Community United Barry for Everyone, or CUBE for short, is a new community centre coming to Barry this year, namely, to support those dealing with: substance abuse, mental health issues, domestic abuse and isolation and loneliness.

Tammi Owen one of the founders of the centre met with Barry Nub News to discuss the project and what it had achieved so far.

Tammi's journey to the launch of CUBE has taken her through many parts of Barry's health and care services. In this article, we focus on her voice, rather than interrupting the flow with questions.

Her background is a diverse one, but the key theme throughout her working career has always been helping people.

''I am an ex mental health social worker. I started my career working within a multidiscipline mental health team. However, after the mental health act was introduced things changed a lot. The mental health act was created to encourage more community engagement but also less detention more prevention and intervention. After this came in, they closed Sully hospital in 1999.

''There was a strong feeling that engagement and involvement from the community was going to happen, but actually the opposite happened. It became a monitoring process and at that point, it wasn't the collaborative work I was hoping for.

''So, I left mental health and went back to university and qualified as a psychotherapist because I wanted to look at what I felt was drawing me into work in social services. I discovered it was about driving change but also keeping the person at the heart of their solutions. I found it quite difficult within a statutory setting to be able to do that.

''I retrained as a psychotherapist and then I went to work for Women's Aid/ Atyl y Fro (Domestic Violence and Abuse Services in the Vale). At that time, I met Max Chadwick and we formed Heroes Training, a Kickstarter which was designed for men and women living with domestic abuse.

''And then, two years ago, Heroes Rights was formed.''

There are four directors of Heroes Rights. They have been working, separately, to develop and deliver services for about 35 years.

Individually, they have worked in lots of different areas but predominantly they have all worked with vulnerable people and within statutory services.

''Max and I are considered experts at what we do, so we go off and deliver training and programmes for families living with domestic abuse and displaying abusive behaviours. That's our kind of background.

''In 2014, I went to work for an organisation that focused on restorative approaches. For four years, I worked with families restoratively and learned to help them become experts in their own lives.''

This restorative approach was something that Tammi described in detail. She was clearly very passionate about the method and wanted to be able to apply it to her work.

''It's about the person with the problem coming up with solutions for themselves rather than being told them by a social worker/ mental health practitioner.

''There is a difference between working with expertise and being an expert. I am an expert in what I do but they are the expert in their own lives. We need to work alongside the person and look at their resilience and help them build tools and strategies.

''We need to make sure the person can move forward without us and at the end of the day we are not creating dependency. It is about how they will eventually have all the skills and techniques to do it themselves.''

The journey Tammi has gone on to find the solution hasn't been a quick or easy one. It is an idea that has been formulating throughout her life and her work.

Tammi has been interested in the restorative approach for a long time, but she needed to find out if this was going to work for Barry. She set up a variety of events and consultations to gauge a reaction from local people.

''15 years ago, I was sitting in a café with some colleagues and I was saying, wouldn't it be good if there was a holistic one-stop service for any individuals or families who were living with these problems.

''Because it is all interlinked. What tends to happen is that we split up services and we split up people within families. So, dad might go to mental health services and he might have to go outside of Barry because there are no victim services for men in Barry. The question becomes, where would you go? For the last two years, I have been working with the people of Barry to look at what works for families and whether they believe that this could work for them and how can they as a community come together to support each other.''

Tammi talked about the financial problems faced by services and how this had driven her to want to create this change.

''Budget cuts within the Vale have always been problematic. We've always had fewer resources than Cardiff.

''Because of austerity – and don't get me wrong, I am always a social worker at heart, but services will agree – we are buckling under the pressure. It is not right that families in the services will have, on average, 11 social workers. They know it's not right but because they can't retain social workers there doesn't seem to be a one-person-contact for a family moving through services.

''I mean, how would you feel if you had to tell your story to 11 different people?

''Services will often say families disengage, people keep things hidden? I often say, why are you surprised?''

There is also a more personal side to Tammi's story and drive to make this centre work.

''I have lived in Barry since 1987 and I have always worked with the Barry community. Personally, when this started it was because, for 15 years, I've wanted to engage with the community in a restorative way.

''Before this, I've always been defined by aims and objectives and I had to deliver in this way.

Tammi's story started as a professional endeavour because she wanted to bring the community together to tackle their own issues.

''But then 8 months ago my nephew passed away. He died of alcohol issues. It was a toxicity problem, he drank too much one evening and didn't wake up. He was only 21. I said to him, when he was on the life support machine, my final words to him were 'everything I will do, I will do to honour you'. It's something that I still do. Every time something significant happens I go up and I talk to him about it.''

''Any tragedy, as long as you can make sense of it, it still hurts but if you can sense a purpose from it, it makes it easier. It never goes away but he is always with me.''

Men and their challenges with mental health is something that Tammi expresses great concern over.

''Young men are at serious risk. They are getting better at talking but they are socially isolated and are less likely to talk about their emotions.

''Women have historically learned to communicate better because they've had to throughout time. Historically men don't access GPs or support.

''One of the interesting things I discovered was that, in 2014, National Crime statistics stated that 1.2 million women reported domestic abuse. In the same year, 665,000 men reported the same. So, we can no longer say that it is only a woman's issue. Where things get interesting is that the NCS gathers data from victim support, police service and women's aid groups. For men, the stats really only came from the police. We know both women and men don't report, so we don't have a true picture of these statistics.

''So much is hidden. We've lost so many young people in Barry recently because of mental health. We've had a couple of suicides and other issues related to young male deaths.

When talking about men and mental health Tammi talks about Gary speed and how examples like his can help raise awareness.

''Gary Speed's suicide is an example I always remember. He died in 2011 and it was such a shock to the community. Everyone after his death was like 'He's a gentlemen's gentlemen', 'No one could tell', 'How could this happen?' and 'His life was so perfect'. We need to create a culture where it is okay for men to talk and where they are noticed.''

The plans for how the centre will function have also been laid out by Tammi.

''We have purchased a property subject to grant funding, but we can't reveal the location just yet. It is in Barry, it has to be, and it will be for the Barry people and community.

''April, we hope to open the centre. We are also still looking for people to volunteer and mentor. There is training involved (shared training). So, if anybody is looking for opportunities then we are always on the lookout. If they can't give money can they give time or tell people about the centre?

''One of our focuses, for example, is about loneliness. To combat this, we are going to insert a talking bench. It might be someone who is a trained listener, or it might be someone who is volunteering with us just to have a chat and talk to people who have sat there. It will be in the gardens at our centre.

''We now have 28 board members. They are people with lived-in experiences in the three areas of concern. We are so unique because members of our board have had positive and negative experiences from voluntary and statutory services. We are working with Social Business Wales and they are going to be training the board to function as a board and they will be driving what we do. We want to keep transparent and responsive.

''Whoever joins the centre becomes a cooperative member. Everybody pays £1 a year and after 6 months you will be able to vote on what goes on in the centre. This allows us to make sure they are not at crisis point and to let them know what they are buying into. It will encourage the community to really be a part of something.

''40 individuals who are involved in the project (stakeholders). They will all provide different services. I have spoken to service providers and we have since been signed off by a variety of statutory and voluntary bodies. They were all in agreement that this service was needed. We will also have additional fun activities operating within the centre like mindfulness, yoga and workshops. We will give a space in the centre for other community support groups like Gobaith who can operate from within the centre.

''All the people delivering services are fully qualified and they are either therapists or experts in their own fields because we need to make sure we are working together for the best for the people of Barry. The people who will be delivering services are mostly from Barry and those that aren't have worked here and with local people. They have spent at least 10-15 years delivering services for Barry.''

The people of Barry have played an integral role throughout the process of creating the CUBE and Tammi believes that they will continue to remain at the heart of the centre.

''I want to thank the community for standing by us, everyone who's taken part in consultations and events, to our partners and stakeholders and more importantly the 28 Barry residents who are giving so much of their time to the board to make this centre happen and help CUBE be a centre by the community and for the community of Barry.

''Between our Go Fund Me and the fundraising we've done we have raised £3000 and that has come from local people who have attended our events. It is local people donating local things. Even down to our logo which was developed by local school children. Both Oakfield and Jenner Park Primary schools took part. Jenner Park created a logo that was chosen for our site. It was chosen by public vote. It is this kind of engagement that is so important: ''By the community for the community.''

''The community are engaging, and we want that to continue. For example, the community changed its name. The community didn't like the support centre which was in our original name. They liked CUBE (Community United Barry for Everyone) and so we changed it.''

''We're going to offer a coffee shop and drop-ins and we will be open two evenings a week because we know some people cannot access services during the day.

''We also want to be a business, we need to be sustainable so that we are not always reliant on grants and funding. Hopefully, we can rent some of the spaces out. Perhaps meeting rooms and hot-desking. We want it to be a space the community can use for a variety of things.

''We hope that people that access the service and it is successful for them will give back. It will be like a full-circle approach. We hope those using the services will come back and help benefit the rest of the community.''

The CUBE hopes to open soon and will encompass a wide range of services, events and activities. To keep informed on their journey or to get in contact click the red button below.