We’ve covered a lot of well-established businesses and CICs over the last few months, but we’re pleased to shine the spotlight on a newly-established CIC called The Teignbridge Community Project. Mother-daughter duo Colette Palmer and Anna Lofthouse launched their CIC in October 2024 along with their Skills Centre project, which serves as a hobby space for those with mental health concerns and additional needs. This includes hair and beauty, cooking and baking, gardening, arts and crafts, and anything else they’re able to accommodate for.
Colette and Anna share how they started The Teignbridge Community Project, how they’ve provided a much-needed service in the Newton Abbot area, and the challenges they’ve faced as a new CIC.
What led you two to start up Teignbridge Community Project?
What led you two to start up Teignbridge Community Project?Colette: I’ve worked for a similar business in Torquay for three years, which is very successful with a social supermarket and skills centre. I was approached about doing this in Newton Abbot because they’re desperate for something similar. At the time, I said no, but my daughter wanted to come out of hairdressing and try something new. I love working with people with learning disabilities, so we decided to give it a go.
Anna: We started conversations about it, doing research into the gaps we could potentially fill in Newton Abbot and Teignbridge, and built the idea like that.
Colette: We were introduced to Dr. Emma Palmer, the leading mental health practitioner for the primary care network Templer. She was absolutely desperate to set a service up in Newton Abbot because they’ve got nowhere meaningful to refer their social prescribing clients, and helped us with a funder to build the Teignbridge Community Project.
Anna: We were looking at lots of different venue options, then decided to go industrial to be on the outskirts and have more space. We found this place where the rooms and the kitchen were already built. We are also close to the local park and woods.
Colette: Once we signed the lease, we opened this in two weeks. We still have other jobs as well. It took a lot of blood, sweat and tears, but we love the finishing result, and when we had our open day in October, everyone who came in loved what we did and were quite grateful there was a service such as this in Newton Abbot.
How have you responded to the needs of Newton Abbot’s community?
How have you responded to the needs of Newton Abbot’s community?Anna: The main thing was doing it on a grassroots level to see what people in Newton Abbot needed. When we opened up these conversations, it centred around home education and the in-between stage where kids are not gelling with the mainstream education system. The activities we offer and facilitate means we need to appeal to everybody, from 11-16 years onward. It’s still a work in progress, but we respond to feedback and try to change things every day.
Colette: We’ve networked with groups such as Action for Children, Teign CVS, local secondary schools, social prescribers and other CICs in the area, and try to bridge the gaps there. We have a very good relationship with CICs like No Limits Community Café and Safebreaks in Newton Abbot.
Anna: We’re not in competition with anybody. You’re always thinking if they can benefit from a different organisation, and a lot of our clients come to us from other organisations. For example, if we have a client who comes here and needs a bit of help with something like maths, we can signpost them to Eat That Frog. We also have a little area where we signpost, and whenever we do an event, I take everybody’s flyers and leaflets.
How have people benefitted from the Teignbridge Community Project?
How have people benefitted from the Teignbridge Community Project?Colette: One of our client’s comes in with a support worker and takes part in the activities here, but now he’s been talking about coming in independently and coming in by taxi. For somebody like him, that would an amazing achievement. He obviously feels safe.
Some of the girls have been trying different things, such as woodwork, which they’ve never done before, and some young men are looking to make clothes with the sewing machine. It just shows we’re fully inclusive, and that’s how you need to be. It’s really good for raising self-confidence and self-esteem. When you learn something new and see your own project, you go out the door feeling happy you’ve achieved something.
Anna: We’ve had someone referred in through a school. They were dependent on coming in with their mum or their carer, but now they’re coming without a parent for a session or two, they’re really engaging with different projects and activities on their own. They’ve only been coming for a very short time, so it shows that if people apply themselves, they can make progress in different ways.
What have been the difficulties of coordinating Teignmouth Community Project?
What have been the difficulties of coordinating Teignmouth Community Project?Colette: It’s all financial. Getting funding is really difficult. We’ve had some funding, but most of that went into the initial set-up, rent, etc., and we don’t pay ourselves for what we do. The rent is very expensive at £895 per month, with bills on top. We can’t employ ourselves, so we still have to work, and because of that we can be a little short staffed. With the flexible booking system, you don’t always know how many people are coming in, so we do need to get volunteers involved.
It’s all working at the moment, but the more bums on seats we get, the more likely we’ll be able to be here fulltime and earn a living.
What projects are you hoping to run in the future?
Colette: We’ve applied for funding for a social supermarket. They’re all over the country, and I work at one in Torquay, but there aren’t any in Newton Abbot. We probably won’t be able to do that here, but we’re hoping to do a pop-up version where people can come in once a week.
Anna: We want to do a click and collect, so we need to do more work behind the scenes to see how viable that will be. If we can have it more accessible, then we absolutely want to, since the need for it is huge in Newton Abbot. There are currently two food banks and community larders, and obviously deprivation in Teignbridge is just as high as in Torbay and anywhere else, so we anticipate the need for it is going to be very busy.
What advice do you have for anyone wanting to start a community interest company?
What advice do you have for anyone wanting to start a community interest company?Colette: The setup of a CIC in name is relatively easy. However, unless you’ve been going for two years, it’s very difficult to access any funding. You really do need to have quite a bit of money behind you. I’ve had to plough a lot of personal money into buying resources; we go around Facebook Marketplace, Vinted and eBay, and people have been very kind and donated to us as well.
If you are applying for funding, really do your research on a grassroots level. If there’s something similar in the area, you’re unlikely to get it. Make sure it’s something fresh and something that people want and need.