Keith's Blog

Pigeon attack at Us UnLtd’s latest project

“What’s through here?” I asked. “Not sure” came the reply:  ”And I don’t know who’s got the torch but let’s have a look”. We stepped into the darkened space and three pigeons flew out at us.

It was like a scene from an Alfred Hitchcock film. The pigeons escaped through a broken window – which is how they got there in the first place, no doubt. Several yelps later we were back downstairs with increasingly exaggerated tales of how we were nearly “savaged” by some irate pigeons.

I was visiting Us UnLtd inFlint. They are part of an initiative being driven forward by Llamau, a charity working to help a group of homeless young people take an entrepreneurial role in shaping their own future. UsUnLtd’s vision is to empower homeless young people in Flintshire. The young people developed a business plan for a shop, a centre to provide learning and skills training, a cafe and accommodation with an opportunity to acquire important life skills.

Pigeons aside, it is now a year on from the first time I met these young people and their shop is now open inFlint.

It is really great to catch up with the young people and see the amazing progress they have made. The shop sells a number of items but the t- shirt printing service is proving to be a bit of a winner.

I took the opportunity to order a bespoke t-shirt with designs of my choice. So the front has the Us UnLtd logo on it:

And on the back there is a birthday cake design to celebrate the Children’s Commissioner for Wales’ tenth birthday:

Pretty cool I’m sure you will agree. If you ever need any t-shirts printing then this is the business for you – all orders are welcome and all the profits are put back into the social enterprise to build up the capacity to support homeless young people in Flintshire.

So how did I end up getting attacked by pigeons? Well, I was visiting Us UnLtd’s next project, to convert a building across the road from the shop into a new centre to provide learning and training opportunities. Grant applications are in and fingers are crossed. It will take a lot of work to the bring building up to scratch but the potential is enormous and all of this is being driven forward by the creativity, vision and sheer hard work that Us UnLtd are putting in.

I have met some of the young people involved with this project a couple of times before and every now and again a message on Twitter will update me on their progress. All the young people involved have overcome some tough things in their lives. They all face continuing challenges as they build lives for themselves, setting up their own homes, finding work and going to college to gain qualifications, to name but three. On top of that they give their time to build the Us UnLtd social enterprise.

“We all want to build something that will help others who face the same things that we did.”

There are many people in this world who set out an ambition but not everyone has the determination to see it through. UsUnLtd are pretty determined and the progress they have made in the last 12 months is pretty amazing.

Next time you are inFlint pop in and see them. They are located on Church Street. I know they will be delighted to see you and they deserve all the support they can get.