Starfish Services Ltd endorse a PA-CT Community Hubs model, and although we call them Social Hubs in the Stoke BBO project the principles are the same. We offer a welcoming and friendly space for you to learn more about yourself and create positive change after experiencing difficulties with mental or emotional wellbeing. Space to explore the things that hold you back and what might transform your life going forward.

There are a range of informal activities such as visits and talks, access to short workshops and courses designed around your own needs and interests, covering topics like Self Care, Creative Writing, Claymaking, Mindfulness, Mindful Drawing, Reading Groups, Informal Chat in our daily Evening Hubs, as well as more formal training that could see you becoming a more formal Volunteer. All of the opportunities are explored with our participants and in collaboration with their Personal Coach from the referring organisation so that there is transparency and we avoid duplication.

Particpants grow in confidence, start to take part in activities, and then, we start to see them offering support to new members quietly and in their own way when they recognise something in that person that they experienced themselves. At that moment they begin to realise that their experience, which they had previously seen as wholly negative, may, as a "lived experience”, give them something that they can use positively to help others. Its a eureka moment for them and for us as its the beginning of their journey back to a social life and a sense of belonging to a community that understands them.