A TAVISTOCK charity which offers a safe place where anyone with mental problems can feel less alone is looking for volunteers to run sessions in everything from woodwork to art and music, cooking and gardening.

Make a Difference is currently open from 12 noon to 4pm on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays – and Mark Feeney, who runs the charity under the Arches behind Taylor Square hopes to extend opening hours next year, with more volunteer support.

The charity moved during the pandemic from Trident House, its original base down the road, which had become too expensive to run.

The new charity base is equipped with facilities including a potter’s wheel, art materials and woodworking tools, and Mark would like to make more use of these.

There is also a little garden, which in this its first year yielded strawberries and tomatoes – and won an ‘outstanding’ from the judges of South West in Bloom, who visited Tavistock in July.

‘We are looking for anyone who could run sessions art, craft or woodworking, we have got a lot of machinery over here to use,’ said Mark. ‘We have got T-shirt printing and we want to get people involved with tie-dyeing.We even have a potter’s wheel.

‘I want to arrange the classes three months in advance so people know exactly what we are offering, say, on a Tuesday or a Wednesday. .We are also looking at doing a walking group, because if people walk they talk.’

Mark, who lives in Tavistock himself first got involved with the charity when he needed support after an accident while working as a delivery driver in which he suffered concussion. He had to go off in search of help with blood pouring from his head. The traumatic experience leftsuffering from PTSD.

As Mark knows all too well himself, mental illness is isolating and it can be hugely difficult to take that first step to seek support. He came seeking support at Make A Difference and as he says with a wry smile ‘ended up running it’.

He is assisted by volunteers who, in many cases, have themselves weathered traumatic situations. This makes them better able to help others he says, becauase ‘you can read about it and talk about it but unless you have been through a situation yourself you can’t fully understand.;

Often, he said, people will drop into at Make A Difference’s HQ just for a few minutes, and then gradually grow more accustomed with spending more time here.

‘We are not here to fix people, we are here to make them welcome, to have a chat and hopefully signpost them to what help is out there.’

Not everyone the charity tries to help ‘makes it’; there was one week during the pandemic when they lost three people – one to suicide, one to a drugs overdose, and one after a fall which may have been related to alcohol. ‘It was heartbreaking,’ said Mark.

‘One guy, he used to come in quite often. He is sorely missed. He was called Jack and used to come here and play Scrabble.’ He is running a regular tournament in his memory. ‘It is going to be ‘Jack’s Scrabble’ – he was a very clever guy,’ he said.

The charity has been chosen by mayor of Tavistock Paul Ward’s Mayor’s Charity this year. It has also been supported by the Stannary Arms, across the way, which held a succesful fundraiser. ‘It was heartwarming, what they did for us,’ saidd Mark, I nearly shed a tear.’

Find Make a Difference on Facebook or call 01822 613746.