Bude's Pearl Exchange fundraising to revamp new home

The charity offers creative workshops and free counselling to 18 to 35 year olds

A creative hub supporting young people's mental health is hoping to raise £50,000 to pay for renovation work on its new home.

The Pearl Exchange was set up in memory of Pearl Bamford who died in 2019.

Since 2020, the charity has been using a small building overlooking Bude's seafront for its workshops but it has now outgrown the space.

Managing director Fliss Loxley said a new space had been found in the centre of Bude but it needed work.

In the past year, 450 people have accessed services at the Pearl Exchange, which has run 235 workshops from its current headquarters on Crooklets Road.

Of those, 78 have accessed the charity's free one-to-one counselling service, which provides six to eight sessions to each person.

The charity's current headquarters overlooks the Bude coastline

Ms Loxley said Ms Bamford would have benefitted from the Pearl Exchange's work.

"Her parents had sort of accompanied her through her struggles and she had really found it difficult to find anywhere kind of to do the things that she was interested in, which were being creative and wanting to meet new people," she said.

"She'd also struggled trying to access mental health support through the NHS."

Ms Loxley said the charity had outgrown its current building but had been able to secure a long lease on a former gallery in Broadclose Street, which would double the amount of space they had.

"We will have the space to be a creative space all the time, offer more drop-in sessions and offer more workshops through the year," she said.

The charity will run its workshops for 18 to 35 year olds from its new base, which is a former gallery

The charity is now fundraising to pay for renovation work including fitting a new central heating system and adding insulation.

Lea Judge, 26, said the Pearl Exchange had helped them to make "meaningful and deep connections" with other young people in the area.

"I think there's quite a lot of limitations where it is at the moment and it's sort of outgrowing it's home and it's just so exciting," they said.

"I can't wait to see what it is going to look like."

Workshops include drop-in sessions and various activities including leatherwork and DJ exchanges

Sayer Clark, 24, added that the new location was better.

He said: "I think if you're new to it and you walk here and it's winter and you're coming on a Friday, it can be dark and it's slightly out of town and it might not be that comfortable for you to walk here.

"I think just being more centralised will be really accessible for everyone."