Wolverhampton Council Leader Stephen Simkins, Good Shepherd CEO Tom Hayden and Wolves Foundation senior manager Tom Warren welcome people to the official launch of the shop, which is based at the Queen's Building in Wolverhampton.
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00:00 Morning everyone, my name's Tom Hayden, I'm the Chief Executive of the Prince Shepherd.
00:04 First off, welcome to the Queen's Building, I just wanted to thank you all for coming this morning.
00:08 It's been a real labour of love to get to this point.
00:12 You've walked in now, you've seen this fantastic building, but it's been a lot of effort.
00:16 So first off, I just wanted to thank the people at Mayleigh Papper, the leader, Kate Lees,
00:21 and the Senior Executive Board of the Council for securing this fantastic building for us.
00:26 Tom, Will, I've been arranging for the Walsh Foundation for their support.
00:30 This started literally a conversation in the morning with us talking about a supermarket that we wanted to get off the ground
00:36 and decided it's fantastic to be here today opening.
00:39 David Purcell, who is here somewhere, and his fantastic team who did the fit out,
00:45 and we kind of brought this building to the state that it's in.
00:49 And from Good Shepherd, Lucy Cox, who's hiding somewhere in the background to escape,
00:54 who's been absolutely instrumental in this project and has worked fantastically hard for the last 12 months to get it to this stage.
01:01 Lucy Tate and the team who are nearly hiding on the back of the machine,
01:05 who's the shop manager who really brought this vision to life for us today.
01:09 So a massive thank you to everyone there.
01:12 It's a really informal event this morning, so I'm going to hand over to our colleagues, Tom Warren and the leader of the Council.
01:19 And then we've got a few people here who've accessed Good Shepherd services in the past,
01:24 who've come through the adjoining employment pathways and training,
01:27 and also people who brought the project to life.
01:29 So feel free to just have a chat, mingle, and most importantly, grab yourself a coffee and a piece of cake as well while you're doing it.
01:35 At the Good Shepherd, we're really ambitious for the people who use our services,
01:40 and I think it's really important for the people of Wolverhampton to have a project like this.
01:44 It's not just about providing people support, it's about giving them training opportunities, employment opportunities,
01:50 and doing that in a dignified way.
01:52 This project is kind of an evolution of our services,
01:55 and it's the fruition of a lot of discussions we've had with key partners in this city.
02:00 So again, thank you for coming. Really excited to officially launch today,
02:04 and I'll hand you over to Tom to say a few words from the Walks Foundation.
02:08 Tom, he's sitting there prepared, but he's got all three of them out of four.
02:13 I'll be saving it to Jim.
02:15 Yeah, no, I think just from a fundamental perspective, obviously, three years ago we launched Feed Our Pack,
02:20 which was a huge project for us, a really, a project that we had a lot of big vision for,
02:25 and achieved a lot with. I want to thank Rich from his church for all the work they did with us on Feed Our Pack.
02:30 Feed Our Pack was a project across three years where we learnt a lot about the local needs of the city,
02:35 and through that period our relationship with Good Shepherd only got stronger.
02:39 So now launching Supporting Our Pack, which is a much bigger project to support the city around much more bigger needs,
02:45 it's a great partnership project. It's something we're really excited about.
02:49 As a foundation, we're a partnership organisation.
02:51 We hear that we want to work with local people to make local people better.
02:55 It isn't about us doing everything ourselves, so it's amazing to be part of this,
02:59 and genuinely really, really excited to see the vision and where it's going to go in a couple of years.
03:03 I'm going to set out another big thank you to Kate as well.
03:06 Kate's been the driving force behind this for all of us,
03:09 particularly the one that's been ringing us, the opposite group going crazy trying to make it all happen.
03:13 But this is Kate's vision, the local authority to drive it.
03:17 So I think if anyone we should be thanking more than anyone we should be, Kate.
03:20 So a big thank you to you.
03:21 I thank you.
03:22 No, it's fine.
03:28 I did want to say that Oli's in the background, but Peter Hack was Oli for three years.
03:34 Oli made it. Oli got all the leaderships with all the food banks across the city.
03:39 Three years ago we had no idea about food poverty.
03:43 I sat on the road and it was quite different. I didn't know what I was talking about.
03:46 We brought Oli in with a bit of experience in his face, and Oli made it from the start, mate.
03:50 He did a brilliant job with it. So a big big welcome to you as well, mate.
03:57 I'll hand it over to you, mate.
03:59 You wouldn't know, every mention of Crow Lamb, what this building means to us.
04:04 And it means about people.
04:06 Because it's people who are going to be using it.
04:08 And if nothing says more than our motto, "Do darkness come as light?"
04:13 It's this building, because it was all locked up, all dark, and now we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
04:19 But more importantly, it's about opening up opportunities for people to have a better life in difficult times.
04:26 What's pleasing for me is the collaboration that we've done between the third sector, the volunteers, and the local authority.
04:34 And that's the way that it should be.
04:36 So it's a genuine collaboration, and hopefully will strengthen our relationships within our city.
04:42 But more importantly, it can give people hope and opportunity moving forward.
04:47 There's plans upstairs to have a community hall that will help to passport people into education and their routine to get full-time jobs.
04:54 Without the partnerships and without the two Toms and their organisations, this wouldn't have happened.
05:01 And again, we have to pay tribute to Kate.
05:03 Because Kate's been there at every step of the way.
05:06 She's been absolutely phenomenal.
05:08 First of all, selling the idea to us.
05:11 But more importantly, what she's just said to me, is our mission is to bank up to food banks within the city.
05:17 This is the first step to that.
05:19 And I genuinely believe that.
05:21 Because it's tough out there.
05:22 But we're always willing to listen and help where we can.
05:27 And that means that we help with our partners to get the best for our city.
05:32 I think this city is fantastic.
05:34 I'll have to decline the interest.
05:36 I think Bilston's a little bit better than here.
05:38 [laughter]
05:40 But no, it really is important that we progress these plans moving forward and we help as many people.
05:47 That's what local authorities and partners and their support.
05:50 It's people, not so much buildings.
05:53 I like to see the ground go up on a building.
05:55 But it's about people at the end of the day.
05:56 We want people to use this.
05:58 And hopefully it will come back in a year.
06:00 And it's how we've developed things moving forward.
06:02 We've got big plans for here and just outside.
06:04 So it's important.
06:06 And I thank everybody that's really helped to make this get off the ground than we are today.
06:11 So at the end of one journey, well we've got this back into it.
06:15 But we're at the beginning of a new journey.
06:17 Which is it should be and it will be inspirational for anybody who needs any help or assistance and opportunities.
06:23 So thank you all for everything that you've done.
06:26 And we'll constantly come back and check and see if we can develop it further.
06:30 I think it's a great model and I think we ought to take it on the road.
06:34 Shall we? I love nothing more than a shower and a bath.
06:36 Especially if I have a city.
06:38 It's really important that we do that.
06:40 And our city is a good city contrary to what other people say about it.
06:43 And I think it's a fantastic city.
06:45 But the people within the city make the city.
06:48 That's our natural resource.
06:50 And fantastic people all around here.
06:52 And especially the husband's side.
06:54 Thank you everybody.
06:56 [APPLAUSE]