The Owen Project | Jess & Luke Owen

"The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members."

In this episode we’re shining a light on The Owen Project, a community-driven initiative founded by Jess and Luke Owen.

Born from a desire to combat isolation and foster inclusivity, The Owen Project has been making a real difference—creating safe spaces, building connections, and supporting those who need it most.

Join us as we explore the story behind the project, the challenges they’ve faced, and the impact they’re striving to make. Jess and Luke share their personal motivations, the power of community-driven change, and how you can get involved in their mission.

Whether you're passionate about social change, seeking inspiration, or simply love hearing about people making a difference, this episode is for you.

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If you would like to feature as guest on a future episode of This Place, Our Voices, submit your application via our form: https://bit.ly/podme

"This Place, Our Voices" Credits:

Host: Elyssa Germain
Produced By: OneZeroCreative https://www.onezerocreative.co.uk/

Transcript

Today we're joined by Jess and Luke Owen, founders of the Owen Project. The Owen Project is more than just an initiative. It's a heartfelt mission to bring people closer together, foster inclusivity and create meaningful change. In this episode, we will explore their journey, the impact made so far and the challenges they faced along the way. We'll also discuss their hopes for the future and how you, the listener, can be part of this growing movement. 

Welcome both.

Hello.

Lovely to have you.

Thank you.

It's lovely to see you 

To start, I think let's start at the beginning. Could you share the story behind the Owen Project and what inspired you to establish it?

Yeah. So the Owen Project was born out of, basically a passion and a desire for community to create a space where people feel supported more than anything, people feel valued because there's a lot of loneliness around. It's all about tackling the issues of isolation and wellbeing before, obviously going to the bigger problems that are out there. The project was named after our son. Well, our last names Owen, but we named it for the family, so eventually one day could be for, our son. We have a history of coming from a charity, so we used to work for a charity and we absolutely loved what they did and what we were doing there. They made a big difference in their community. one thing led to another, unfortunately, and we had to leave. But that's where this grew from.

A big thing is being accessible to people as well, so getting to them before problems become bigger. So before they become an issue, we get to them firsthand.

I believe that the Owen Project is now registered as a CIC. Can you explain what that is?

Yeah. So a CIC is known as a community interest company. And what that is it's a type of nonprofit organisation which is designed to benefit the community rather than private shareholders. So by registering the Owen Project as a CIC, it's ensured that everything we do is to benefit the people that we're working with us supporting. So anything to do with the profits that we make, it's all reinvested back into the community initiatives as well. So any groups that we run, things like that, all the money gets put back into the community, which is nice. And it also gives us a structure and the accountability that we need to grow while still stay true to our mission, of bringing connection, wellbeing and support. It just gives us a bit of liability on what we're doing and making sure we're transparent about any money and funding and things that are coming in Another way that we do like to describe it ourselves because it's something that people haven't quite heard of a lot before. It's sort of one step away from a charity. It's just not got as much paperwork, so keeps it as easy as it can be for us. And it means we get to spend more time face to face with people, not just behind a laptop or a computer screen, which is really important to us and that's why we started it.

Definitely you want your time to be spent properly, don't you? You don't want to be bogged down with lots of paperwork.

Yeah, absolutely. Otherwise we just go and get a 9 to 5 job in an office. To be honest, now we like to be face to face with people. Definitely. That's how you make the biggest change.

Absolutely. What are the core objectives of the Owen project and how do you envisage its impact on the community?

The Owen Project's core objectives. we like to think of it as we combat isolation. We improve wellbeing and to create a strong sense of community. Because one of the things where we do it in a town called Penkhull, Stoke on Trent. I, used to live up there a long time ago and everyone knew each other. You to walk down the street and like John, Hi Bob you all right? And going up there just recently seems to have lost that sort of je ne sais quoi, if that makes sense. So the whole idea of it is to create this connected village where people can learn. They go to these groups that feel valued and we're looking to just build thriving, supportive space to allow the community to grow as a whole, not as individuals.

And it's important to mention that the community up there is already lovely and people do really get on with each other. But the community aspect of it sort of dips when there's nowhere for people to go. So it's creating those activities that people want to intermingle with each other and just build more connections based on what they've already got. Just to make a really nice atmosphere for everybody. Everyone knows each other. And again, it reduces isolation for people who are getting involved as well and people's wellbeing in general. It soon as you start mingling with people, you're much happier.

It's really interesting, especially in this day and age, that we're more connected than we've ever been. A text message, an email, a video call and you can be speaking to people the other side of the world. However, with our very local community, there's no connection. Very, very rarely. So that's something that you're combating.

Yeah, absolutely. So the more accessibility, you've got to be in touch with people, the less that you are in touch with people, I think we found. So even with things like family and friends, the closer you are to them, the less you tend to see them cause you're not making that conscious effort to do so because you can do it whenever you want. So I think it's just letting people know that there's a space with a dedicated time and activity. It gives people accountability as well. So, like, oh, I'm going to meet a few friends over there that I met last week. It's not giving people out the opportunity to sort of ignore it or forget about them. They're coming every week and they're creating a bit of a. What would you call it, like a routine? routine and they’re creating a small community within themselves.

Yeah.

So the coffee mornings that we have, we, we have regulars of 17 people and they come every week and they're always bringing friends and family to come along as well. And so we're constantly seeing you facing this, this small little community inside a coffee morning, a pub, just growing every week. And it's amazing to see one of the biggest things for these sorts of communities falling by the wayside was Covid of all things, unfortunately. And I think that's why it needs it now more than ever.

Yeah. And it turns the groups into a bit of a buddy system, I'd call it. So if someone doesn't turn up one week, there's a, a few people going, oh, how's this person? How's that person? Has anyone got their number? Can we check on them? What's going on? So it's really making sure people are keeping an eye on each other and it's really nice because you can see the friendships building really, really early on.

As it grows, it's going to be even more of an impact to those people.

Oh, yeah, that's why we do it as well. it's just the tiniest little things have such a large impact on people's lives day to day that you don't realise until you see it happening in front of you.

Just when you see someone come in and they didn't know you were there and then all of a sudden they’re coming every week and you can tell that that little thing just makes their day. Do you know what I mean? And just that puts a massive smile on, on our faces when we see that.

Jess, how did your background in social, work influence your approach to Community engagement through the Owen project?

I, qualified in July last year, so it's not a massive history of social work, but it's definitely enough to make me want to do something with it as we've got a one-year-old at home as well. Working full time just didn't make sense for us as a family and the idea of being away from our son so much and then having to pay for nurseries at the same time just didn't sit right. So I might as well spend time with my son rather than paying out the money. So would be the same financially anyway. So it gives us a chance then to do something that we love and to start the Owen project. It literally started out on a piece of paper. We were jotting down ideas because we wanted to do this. It was just the ideas that we had together. So from my work placement that I had to do as part of my qualification, there was a lot of paperwork and a lot of tape that you couldn't crush, you couldn't do certain things. Whereas in this role I can use all of those skills without the scary title that puts people off and it's addressing issues before they become an issue. So we can help people with a bit of food support, we can help people with just little tiny bits like mental health issues. So even though we're not qualified in doing that, just sitting down and talking to somebody helps before issues get started in the first place. My knowledge that I've grown around, like the benefits that people are allowed to receive, even things such as how to access GP records or the NHS records or people going into retirement homes, care homes. I've got a really wide knowledge base that really helps people when they just need a little bit of. Bit of motivation, really, when they're a bit down. I think that was the biggest thing really is getting involved with the community without the paperwork side. So social work will never be something I don't do. It's just not something that suits us right now. And I get to use all the skills from it.

Absolutely. If anyone ever mentions the words social worker, like the big bad wolf, but really that's such a negative label to have on such a positive impact that somebody could bring.

Yeah, absolutely. So when I was doing my training as a social worker, I'd always introduce myself as a student, make people aware that, look, I have got a bit of extra time, I'm going to do things in depth and that was just to give people a bit confidence in me. And now when I introduce myself to People now I say I'm not a social worker I'm just qualified in that aspect. I've got the knowledge without any of like the scary repercussions that people think are gonna come from it and I can educate people about what social workers actually do and how they do support people cause you only ever hear the bad stories and I've worked with multiple really good social workers over the past few years but those stories don't get heard of so it's nice to sort of change people's opinions as well and get help when they need it.

And Luke, you’re a self-confessed connection addict I would say for want of a better expression how has your passion for connecting with people shaped the initiatives that you undertake within the project?

So for me it's always been about bringing people together so I'm a big believer in meeting new people, talking to you people, hearing new people's stories. So I mean you can probably attest to this. I like being a bit louder, a bit larger in life and I'm very much ah, not so much a big character but I talk to everybody and that was the whole idea behind this. So it's finding ways now to create a real sense of community whilst talking to people and here hear in their stories and that's a big part of what we do. So whether it's social group events or just making sure there's a space where people can come along feel re welcome So a lot of the initiatives that we run the see a need and thinking how can we accommodate that and for me that's my voice because I don't know if you can tell I like hearing myself talk a little bit but that's my thing I like talking to people, I like going out and chatting because one of the biggest things for us to get our start in this the place we use the Terrace Inn on Penkhull New Road I organised to go speak to them luckily they're from Manchester. In Manchester all the pubs are welcome warm spaces where people can get coffee and meet people and that sort of thing. There was none in Penkhull so I spoke to them and said is there any way we can use your lounge area at the back because it's quite large and we'll register as a welcome war space we'll get people into the pop, we'll get eyeballs in and we had a bit of a chat and ended up creating crack and the relationship don't we?

Yeah and definitely people don't really know what welcome warm spaces are either so it's a website literally called. I think it's Warm Welcome Space or welcome Warm Space. Always get it backwards. And it's a map of places in your area that are close by that you can go for a free hot drink and just sit down and have a chat. So it's our mission now from the connections that Luke has made, is to put the local pubs of Penkhull on that map and people have access to a free cup of coffee, free cup of tea, just purely so you don't have to walk into a pub when you want to sit down and chat with somebody. But you've got the pub atmosphere, but you can just go for a cup of coffee. And that's all come from the connections that Luke's made and the conversations he's had with people. That's what people want. Luke's mouth does definitely get us a lot of information on what people want.

Mouth makes money.

Mouth makes money. Mouth makes money.

I can definitely vouch for that. For Luke, can you highlight some of the events and support groups you've organised to foster community connections so far?

We've done quite a lot of different events, to be honest. So it initially started off, as, coffee mornings, which just branched out into coffee socials because all the timings were changing and it just seemed people liked that name more to start with. And then the people who were coming to these coffee groups were like, oh, I'd love a place to do some crafting or I'd love a place to do some painting. So our Tuesday group then merged into what they call themselves now as the Potters, Pearlers and Crafts. So this group of people chose the name themselves. They all voted on it. And it's just a group now with crocheting, crafting, painting, anything that you can think of. They've created this group for themselves, which is really nice. All we've done is facilitate that group being there. That then branched out into the car boot sales that we started to do. People were asking for something like that in Penkhull, so we ‘like yeah, we'll have a look into it. We'll book car boot sales on and see how that goes. Luke put on a Country Night with the Marquis in Penkhull as well. It was something Luke was really passionate about. He kept seeing adverts for it and I was like, well, if you like it, there's going to be other people who like it, get some feedback, go speak to people. And there was so many people who wanted to do it as well did. So I was like, right, look, organise your own event, then you might as well because people want it.

One of the biggest things I found is though, was a lot of places open up in bigger towns that did dedicated board game nights where, people wouldn't meet, they'd play these different board games, they'd socialise, they'd have a drink and they'd just chat and game the night away. And that was one big thing was missing in Penkhull. So I've started the Penkhull tabletop group. Every Thursday night from half past six till half past eight, we're all meet in the lounge area of the Terrace Inn in Penkhull and we just do tabletop games and keep asking me if we can do it till close, which is 11pm but now I have to put my son to bed. Some nights I can't stay till 11pm we saw a need and we filled the need.

Yeah. And it's like the Mondays now going from April, our Mondays groups weren't overly busy, it's just people had other things on. So we've actually spoke to the Greyhound pub and Penkhull, so it's another pub that we're going to use and we're going to start the coffee mornings over there as well. So the locals who use that Pub would like to go and do coffee mornings crafting groups as well. So even just going out in an afternoon when we're off work one day, going for a quick drink in some of the local pubs, we spoke to people and asked them what they wanted. So it's a great way to do market research when you can go and have a quick drink at the same time. It works brilliantly for us because we're getting to so many more people.

The Terrace Pub that we are working with, we're trying to obviously bring more footfall to their pub because we're using it. So one of the biggest things that we are trying to do with them at the moment is launch an afternoon tea. Well, it's called the Terrace Tea Rooms. We've recently created a connection with the Salvation Army Depot in Trent Vale and Stoke and they've recently donated a load of teacups, teapots, lots of really nice collectible bric-A-brac For this event, it's all about creating connection in the community to be able to do things like this. Yeah.

And then obviously, while reusing, recycling, re-loving things as well. So we're not going out and buying items, we're not going to waste money that we've raised on, things that we don't need to so having that connection with the Salvation army, they're happy to donate things to us, we're happy to give them a donation for what they've got as well. And it just works really well in collaboration with each other. It's been really good.

Charities supporting charities. It's the best way forward.

Oh, yes, absolutely. It's. Yeah. Everyone's supporting everybody. You can't do anything on your own. You have to work together, otherwise it's a losing battle.

What challenges have you encountered in building a more inclusive community so far and what lessons have you learned along the way?

Building an inclusive community does come with its challenges, especially when there's a community already ingrained. But one of the biggest is just to make sure people know we're here and they feel welcome when they get involved. So when they come to our coffee mornings and we find ways to let them know that we're there as soon as they come in, we don't want them to feel like it's clicky, like there's a group of people already there and they can't get involved. We want everybody to get involved at the same time and create a very welcoming atmosphere. So a lot of people in the area do struggle with confidence or worry they won't fit in. So we're trying to break down those barriers at the moment and it's really important to us. But what we have learned is that it's small things like a friendly face at the door. So when they walk in and they go, oh, is this the Owen project Coffee room? And Jess is. Yes. He says, come a love. My name is Jess. Just that, friendly introduction that. It's not like a, yeah, go sit over there. Someone will come to you in a minute. It gives you that sort of air of, oh, I won't go there again. Because they were really friendly. And we have had a few people say that. Aren't, we. Ye. You said, oh, we come back because we love the banter.

And even the people who come to the groups introduce themselves to people straight away. If we haven't spotted someone coming through the door, you've got everybody else welcoming them and you turn around and there's another three people sitting down. You didn't even realise they'd turned up. So it's really nice. There's no clicks there, which we found in a lot of other places people have been going for such a long time that new members really struggle to jump in. We're not going to do that at all. We. It's not what we're about. So it's really nice that the people who are using the service are on board with that completely. They'll welcome everybody. It's a really friendly atmosphere. I would say, though, another real big thing with doing something like this is the funding. So we're always looking for ways to keep things running without making it expensive for people. We don't put a charge on anything, but we do ask the donations if people can. So it's not excluding anybody, but people have also got the option to contribute as well, because people don't like things for free. It makes people feel like they're a charity case when that's not the case at all. It's just you might not be able to afford a certain thing at a certain time. You shouldn't be excluded because of that. That's the biggest thing that we're doing at the moment. And obviously with funding applications and things like that, those are very tricky to get your head around. Luckily, we've got a lot of support, so we work closely with Support Staffordshire with Jamie, who helps us out quite a lot. We're very, very thankful to have him on board.

We also work a lot with Vast as while we were giving us so much support. And even members of the groups in the community, we're very open about what we're applying for and they're happy to give us references as such. So we've got, like case studies from them, references if they've got a certain skill. One of our members, he does a writing group as well for us and he's really good at writing, so he's happy to help us out with, like, the newsletters in the future, the website. So honing in on people's skills was brilliant and that was a massive challenge that we come across, was we don't have the skills in every aspect, it's impossible. So we're cherry pick what people are good at and hone them in, really. And people have been more open to do so, aren't they?

Ye. But the biggest lesson that we've found in a community like this, it's not about big gestures, it's about being consistent in the community. So showing up, making that space available every time that we say we're going to be there. And it's about those everyday moments that create real change. When we're supposed to be there on a Tuesday, it's about showing up. So as soon as we get there at half nine nowadays, isn't it, people are already showing up because they know that we're going to be there. And if we don't turn up, for whatever reason, that's the trust gone then. So we need to be consistent with what we're doing to keep up.

And obviously with being a CIC and people not being 100% of what that's about. Some people see it as a business rather than a community group. It's being very open about that, into terms like we turn up because of this, making people aware that this is the money coming in, this is coming out. And that in itself was quite a big challenge. But people have noticed how open we are about sharing things and it sort of fixed itself, really. So people trust us a lot more now because they've got access to everything that they want to see.

What are your future plans for the Owen project and how do you aim to further its mission in the coming years?

We've got big dreams for the owen project, for everything that we've done. We've only been going about five months. It's a bit crazy to think how far we've come so far in such a short time. But we're focused on growing our existing groups at the moment, making sure more people join and we really make an impact. we're also expanding our partnerships with local businesses. So that's one thing that we want to get involved with, isn't it?

Yeah.

So with local small businesses, local larger businesses, they all want to make connection because they all want to help in some way. So we found if we just go in or drop them a line on email or something, we find that really interest in just talking and helping if they can. And one of the biggest things is the pubs that we use. So the Beehive, the Greyhound, the Marquis of Gramby and the Terrace, we are about bringing eyes into them as well. So in the long term, doing all these coffee mornings and stuff inside will hopefully bring more eyes, more bums on seats, more money into the pubs to allow us to create more of an atmosphere, if that makes sense. But one of the biggest things that we want to do, for us to carry on doing what we're doing, potentially do with a wage, obviously, we've got funding pots that we are looking into, aren't we? Yeah, we are thinking potentially launching a Patreon, because we know that that's a big factor in a lot of companies and we think that what we do is worth it. And we think that if we did this Patreon and we had enough followers, we could do this full time with the support of the community.

Yeah, absolutely. It's all about becoming Self-sufficient in the long run. So initially setting up with funding applications and all the rigmoral you have to go around to get started in the first, but then it is becoming self-sufficient. So we're very lucky that we've had the support of quite a lot of the councillors in the area. We've had Sarah who's the councillor of Penkhull supporters, Wazim from Trent Vale and Andy from Boothen. So we've had really strong support from local councillors already, which is fantastic. And we see them all three of them quite regularly now as well. It's all about getting what was your classic as like a step up really and to getting into what we need to do to become self sufficient because you can't trust funders full stop. Things change, money changes and the long term goal is it's to run it as a business but obviously a community interest company so all the profits go straight back into it as well. That's our big dream. It's a long way off but we'll definitely get there.

It's closer than we think it is.

How has working together on the Owen project influenced your personal and professional lives?

I'd say working together it's really strengthened both black personal and professional, to be honest. It's brought us closer together as a family and we get to spend more time together doing things that we love. If you're working full time, you're completely separate, you meet each other at the end of the day when you're exhausted. But actually doing things like this together as a family, we're spending time together and enjoying what we're doing. It's like going out on a day out for some people, like we really enjoy doing it and it's important that our sons bought up in this way as well. Him seeing the connections that we make with people, understanding sort of how privileged he is in life, he wouldn't understand that otherwise. And seeing how he relates to other people and just growing his personality as well. And I think us doing what we're doing is really helping him in that aspect professionally. It's been amazing to apply skills that we've acquired along the journey. So even though it has been five months, we've both picked up new skills. We can sort of spot things before they happen. We can spot people struggling now and a lot of my social work training that I've had I've been able to help Luke with. So even just like the little tiny things yeah you can pick up on straight away, I can make connections with people a lot More because I'm copying off what Luke does stay today. So it's bringing us both up a lot more and raising both of our strengths, really. And it's been really good.

We don't put our son's name or picture anything on social media because we like him to stay off all social media platforms. When we're doing little videos or stuff for the coffee mornings and he's in them, we have to make sure his face is covered by one of us as the camera's panning around. Or, if he's at the park with Jess, he's obscured by a swing. It gets very, very difficult after.

It's quite funny though, actually, because we want him involved as much as possible and people who come to the groups know about him, they know him, they know his personality. So on our Facebook page, because it is family orientated, we've got the littlest Owen chronicles. So it's like a little story that we write every couple of days about his little adventures, what he's doing with the dog. People really, really love it, don't they?

Yeah, they do because it's a little better for that family aspect. So we're not a faceless corporation where we're actually people that they know and talks on a daily basis.

But it's definitely the social work aspects that's terrified me of putting him on social media. But again, we can tell people why we don't do it and educate a little bit more as to why without trying to terrify people at the same time. But there's a reason to everything. Again, even with things like that, we're completely open with people. This is why we do it and why we want to. It's very important.

One of the benefits I find of the community aspect of it and our son is when we take him, he gets really, really involved with everybody there. So the other day he’s swinging off a lady's leg and we'd only met her that day, but she loved it and he loved it. And it's all about creating this space where he's safe their safe. And then in the future, if it ever gets to the point where me and Jess are enough to have done this for the next 30, 40 years and then we decide to retire, we can then pass the torch on to the littlest Owen as it were.

It would be lovely to think that in, like you say, 30 years’ time that, he's fully involved with the Owen Project, he is learning from you, your experiences and things that you've created through this initiative. And he will definitely be an extremely well-rounded individual. And I can see that this journey that you're on is going to do nothing but benefit him and the things that he will then go on and do. Hopefully with the Owen Project, fingers crossed.

That's the idea, that's the plan.

Hopefully. He's already really kind and generous and he tries to share his sweets with people who attend the groups and everything. So it's already sort of rubbing off on him, which is really nice to see. Just he's just a really nice little boy and everyone always compliments him. So we must be doing something right.

How can individuals in the community get involved with the Owen project and what impact can they expect to make?

There's so many different ways that people can get involved with the Owen Project, whether it's even just joining one of our groups. And we're always updating on Facebook, primarily at the moment of the times and what's going on just in case anything changes. Even if they want to volunteer at events, donating things, coming to our activities, even just being there just makes a difference to people. So say it's a really quiet group one week, but a new face turns up. That could be the biggest difference to somebody. And people don't realise the tiny little things make such a big, big difference. It's even things like little skills that people have got that they don't necessarily think mean much. It could be something someone's been dying to learn. So we've had people who turn up in, they didn't know how to crochet but they wanted to attend a crafting group and there's people now teaching each other how to do things. We've got a lady teaching other’s how to crochet on tablecloths. It's like an old tradition on the canal boats and things into people who just didn't know how to crochet, full stop. They've been taught how to do that and it's made such a big difference in people's lives just by sharing that tiny skill that people have. I would say ultimately it means that you're just helping the community to be more inclusive by turning up as well. Don't feel like you can't come because there's a free cup of coffee available. It is completely open to anybody and you don't have to be struggling to come. It's just a fun place that everybody's welcome and that's the biggest thing. It's quite difficult because people think they can't come to these kind of groups. Unless they've got something going on in the background or something's wrong with them. Not at all. Like the more you come, the more you can support people. It's just a really great atmosphere.

When we ask for the donation at the end, we ask for a suggested donation for the tea and coffee. So you don't have give if you don't want to. If somebody wanted to come in and, and they wanted to pay for every cup of coffee they had then that morning, every piece of toast they have. Because we offer small breakfast items as well. These 100% can do. If that's how they want to. To do it, we don't expect it at all. But if that's what they want to do, we're happy to accommodate.

Yeah, definitely. And it's things like that, if you turn up and have say around a toast, for example, the person sitting there who thinks they can't ask for it because nobody else is, will then have something to eat if they can't have it at home, it's those little tiny things. So we'll always make the effort to obviously offer everything to somebody, like, do you want toast? You want whatever we've got, but we'll also have something while we're there, like, look, everyone can have it. So if somebody comes and literally has what's on offer, you're encouraging people who may be struggling to also accept that help. And it sounds very strange, but we found that's a really, really big thing that works. Yeah, use what's there, basically. If we're offering it, use it. That's why it's there.

So it's really important for people who have a bit of time, they're effectively supporting you and supporting the people who are utilising these groups and coffee mornings by just being there and literally taking part and having that toast, having that coffee, slipping you a bit of money at the end and just encouraging others to do the same, whether it be because they're supporting or whether they're benefiting from it.

Yeah. And again, it also helps our statistics as well. So when we're putting in these funding applications, if we've got 20 people coming per session or 10, it makes a big difference to what funding we're eligible for as well. So it doesn't matter if you need the service, if you want to come, you're helping us straight away just by putting your bum on a seat. Because it's helping our statistics to say that we're supporting more people in the area. So your Support by coming just sitting down with us means we can then support more people because we've got more funding coming in and people don't necessarily see that side of it, but the more numbers we've got, the better for us.

One thing that people do think is because it's based in the village of Penkhull, most people think you have to be from Penkhull to attend, but you don't. We've had people come from Blurton, we've had people come from Fenton, so as well Castle, it's people telling their friends about us and just saying, hey, I've been here today. They're offering breakfast and coffee. It's a lovely atmosphere. Why don't you come along? And we've had people come from all over, so it's not just a Penkhull based thing.

It started off that way but it very, very quickly branched out.

Yeah.

What advice would you give to others looking to start similar community focus initiatives?

The biggest piece of advice we'd say is just start off small. It's not that your idea can't be big, start off with things that feel natural to you. Don't just go out there and just do something that's completely off what you'd usually do. So we started off obviously with the coffee morning because we, well, we love coffee, we love speaking to people and that's where it branched from. And it's all been natural growth. So just go for what you enjoy and it's important to listen to the community and just be flexible. So what you think might happen is not going to happen. You have to go with the flow, just go with it to see what happens. And I think that's the best thing we've discovered. And just being open to change, that's been a really important one.

It Does, yeah. Because one of the things we realised is we thought, well, we're going to do this, this, this, this and this. And then when we come to do this, this, this and this, it doesn't turn out to be this, this, that, that, that.

And it's not being afraid to ask for help. You're never going to know what you're doing 100%, especially if you're brand new. Get as much support as you can. We are re always messaging people going, how do you do this? What works best for you? We now get people all the time, but that's benefiting us and it benefits them as well. Once you have discussions with people who are doing the similar things to you, you share ideas, you learn from them. it's just being very transparent with what you don't know. Because if you. If you put on paper or your advertise, like, I can do this, this, this and this, and then you can't do it. You're making yourself look stupid, for one. You're very untrustworthy then, because if you make a mistake, people remember that mistake. They don't remember your achievements, they remember your mistakes are straight away, even if they're not intentional. And it's about not being perfect. You can't be perfect. That's not what community groups are about. It's just consistency. Show up, make real connections that make a lasting impact and just keep it natural. Do what's right for you, not what you think's right for somebody else.

Could you share a memorable experience from your journey with the Owen Project that has had a significant impact on you?

I know Jess has got other ones, but one of the biggest ones for me, we did a children's toy market before Christmas because we realised that we had a lot of toys donated, didn't we?

Yeah.

And we realised that one of the biggest things around Christmas is parents. Not so much not being able to afford toys, but when you see these parents who have been able to buy this living room full of toys for kids, there are some parents out there that can't afford that, so they have to go with what they've got. So what we did before Christmas, we got everybody to donate all these toys and we, we lined the lounge in the terrace with. With all these toys and we said, right, five pounds for a Christmas bag and fill it with whatever you can get in there to help these people. And one of the lovely things that we found, we had some of our. The littlest Owens baby toys left over and it was a little bear. We had a message from one of the mums saying, my son lost a bear just like this one and he's been missing something rotten. And we said, oh, we've got it. You can have it if you want. I'll come. We'll come down when you. When you're there and we'll give. We'll give it to you, no problem. And one day they said, oh, can we nip up? And together he said, yes, no problem. Left it behind the bar and they left us the most amazing review. So much so that they put a picture up the little lad with his bear and he was cuddling it. He nearly made me cry. I'll be honest with you. It turns out that he was so happy that he's now called the bear Owen. That's one that always stuck with me.

Yeah, that was lovely because it was when we were very new as well. Want it. And it was just fantastic. I, myself have helped quite a few people with writing CVs and I've had feedback to say that they've got employment out of it, which is just amazing. Obviously, I can't share a lot of detail about that, but there's been about four or five in total now that have actually got jobs from my CV support. It's just absolutely fantastic. 

Your CV writing is brilliant, though.

Well, I had a lot of CV training. Oh, many, many years ago now. So now I've got it. Why not use it and help people out? Because I know what people are looking for when they're recruiting. So if I can share that, I could definitely will. I think another big one is definitely from Christmas again was Luke decided to dress up as Santa. He spent far too much money on a Santa costume out of his own pocket as well. The amount of times I said if it's not in the budget, we're not spending it. No. He has spent so much money on the Santa costume. The beard was awful.

It's for the kiddies.

And he did buy a new beard and made it better. And he went round delivering letters from Santa to people. He was letting them catch him on the ring door camera so people could see that Santa was posting letters. Because we found that people were charging extortionate amounts of money to visit Santa with the kids. It just wasn't okay. So Luke decided to post the letters as Santa and we got some really good reviews from that as well. People loved it. The kids thought Santa had actually been and they'd got videos of sort of Luke sneaking away. It was brilliant. Christmas was a really good time for us. Want it. Because everyone was so happy that there was an accessible Santa. And as daft as that sounds, that shouldn't be a thing. It's really, really odd.

It was just before Christmas. Ran a competition, didn't we? Because we had so many toys left over from the toy market where somebody could win a bag of toys for their kids for Christmas and a lady won and we found out she had two kids. So we took two bags with us. Didn't we? Ah. She left as a beautiful review saying it's helped her out so much. And that was another one. Nearly made us cry..

Yeah.

So there's not just one particular memory that everything sticks at point.

Those little tiny Things that we can do make such a big impact. It's. It's brilliant.

For the short amount of time that we've been going, we've been shortlisted for the Six Towns Radio Awards..

Yeah, it come through the other day that we've got shortlisted.

Congratulations.

So we'll make a happy about that. I mean, there's some big boys in that. There's almost certain we're not going to win. But it's so nice to know that Community have seen what we've done and nominated for it.

Because you never know. You put all these posts out saying, know if you like as nominators, you never know what's going to come back. And I think people actually like us, which is nice.

You say about Luke being santa. Of course, though, the real Santa was busy so, you know, stepped into the breach there.

yeah, I spoke with Santa and unfortunately he wasn't very well that day, so he asked me to go and deliver and help out a little bit.

All these midnight phone calls were Santa teams calls. It was very busy, very busy.

Who would you like to reach out to you? be it a participant or people who wish to be involved or people who you want to collaborate with for support, like you said, the businesses. Who would you love to reach out to?

You? So we'd love to have anybody who's looking to get involved. So whether it's just to participate in the groups or if you do want to contribute in other ways, say you're feeling isolated, for example, if you've come to one of our groups, you can make a connection with somebody else who also feels isolated. You've got those two issues, sort of. They're not resolved. Absolutely not. But you're putting two people together that wouldn't necessarily meet and making such a big difference. Anyone, really. Anyone who wants to take part. We don't want anything to be forced. If it feels like it's something that's a natural connection, 100% and we just see where it takes us.

Because one of the things we found is, especially these coffee mornings that we're doing is the people that come to the coffee mornings. We've had two people who've come to the coffee mornings when saying they want to do groups on our behalf because it's something that they love doing and they've loved the atmosphere that we've created. So if you've got a group idea that you want to do, if you're a budding artist or if you're a photographer, if you want to do those groups and you want, you'd like to do them under the Owen project name with our help. Give us a. About what? That's what we want. We want people running groups for themselves. We don't want to put on things that people don't want 

Because it's a scary place to start because you've got to look at all your insurances, your liability. It's quite a scary place to start out when you're doing these groups. So we are more than happy to facilitate that. And well, it started off as the Owen Project. It's now just a community project because we don't get any more say in what happens than the rest of the community. Everyone gets a say, everyone gets a choice. It's not just what we want, it's everyone. So if anyone wants to run a group, they're more than welcome to and we'll facilitate that as much as we possibly can.

And going on from that because we also know how difficult it is starting CICs and paperwork and everything else. What we, have had done with a couple of other CICs, yeah, we have pulled them under our umbrella for insurance purposes. They've got an idea that they want to create but they don't have them know how to, how to start a CIC, how to get insurance, nothing like that. So we've said, come under our umbrella. Get yourself a foot up. We'll help you in any way that we can. And then when it gets to that point where you obviously want to go on on your own and branch off and branch off at that point, for now we're a stepping stone to Help you out because we've got the knowledge behind us now. It's a shame to lose that because it is quite a complicated world to get into. We want to springboard as many people as we can to help them start what they want to start and just share that knowledge. So if anyone's got any ideas, feel free to come to us. We're more than happy to help if we can.

We're already a 16 strong team, aren't we?

Volunteer everything, including us too.

In total, there's 14 other volunteers that help us out. Yeah, in five months we couldn't imagine that anything like that would ever happen.

Not at all.

People believe in what we do.

So it's amazing because everyone gets the same what we do. We don't believe in having any CEOs. It just doesn't happen. No one's the big boss apart from the littlest Owen here is the big boss. But other than that s right of my mouth, there's no big boss here.

So even though it's on paper that people have roles we don't believe in, roles we believe in, we're all on the same level and we all muck in.

What projects have you got coming up? What have we got in the works?

From the 18th, of March we have an after school club that was starting at the West End Methodist Church in Boothen and Stoke on Trent. From 4pm till 5pm it's 2 pound per child. But they will have a free full buffet ready to go that they can go mad at. Parents can sit, and have a brew with us in the same room if they would like. And there will be a small menu for parents, mainly sandwiches and cakes, that sort of thing. And the kids can play to the heart's content for that whole hour and eats to the heart's content and it gives them a nice little meal and a place to go. We've also got hopefully by the beginning of April, dog walking group called Smith's Happy Hounds, which is run by our good friend Paul Smith. He's a local dog walker. He was saying that a lot of people, mainly women, they don't like walking the dogs at night. So he wants to put together this group where they all go out as, as a group of people walk in a group of dogs like a dog pa. Like a dog Pack. Yeah. And then we are working with the Penkhull Mystery Players and we are putting on a centenary celebration for Stoke on Trent because this year is the 100 year celebration of Stoke on Trent. We haven't solidified a date yet. In June we are doing a Penkhull wide celebration that will come with market stalls, bands, pubs having bands inside. And there's more to come that's going to be announced so that's going to be very exciting as well.

There's always things in the works.

Yeah.

Do you ever get any time for yourself?

I work Wednesday to Sunday full time.

Yeah. So I'm working part time just to try and keep the childcare costs down, to be honest. We've got very full schedules but it's a means to an end. So it'll finally come where this is going to be our full-time job role and we'll absolutely love what we're doing. We've just got to put all the hard work in now to get what we want out the end of it.

Well, I bet it doesn't feel like hard work though.

No, no, we love what we're doing. We sit down at night and we've got laptops out, doing little bits of work here and there, and we just really love it. so we can't. Moan can we? We're very lucky.

We made some of fantastic friends doing it as well.

Yeah, definitely.

Already it absolutely shows. Well, thank you so much for speaking with us. Your passion for the Owen project is undeniable and you're both super admirable, and I can't wait to watch it go from strength to strength.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for having us. It's been brill.

It's been cracking time.

Thank you so much Jess and Luke.

Thank. Thank you.