Community Spirit, Pride and Peter Andre #PrideofBritain

One of the  things I love about living in Brighton is the amazing sense of community spirit that infiltrates every part of daily life.  It might feel like a large city, but in reality there is always a variety of projects taking place to bring people together and raise awareness of worthy causes – be it food for the homeless, ethical clothing, LGBTI groups or the vast number of social enterprises – Brighton has got us covered as there is something for everyone going on!

When I found out that the Pride of Britain Awards team were in Brighton to Champion and raise awareness of local projects, I was really excited to get involved. From June 27th to July 12th a team of minis are whizzing around the country on the Summer of Pride tour and stopping at TSB branches along the way. It’s a call to arms to get us all voting for someone we believe should be up for a Pride of Britain award, so I popped along to meet the team and get talking about what makes our local community in Brighton special to me.

I arrived at Brighton Pier and met the TSB team who were just lovely. We had a chat about the #PrideofBritain tour and watched as quite a crowd had formed as Peter Andre arrived and was there having lots of photos taken with the bright purple pride mini’s and encouraging people to get nominating for the Pride of Britain Awards. A bit later in the morning I got to meet him myself to snap a selfie (or two) – he was so lovely, just very down-to-earth. We chatted about babies, sleep routines and life with a newborn, Violet gave him some lovely smiles too – she’s clearly a fan already.

So, the main reason for going down was to talk to the team about who I’d nominate for a Pride of Britain Award in my local community.  I’ve chosen a project in our local community that does fantastic things for young adults with learning difficulties – Team Domenica. In fact you may have heard me talking about them before as I visited them when I was heavily pregnant back in February and I blogged all about it at the time. I chose Team Domenica as I felt that this cafe is a perfect example of what embodies the spirit of Pride of Britain Award. Team Domenica is not your ordinary cafe, it is actually a social enterprise and training hub that are absolutely dazzling us all with their good work at the moment. Team Domenica is a training cafe, open to the public, that aims to work with young adults with learning disabilities to help them find and retain employment.  The café is staffed by candidates who are taught catering skills, front of house and general work skills, to assist preparation for work as well as sense of direction, purpose and belonging, in their local community. The inside of the cafe is also beautiful and the food tasty – a win all round! They are my favourite little cafe to pop in and grab a coffee and a slice of homemade cake. Without the project, many young adults with learning difficulties wouldn’t be able to find work and gain vital experience they need to succeed in later life, so they are doing a wonderful, wonderful job, all round. 

I had a fab day out meeting the #PrideOfBritain team and it really got me thinking about those special people within our communities. Do we do enough for them? How can we give them the recognition they deserve? If you want to nominate someone special, head over to their website to cast your vote now!  Let’s show them how much they mean to us!

 

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  • Team Domenica sounds fantastic. I will search for a similar cafe here in Liverpool, maybe there is one. The initiative is lovely, I missed your post about them, so I’m happy I saw it now.