a warm space for people to come along and be able to sit in a warm and welcoming environment, there are also refreshments available. Our warm spaces are available on a Wednesday morning (11-1) alongside our Full of Life sessions, and a Friday morning alongside our Friday Community Drop in (10-12).
Mural
In 2023, Pete the Poet (local artist) came and painted a beautiful mural outside our Hobnob Hall. This was run alongside community events and everyone was given the opportunity to ‘put their mark’ on the mural.
Investment
As part of our continued commitment to maintaining and improving the centre for use by our local community and hirers, we have been extremely pleased to be able to complete a few upgrades to several of our rooms. These have included
- new storage cupboards in Jammy Dodger Suite for the Toy Library to be able to store their rental toys safely and securely.
- new flooring and seating in Jaffa Cake Hall, this has been particularly well received by the over 60’s Yoga group and Tribe Home education group
- new flooring in Rich Tea, Jammy Dodger and Custard Cream rooms has brightened up these popular rooms and provided a welcome upgrade.
- Additional chairs for our chair trolley in Hobnob Hall, to provide more comfortable seating for large groups such as Isca Church and training days that are regularly delivered at the Beacon.
These improvements have been made possible through funding applications, and through revenue raised from hiring the Centre. We are extremely proud that we have been able to reinvest these funds into improving our users experiences at the Beacon, so that everyone can benefit.
