Mental Health Archives - EVI | Ebbw Vale Institute

Ebbw Vale Institute, Church Street, Ebbw Vale, NP23 6BE | 01495 70 8022

Category Archive: Mental Health

Great Things Are Coming At EVI
22nd February 2022 2:50 pm Comments Off on Great Things Are Coming At EVI
We are pleased to announce that Ebbw Vale Institute (EVI) has successfully been awarded a grant from the UK Community Renewal Fund. This means that the oldest institute in Wales, restored and refurbished by ProMo-Cymru, can reopen after the pandemic with some exciting new developments.

This funding will allow EVI to develop opportunities with young people and support cultural and economic recovery in Ebbw Vale and Blaenau Gwent. We have lots of exciting plans and ideas for the centre this spring.

· Creating opportunities and pathways into employment for young people involving our café and digital skills training

· Promoting healthy living skills and socialising through our café and garden

· Working with local artists and community groups, hosting cultural events for the community

· Running environmental activities and workshops, increasing positive environmental behaviour both in and outside the building

Centre of community life

Although our partner support services have remained open and continue to operate, the centre has been closed to the public during the pandemic. We are so happy to be reopening our community cultural centre in the heart of Ebbw Vale with the launch of this exciting new project. Environmental innovation, sustainability, community and local culture are at the heart of this renewal project, aiming to make Blaenau Gwent a more attractive place to live, work, and visit.

EVI has been at the centre of community life in Ebbw Vale for 173 years, and this project means it will continue to do so for generations to come

Find out more

What do you want to see EVI bring to your community? If you would like to discuss this project or work with us, get in touch with sam@evi.cymru. Follow or like us on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook to keep up to date with what’s happening and join us on our inspiring and exciting journey this spring.

Welsh translation of this article is available here

This project is funded by the UK Government through the UK Community Renewal Fund.

The UK Community Renewal Fund is a UK Government programme for 2021/22. This aims to support people and communities most in need across the UK to pilot programmes and new approaches to prepare for the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. It invests in skills, community and place, local business, and supporting people into employment. For more information, visit https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-community-renewal-fund-prospectus
‘Awards for All’ Volunteers create homes for garden wildlife
16th August 2021 11:46 am Comments Off on ‘Awards for All’ Volunteers create homes for garden wildlife
Awards for All Volunteers take local environmental action by creating wildlife habitats for birds, bats, hedgehogs and pollinating insects in the EVI garden …

The next stage of our Big Lottery Community Fund Awards for All project was to create wildlife habitat, to help attract nesting birds and bats to the EVI garden and create homes for hedgehogs.

Everyone had a task and were challenged to use tools and techniques that had not been used before.
Supporting our garden wildlife

Awards for All Volunteers from Llamau, ACT Training, Barod Gwent N-Gage and Cyfannol Women’s Aid, have created several bird and bat boxes to help attract nesting birds and bats to the EVI garden.
Visit Gwent Wildlife Trust for more ways you can get involved locally and support garden wildlife.

We also have a hedgehog home that will be relocated where it is most needed. If you find a hedgehog out in the day or injured, please visit hedgehoghelplinecymru.org.uk for information and advice on what to do next.
Spreading the Seeds…

Some of our younger volunteers made seed bombs and had great fun spreading them throughout the garden. We also relocated our pollinator bee and bug hotel and talked about how over a third of our food depends on pollinating insects.
Wellbeing in Nature …

Volunteers also created colourful images and words to remind people to spend more time in nature and how we can increase our wellbeing when spending time outdoors – over 18 posts were painted.
Keeping up the great work

‘Awards for All’ Volunteers will continue taking care of the EVI garden throughout the seasons and utilise the wellbeing space for learning, meetings and activities.

Organisations based at EVI, (Llamau, ACT Training, Cyfannol, Barod and BGCBC Youth Services) will also undertake further environmental and wellbeing projects in the EVI garden.

Special thanks

Thanks to Sam Holt, Eggseeds for leading the environmental workshops, MallowArt for the painting workshop and Promo Cymru (the charity that runs EVI) for providing the ‘graphic design with canva’ and ‘Film making on your mobile’ online workshops to support the volunteers in increasing their skills in digital communications.

A special thank you to all our volunteers for creating a wellbeing space at the EVI garden. Everyone worked together with staff and clients from other organisations, with children and families; many new skills were learned along the way and so much has been accomplished to support our local wildlife.
Volunteers Create a Wellbeing Garden at EVI
19th July 2021 4:15 pm Comments Off on Volunteers Create a Wellbeing Garden at EVI
An environmental project at EVI, made possible by the National Lottery Community Fund Awards For All programme, has brought organisations and volunteers together to create a wellbeing space in the garden.

What did we do?

The first step was to plant bee friendly flowers, herbs, fruits, and vegetables that will be looked after by the volunteers throughout the seasons.
- Llamau team preparing planters for herbs
Over the two sessions, facilitated by Eggseeds‘ Sam Holt, the volunteers and staff from ACT Training and Llamau prepared the soil and planted flowers, herbs (like rosemary and chives), fruit trees (like raspberry and gooseberry) and vegetables (chard, sprouts, peas). Everyone worked really hard and for many, this was a new experience.
- Some of the flowers ready for planting
- Planting begins …
Some of the volunteers spent time creating wellbeing posts, painting vibrant colours and wellbeing quotes onto the old fencing posts, so that everyone is reminded of the benefits of spending time in nature.
Providing new experiences for young people

For many of the young people aged between 16 and 18 that were taking part, gardening was a totally new experience for them. Here’s what some of them had to say:

“It’s my first time gardening I am usually an indoor person”

“It feels nice being outdoors”

“With lockdown, people could have got more into gardening”

“I am enjoying it more than I thought I would”

ACT Training – EVI Volunteers

“It’s quite peaceful, relaxing”

“I like to cook with a lot of these herbs so I am looking forward to planting them”

“I like building computers so this is being creative in a different environment”

“It feels nice being outdoors”

Llamau – EVI Volunteers
- Some of the bugs visiting EVI garden
- Is this a Cinnabar moth ?
What are the next steps?

The next step in this environmental project is to carry out the ‘local environmental and wellbeing in nature’ actions that were raised during a focus group with Llamau. These included displaying QR codes around EVI that linked to wellbeing information.

EVI volunteers will create wildlife habitats, facilitated by Eggseeds, such as bird and bat boxes, hedgehog homes, and homes for pollinating insects. This workshop will be held on Tuesday 3rd August 2021.

Home » Mental Health
Awards for All Environmental Project at EVI
8th June 2021 11:54 am Comments Off on Awards for All Environmental Project at EVI
Thanks to The National Lottery Community Fund – Awards for All, ProMo Cymru will be delivering environmental activities in our new EVI garden, with volunteers learning new skills and raising awareness of how we can all take LOCAL environmental action and increase our wellbeing in Nature

The EVI (Ebbw Vale Institute) is a community hub offering support, learning and cultural activities to young people and families, with a cafe, venue and conference/training facility, cinema quality screen and exhibition facilities available to the community.

We are working on this exciting project with the organisations based at EVI, Llamau, Cyfannol Women’s Aid, Blaenau Gwent CBC Youth Services, ACT Training and Barod Gwent N-Gage.

To start the project, Llamau, Learning 4 Life volunteers held a focus group, discussing different ways we can all take local environmental action and increase our wellbeing in nature. Volunteers suggested planting bee friendly flowers, fruit, vegetables, herbs and installing a water capture barrel in the EVI garden. Other suggestions included joining the BGCBC Litter Champion scheme and making wildlife habitat such as bird boxes, hedgehog homes and bug hotels for pollinating insects. A mood board was created to help present their ideas.
Llamau Volunteer creating a mood board at EVI
Finished mood board, on display at EVI
During the focus group, volunteers discussed how we can increase our wellbeing in nature and what they would like to see in the EVI garden. Some of their wellbeing ideas included tending to plants, listening to the birds, meeting and learning outdoors, getting vitamin D and time for reflection and sitting quietly.

The learners engaged really well in the focus group session and wanted to continue the mood board and the discussion into the following week. The moodboard activity really focussed one of our harder to engage learners, and the whole group are excited about being able to create a space outside that will help them improve their moods
Laura Wheeler, LLamau Learning 4 Life Tutor

Llamau volunteers also came up with many wellbeing words that could be displayed as a mural on the garden wall, and a fantastic idea to display QR code linking to nature videos, sounds and relaxation music to help remind everyone to spend more time in nature.
- Wellbeing words for EVI mural
- A reminder to spend time in nature
In response to the ideas generated by the volunteers, ProMo Cymru will tailor environmental workshops to support ways we can all take local environmental action and increase our wellbeing in nature. We will also deliver digital communication training to help support the volunteers in their work.
- Environmental Project at EVI was funded by The National Lottery Community Fund – Awards for All
EVI awarded £4,000 from Police & Crime Commissioners for Gwent Partnership Fund
11th March 2018 2:15 pm Leave a Comment
ProMo-Cymru, the charity that runs Ebbw Vale Institute has been awarded £4,000 from the Police & Crime Commissioner for Gwent Partnership Fund which is funded by the proceeds of crime awarded to the police and from the sale of unclaimed found property.

With this support, EVI will provide an ‘information point’ for visitors to find out more about the services available within EVI, particularly around supporting vulnerable people, crime prevention and community cohesion.
- BGCBC Youth Services: offers information, guidance and support including Anti-Social Behaviour prevention and Health & Well Being to young people.
- ACT Training: provides opportunities for young people who are looking to get started in the world of work or improve their career prospects.
- Gwent-N-Gage: offers free, confidential and friendly one to one specialist support for young people who use substances and for their loved ones.
- Changing Minds: provides support to young people aged 14-25 who have or are experiencing mental health difficulties.
- Llamau SY/MF project provides young people [16-19yrs] who have offended and those leaving the care system greater access to employment and training by undertaking a six month paid work placement.
- Expressions: helps people deal with the root causes of anti-social behaviour, depression, anxiety and many other problems though CBT.
- NHS Road to Wellbeing: Stress Control & ACTivate (Mental Health Support for adults)
- Youth Offending Service (Community Panel)
- GDAS: Provides direct support & intervention to service users and families.
- And many more…
In celebration of Easter and with thanks to the key services provided to support the community (located within and external to EVI), we will hold a Family Fun Day on Wednesday 28th March 2018, from 3pm – 6pm.

Free activities include sumo wrestling, dance mats, arts & crafts, sugar craft demonstration, goodie bags and more – the first 50 people to complete the trail will receive a free Easter Cup Cake.

All ages welcome, cafe with WIFI available.

I would like to congratulate all the projects funded on their success. I know that small amounts of funding can often make a big difference to people’s lives and can sometimes be the catalyst which can help small community projects to develop, grow and help even more people. The Partnership Fund is a fantastic way of putting money we have seized from criminals back into the public purse so it can be used for positive community action. The Police & Commissioner for Gwent, Jeff Cuthbert.