Community Hub Profile: The Sunshine Club at Malabar & Moresk, Truro
As part of its commitment to creating a “Great Little City” for people to live, work and visit, Truro City Council’s Community Development Service delivers a wide range of activities and support for local residents and communities.
Working with communities in Truro, the team, led by Damien Richards, helps local groups organise community events and activities. These include litter picks and city clean ups, estate walkabouts, community gardening sessions, fitness classes, arts and craft sessions, support for carers and over 50s groups and a youth project which delivers free professional football coaching in the housing estates to have impact on anti-social behaviour through spring and summer.
The service also runs the flagship Sunshine Café project which is delivered through the Community Hubs at Malabar Community Centre and the Moresk Centre. Open two days a week (on Wednesdays at Malabar and Fridays at Moresk), the cafes provide a safe, warm space where people can get together to socialise, enjoy free drinks, freshly cooked local food (Damien, who grew up on the Malabar Estate, delights in bringing in a home-made – and occasionally spicy – soup every week) and access information, advice and guidance to support and improve their lives.
The Sunshine Club at Malabar & Moresk, Truro
First launched in October 2022 with funding from NHS Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, the aim of the original scheme was to support people through the cost-of-living crisis during the winter. The scheme was later extended to the end of March 2024, and again to March 2025, after research showed that those attending were not only benefiting from the activities at the Hubs, but also that engaging with others was helping to tackle loneliness and reduce mental health issues.
As well as the Sunshine Café, the Community Hub at Malabar runs weekly food clubs, partnering up with New Beginning Community Association and CHAOS, providing free surplus goods from supermarkets distributed along with freshly picked vegetables from Glean Cornwall. This helps to provide food for people who are struggling to make ends meet at the same time as reducing the amount of waste going to landfill.
The Hubs also host visits from Community Health and Wellbeing Workers, who deliver arts and crafts activities, provide professionally instructed strength and coordination training to help to prevent people from having falls at home and cooking-on-a-budget classes from Truro Nourish CIC.
The support provided by the Community Hub Network has been praised by many of those attending the activities.
The work of Damien and the team was recently covered on the BBC’s Countryfile programme.