Community Power Podcast Series 2 Episode 12: Outstanding service to the community with Karen Trainer MBE

Episode 12: Outstanding service to the community with Karen Trainer 

Chris Allen

Hello and welcome to this week’s Community Power Podcast, a series being brought to you in partnership with Local Trust. My name’s Chris Allen, and in this series, we’re showcasing some incredible projects focusing in particular on what happens when you give local people the power, the money and the assets to make a difference to their neighbourhoods. With me is series producer Beth Lazenby. So Beth, we’ve reached the end of this our second series. 

Beth Lazenby

We have, and what a series it’s been. I mean, we started off at Connects, which is the biggest networking event for all Big Local areas to come together. But we were talking a lot about topics like cost of living crisis, because that was on a lot of people’s minds at the time. We were celebrating the end of our funding programme Creative Civic Change. So we chatted to a few people who are involved in that project. And then since then, we’ve covered some really amazing stories, some really creative stories of everything from empowering local writers to using pom poms to tackle loneliness. So I don’t know about you, Chris, but I very much enjoyed series two of the podcast. And we are finishing off with a very special episode from Karen Trainer MBE, who is the chair of Scotlands and Bushbury Hill Big Local and you have recorded a very special episode with her about her big local journey. 

Chris Allen

Indeed, after 11 years, I had the chance to sit down with her in the room where it all started. Now, can you remember? I was just looking around the room here. Can you remember 11 years ago when Big Local started off we were in this room? 

Karen Trainer

Yes, I can remember, it seems a lifetime ago, but I can remember how cold it was. We were all in coats, and it was just a dreary place. That’s all it was. 

Chris Allen

It was, there was lots of stuff on the walls. It was used as a Play Centre. 

Karen Trainer

Yeah. It was, yeah. It was an adventure playground, and the kids just did everything here. 

Chris Allen

Yeah, yeah. And it was a vital part of the community, as there was nowhere else for people to go. 

Karen Trainer

No, no, nothing. This was, this was the place where they all went, 

Chris Allen

And what was your role at that time? 

Karen Trainer

I were, I was doing residents and tenants and residents association then. So we used to come in here if we’d got meetings or anything like that. 

Chris Allen

You used to have the keys and the run of the place then. 

Karen Trainer

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, we did, yeah. So nothing changed with that, but we used it as and when we needed to. 

Chris Allen

And then the news came it was going to be closed. 

Karen Trainer

Yes.

Chris Allen

What was your feelings? 

Karen Trainer

It’s not closing. Straight away, we said, ​“No, they’re not taking this place”, because this was the heart of the community. 

Chris Allen

They were not going to get away with that one. 

Karen Trainer

No, not at all. And we’d lost a lot already. So this was the only place where the community could come and speak, and just have a cup of tea or anything like that. So that was it. 

Chris Allen

There was a determination to save it. But people really did go through a grieving process as well, though, didn’t they? Because they start with, you know, ​“oh, it’s gone. That’s it. What we’re going to do now?” 

Karen Trainer

And I think it took us a couple of weeks, and we just, we just thought ​“we’re going to have nothing for the community at all”. And as you say, we were all grieving for the loss of the place. So then we just had this hair brain scheme that we could save it and we could look after it. And that’s where it all started. 

Chris Allen

All of a sudden, it became the most important thing in Big Local. 

Karen Trainer

Yes, yes, it did. It did. Yeah, we knew that we’d got the funding, but we knew that without this place, we couldn’t do what Big Local asked us to do. So this was the start of it, yeah. 

Chris Allen

Now you couldn’t, it’s not just a matter of saying to the council, ​“right, we’re having this”. 

Karen Trainer

No, it was two years of hard work to even get the front door keys. So yeah, there was a lot of to-ing and fro-ing. But we were lucky. Our councillors were on board with it from day one. So they they were really behind us. 

Chris Allen

And they seem to, in this area, have managed to sort of be behind you and support you and not take over. 

Karen Trainer

No, no.

Chris Allen

Not that you ever let them. 

Karen Trainer

No, we never let them. From day one, we said we will be in charge. You’re just sort of in the background, but you’re not having anything day to day with it. That was our, our domain. So, no, no. 

Chris Allen

So went through the couple of years. Obviously, as a partnership, you can’t just take it on, so you needed to form a company. 

Karen Trainer

We did, yes, yeah, and that was, that was a thing in itself, deciding what sort of company we were going to do. And because there were different ones, and there were fors and against for all of them, but we finally decided to be a charitable, I can never remember… 

Chris Allen

A charitable community benefits society. 

Karen Trainer

That’s the one, yeah, and that seemed to fit the bill more than anything else. So, so that’s what we did. 

Chris Allen

And one of the things that allowed you to do was sell shares to the community wasn’t it? 

Karen Trainer

Yeah so that give us that bit of money from the shares that enabled us to do the first things that we wanted to do. So yeah. And it give it, it gave the people a sense of ownership as well, because they’d always they’d been told before and that, ​“oh, you can it’s going to be for us”. And they said, ​“Now, we’ve heard all that before”. But this was one way for them to say that it was actually their building then. 

Chris Allen

And it was going to be a promise that you had to keep. 

Karen Trainer

Yes, we had to. Yeah, from day one, it had got to be the community centre, and it was owned by them, and it was run by them. 

Chris Allen

Now it’s one thing to be on the partnership which you were. You were chair.It’s another thing, then to become a director of a company, and have all the responsibilities that go with that. Did that take some getting used to? 

Karen Trainer

It looked like it was the next step. So you know me, I’ll just take it all in my stride, and I’ll just do what needs to be done to keep the place going. So, yeah, it was a learning curve. Everything’s been a learning curve from from the minute we had the keys and but no, it was just the next stage. 

Chris Allen

And one of the things that had to happen was that you had to stop thinking of it as your centre, and it had to become your business. 

Karen Trainer

Yeah, that was the hardest part. I think that took us a good 12 months to realise that we’re responsible for the building and everything with it and that we’ve got to pay all the bills. So it was going from just using the place to actually managing it. And that was a hard one, but we got there. 

Chris Allen

You did. What was the kind of ways in which you raised money, you raised income? 

Karen Trainer

One of the first ones, I think, was jumble sale. Just to make a little bit of money so as we can go on to the next one. So we do different events. We do jumble sales occasionally, even now, but it’s not a jumble sale now. It’s something a bit more, bit more classy. 

Chris Allen

A bit more refined. Yes, you’ve gone up in the world. 

Karen Trainer

But it’s the same thing. People can come and have their stalls, and they can make their own bit of money, and they pay us to use that the place as well. 

Chris Allen

And of the things that’s very expensive for parents always having a party isn’t it a children’s party. You get the well known reputable people on the high street cost a lot of money. So you’re able to help as well as get a bit of income. 

Karen Trainer 

We know that this play, this area is really deprived, and they haven’t got the money to fork out loads of money. So we keep our prices as low as we can. When we started, it was £25 an hour. We’re actually now using it for £15 an hour. 

Chris Allen

Right so you’ve gone down? 

Karen Trainer

Yeah, because people couldn’t afford even the 25. So, and it’s been £15 for the last oh, about five years. And we keep looking at it, but at the moment, we’re covering our cost, really at that price. 

Chris Allen

But that brings out important balance here, isn’t it? Yes, you’re you’re an enterprise, you’re a business. You need to make a bit of money, but your main role is to support the community. 

Karen Trainer

Course it is, yeah, yeah. And we look at it for our day to day running costs for electric, gas and things like that. All that revenue comes from our parties, so if we price ourselves out, we can’t make the money. 

Chris Allen

You’re getting going. You’re doing well. COVID comes along, lock the doorsKaren. 

Karen Trainer

Yeah, and that was, I think, out of everything, COVID really hit us in the guts. It wasn’t the fact that we got to shut. We knew we got to shut. But we were just thinking about all the people out there that were on their own and they couldn’t get out. So then we had another hair brain scheme, and we lasted two two weeks being shut. 

Chris Allen

You mean, you behaved yourself for two weeks? Which might be longer than some government ministers, you never know. 

Karen Trainer

Yes. It was yes. And then after that, it was decided that, ​“well, if people can’t come here, we’ll go to them”. And that’s where the Treat and Chat and everything like that came into existence. 

Chris Allen

Tell us what Treat and Chat is? 

Karen Trainer

It’s where usually Di, one of our workers, she used to go to our elderly people. She’d stop on the front door so as we weren’t contaminating them, just asking them if they were okay and if there was anything that we could do for them. And then from that, then it became, well, it’s not just the elderly, it’s families. So then it was at one point, we were doing 150 parcels a week for families. And we delivered those. And also activity packs for the kids, because they were bored, they were out of school, they couldn’t go outside. So we sent activity packs for the kids as well. And that went on for quite a while, quite a while. 

Chris Allen

And that’s that’s recognising that, actually, I know food’s important, but sometimes some things are more important than food, and the chatting. 

Karen Trainer

And the chatting was one of the big things, because, because we’re we’re in lockdown when we didn’t know what was going on around the estate. So doing that, we could just see if anybody was really struggling, and that five minutes was just a tonic that they needed, I think. 

Chris Allen

And that probably helped you build up relationships across the whole area. COVID helped put you on the map? 

Karen Trainer

It did really, yeah, because, I mean, we just, we just go as we go day to day. But that did put us on the map, yeah, yeah. 

Chris Allen

Now, one of the things you, you had in here was a community cafe. You hadto learn some lessons from Community Cafe running, didn’t you? 

Karen Trainer

We did, yes, yeah, and, and that was that again, because of the the area that we’re in, they couldn’t we couldn’t charge them exorbitant prices. We took, we tried before, and with two outside people running the place, and it wasn’t working. So we said, well, we’ll keep cheap and cheerful, and that’s when it started. And it was a good thing, actually. And again, people could come in and have a cup of tea, bacon sandwich, whatever, and just chat with each other. And from there, we got the the other 50s club for them to come and have a meal once awake. 

Chris Allen

Does that take you back though. That got these outsiders coming, if I can put it that way, to run it for you, because you thought that was the best way at that time. But they didn’t get it, did they did now get what the cafe was about. The cafe’s about chatting more than the food. 

Karen Trainer

More than food, and spending money, yeah, yeah, yeah. 

Chris Allen

And so then it just again, became a place to go to. And then you developed things from there? 

Karen Trainer

Yes, yeah. And then, once we took over, then people came in, and they come and had their chats and that. And it was a success, until COVID actually, yeah, and then everything had to change. 

Chris Allen

But you’ve come out the other side of COVID now. You haven’t got a cafe? 

Karen Trainer

No because people can’t afford to eat out. So we had to think outside the box. And then, with the help of Wolverhampton City Council, the idea of the community shop came into existence. We were they, the first one in the in Wolverhampton, and we soon realised what a need there was for it. So yeah. 

Chris Allen

And tell us how the community shop works. 

Karen Trainer

Right the community shop. You come in and you fill the form in. You pay £5. That £5 then enables you to do £5 worth of shopping free. After that, you just pay the prices on the on the counters, which is cheaper than supermarkets, places like that, because ours is a bit more we realise that they can’t afford supermarkets. So yeah, and I think we’re nearly up to now800 members now. And and we’ve got our people that come in two, three week, times a week, and they just come for a natter again, but they can get cheap shopping. So yeah. 

Chris Allen

Now you said you were the first . But you’re not the only one in the city. 

Karen Trainer

Not now no, no. I think at last count there was either six or seven now. 

Chris Allen

I think they’re more now, opening up all the time. So you actually did the pilot really shop for the whole of the city of Wolverhampton. 

Karen Trainer

Yeah, yeah. And I think they that the council realised as well that it was a big need, and it’s just gone strength to strength with it. 

Chris Allen

Now, I noticed when I came in earlier, you’ve got a charity shop here as well in another room. 

Karen Trainer

Yes, we have. This came about because we’re being funded by the Council for so long, but after that, we’ve got to be sustainable again. So our idea was, people have always got stuff that they don’t want. Bring it to us, we’ll sell it at a normal nominal fee and and then that money then goes back into the community shop. So we’re self sustainable then. 

Chris Allen

Right, right, right. So, yeah, yeah. The trouble is, you haven’t got enough room. 

Karen Trainer

No, we desperately need our extensions now. I mean, oh, my office is never a shoe box. I can’t get in there so. But we do actually need these extensions. The plans have been drawn up. They’ve gone to planning laws now to see if they’re gonna let us have them, then we’ve got to find the money. That’s the big thing. 

Chris Allen

Big Local comes to an end. Soonish you’re out of money soonish as well. But this can’t stop can it? 

Karen Trainer

No, no, no. And from day one with Big Local, we’ve always tried to match fund. So as we’ve got the same amount of money coming in from other sources. And Kim and Louisa have been so successful with that. And I think last time I spoke to them, it was £2.5 million match funding, yeah. So we know what we need to do. 

Chris Allen

So your £1 million, or your £1.2 million from Big Local brought in another £2.5million, so you ended up spending getting close to £4 million in the area. 

Karen Trainer

Yeah, yeah, yeah. 

Chris Allen

That’s amazing.

Karen Trainer

It’s all gone back into the area. It hasn’t been like, no fees or anything like that, because it’s run by volunteers. We don’t need wages, so, yeah, we keep it all in where it needs to be. 

Chris Allen

Now, you were recognised for all the work that you’ve done through the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service. Great celebrations. But that must have meant a lot to everybody. 

Karen Trainer

Oh, god, yeah. I mean, we’ve always said we don’t, we don’t do it for praise or recognition, but it was nice for them to actually acknowledge that we’re here and what we’re doing. So it was a big, a big bonus to us, and it made us think, well, we’re doing something, right? So, yeah. 

Chris Allen

And obviously, it was the last Queen’s Awards. As it turned out. 

Karen Trainer

It was yes, it was Yeah. 

Chris Allen

And then when that all went in, somebody at the Lord lieutenant’s office noticed your name on the list and thought they’d give you something extra as well, didn’t they? 

Karen Trainer

Yes, they did. They did indeed, and that was the MBE, which was a total shock. 

Chris Allen

More of a shock for you than me. 

Karen Trainer

Yes, because you know about it, yes, yes, I did remember that, yeah, but it was a total shock for me. 

Chris Allen

Well, I must admit. I had this phone call from the lieutenant’s office, and they said they left a message for me, and they said, ​“Oh, can you give us a call back? We need to talk about Karen trainer to you.” I thought, ​“oh no, what’s she done now”? 

Karen Trainer

As I do. 

Chris Allen

And then they, then they told me the story, and they and they said, I’ve got to get this information out of you, like your date of birth and your address and and all sorts. 

Karen Trainer

I know. And I fell for it. 

Karen Trainer

You did. I had to, I had to lie. And I used Local Trust to lie. I said to you, ​“you’re a chair, Karen, and Local Trust this year want lots more information from you than they normally do”. And you gave me everything I needed, including your maiden name, which I didn’t need to have. And the Lord Lieutenant’s office were very, very surprised. But you must have you must have been chuffed to be honoured in that way. But I know you share it with everybody else. 

Karen Trainer

Yes, I do, even though it’s for me. To me, it’s for this place, and what the work that they all do day in and day out. 

Chris Allen

Right. And take us back to again. We’ll go back those 11 years, to this room, the dark dowdy colours, the purples and the blacks, the grotty floor, freezing cold. Could you have dreamt you’d get here? 

Karen Trainer

No, no. We wanted to, but we wouldn’t have dreamed that we would be so successful at it. Because we’re none of us knew what we were doing in the beginning, we just said, ​“Oh yeah, we’ll do that. We’ll do that”, but we didn’t know what was, what’s needed and what was expected of us. So yeah, not in our wildest dreams. 

Chris Allen

I remember, well, I know in your plan, you’ve got the word confidence in there. Lots of times I remember part of it was confidence for people just to speak out, confidence to report crime, confidence to do that, because there was a lack of pride in the community. Everybody felt, well, who’s going to be bothered? 

Karen Trainer

Exactly.

Chris Allen

Do you think people are more confident there? 

Karen Trainer

Yes, definitely.

Chris Allen

And is your confidence going? 

Karen Trainer

Mine’s through the roof now, yeah. I mean, when we first started, I wouldn’t say boo to a goose. I wouldn’t have spoke at big events like I do now. And I think that goes for everybody that’s gone to those events. I mean, Fern, she was so timid, but now she’ll stand up and say what she needs to say. The same with Di. And so yeah, I think all of our confidence has gone on leaps and bounds now, and we’ll do what we need to now to get it further forward. 

Chris Allen

Well, thanks, Karen, through you. Thanks to all the other pink ladies, yes, as you call yourselves. 

Karen Trainer

Yes we do yeah. 

Chris Allen

There’s a there’s a bright future. 

Karen Trainer

Hopefully, yes, not for the want of trying. 

Chris Allen

That was Karen Trainer MBE, the chair of Scotlands Bushbury Hill Big Local.Quite a journey they and I have been on. 

Beth Lazenby

Yeah, absolutely. And it was so nice to hear the rapport that you’ve built over this 11 year programme. And I think what really stood out was Karen’s reflection that actually her MBE wasn’t about her, it was about the…For her, it was about the community and what they’d all done together. And I think that’s something that comes out time and time again. Even though we’re speaking to individuals a lot of the time, they’re really there to champion their communities and the spaces that they live and what they’re doing to make those places a better place. So yeah, that’s the end of our series, I guess, isn’t it, Chris? 

Chris Allen

It is indeed. And we do thank people for their company right through the series. If you’ve not heard them all, then just follow the links via this podcast and you’ll see them all sitting there, and the first series too. And we do look forward to joining us next time on the Community Power Podcast, whenever that is, and it’s brought to you by Local Trust discovering what happens when you give local people the money, the power and the assets to make a difference to their neighbourhoods.