A space for community: From one venture to the next

For the people of Scotlands and Bushbury Hill, one community hub was just the start.  

For six years, the Big Venture Centre, has been home to the projects and activities of Scotlands and Bushbury Hill Big Local, which sits on the outskirts of Wolverhampton.  

The hub proudly boasts a community café (with a five-star hygiene rating!), community garden, a range of activities and services for local people, and an award-winning group of volunteers.

The Big Venture Centre plays host to cooking lessons, coffee mornings and much more and has been described as the beating heart of the community and, like many other community hubs across the country, a place where people can go for advice, support or simply a cup of tea and a friendly face.  

For much of the past two years, the Big Venture Centre transformed into a different kind of hub. With doors closed due to the pandemic, it acted as a distribution hub, and a place to organise and plan a different kind of outreach in the community. And yet whilst its purpose changed for a time, it remained an essential asset for the community.  It’s value, in fact, is so great that the group are just about to take on another building which will be focused on incubating new community projects.

We spoke to Louisa and Kim from Scotlands and Bushbury Hill Big Local when social distancing measures were still in place via Zoom, but despite us not being able to visit that didn’t stop them from describing a space that is helping the community come to life with exciting plans for the future.