ABOUT HAVENS
FROM GARAGE TO GREATNESS
Havens Community Hub has always been a dream for the company director, Paula Woolven. Having come from a third sector background, she had a unique understanding of what the community needed and how best to achieve it. Whilst registered as a Community Interest Company (CIC 1164012) in 2018, Havens Community Hub officially started operating at the end of 2019 from Paula’s home garage before moving to its own premises in Denton in March 2020.
The aim of Havens Community Hub is to meet previously unmet community needs by providing personalised support to good causes and creating partnerships projects to meet established community needs.
The first project, Havens Community Cars, was officially launched in September 2020 and aims to reduce social isolation and loneliness in the Havens coastal stretch (between Saltdean and Seaford). Since launching, Haven Community cars provides transportation to around 350 members with over 20 active volunteer drivers. Havens Community Cars is now a standalone charity (Charity Number: 1184955) that operates out of the Havens Community Hub building in Denton.
When Age UK dissolved their Day Club for older people at the beginning of 2020, Paula decided to fill in the gap in the local area. Havens Happy Clubs officially started in February 2020 but had to stop their services when the country went into lockdown. In May 2021, the club officially opened its doors once more for members.
Havens Happy Clubs sets out to reduce isolation and loneliness for the older members of our community and provide a safe space for them to socialise with a hot lunch and plenty of activities to bring a smile to their day. Currently, Havens Happy Club operates at two locations: Kempton House Day Centre in Peacehaven and Newhaven Day Club in Newhaven.
With the sudden lockdown of the country in March 2020, Havens Food Coop was born. Launched in April 2020, Havens Food Cooperative started collecting surplus food that had reached its ‘best before’ date from several supermarkets in the community and redistributing the food back into the community to those who needed some extra help during the pandemic, such as elderly people, those in temporary accommodation, people on low incomes, and those who were made redundant during the pandemic. The remaining surplus food is then added to the community food pantry that is located outside of Havens Community Hub and is available to everyone in the community from 9 AM.
Since launching, Havens Food Cooperative has taken on 12 supermarkets in the local area and collects a ton of surplus food every week that would have otherwise been destined for landfill and helps to feed over 100 families every single day.