I’ve been coming to the Green Skills hub for nearly 8 weeks and I also come along to the sewing drop in. I love this space. I’m so happy and enjoy coming in. I’m making things for my daughter and myself. My daughter is very smiley and happy and my family are happy I’m learning. Everyone is so helpful, helping me with my sewing. The staff are very nice and the space is lovely

– Anon

I first encountered the Green Skills Library (Building Bridges) in July 2023. Full of trepidation, I had spent months confined to an anxious and limited existence following a mental breakdown. Two years on, the experience of being part of the Green Skills Library has been transformational. I can say the Green Skills Library/Building Bridges/Friends in Need has been an integral and vital part of my personal recovery journey, enabling me to re-enter the world and experience joy again. I’ve made new friendships with fabulous people who understand and never judge. My love for art and creativity has been reignited again after many years and I’m now one of the MIND Friends in Need Volunteers overseeing two groups and working in collaboration with Donna, Michelle and their brilliant team at Green Skills Library/Building Bridges.

It is wonderful to watch the extraordinary emerging talents of our people who attend the Craft and Chat/Upcycling Club sessions; to see people discover and reveal their individual/collective creativity is so wonderful.

The Green Skills Library/Building Bridges Hub is an amazing place; an oasis of inspiration where calm, creativity and kindness can be found.

– C

Everybody loved you and all the activities – thank you SO much for all the prep and giving up your time

– Holy Trinity School

A big thank you for all you do at the Green Skills Library, I think it’s brilliant.

– L

When I first started to come along to Green skills early this year, it was to enable my son to have a place where he could use his skills and talents that also had the ethos of protecting the environment. It was to rebuild his shattered confidence and self esteem which had left him isolated with no sense of purpose of direction for over 15 years.

Our lives have revolved around countless medical appointments and a lack of any real connections.

It has offered so much more than that.

Over the past few months I have seen my sons confidence increase and his sense of self worth. He has re newed his passion for sewing , taught others to sew ( including me), and repaired things that would have been costly elsewhere.

This has a hugely beneficial impact on his mental wellbeing. It has also had a positive impact on mine.

I too have been made to feel part of the Green skills and this has helped greatly to reduce the isolation I took have faced, particularly as a Deaf carer.

Every person that comes through the doors at Green skills is valued no matter what their background, health or disability or age.

The flexibility to turn up to volunteer when able and at their own pace , breaks down the barriers that many neurodivergent people face when trying to seek paid or unpaid work,
especially when this is combined with another condition.

This is what makes Green skills unique from organisations.

I know from 15 years of previously living in a big town that it is rare to find a place that feels a home from home.

It is no exaggeration to say it truly is a lifeline, and ran by people who are not afraid to speak of their own personal struggles.

Everyone is in it together.

Many thanks and may 2026 be the beginning, not the end.

– Chloe S