Offenders make story time special

Community Payback donates hand-made storytelling chair to the Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospital for Wales, Cardiff

A 6ft-high hand-crafted wooden storytelling chair has been donated to the Cardiff children’s hospital by Wales Community Rehabilitation Company (CRC).

It now stands in pride of place in the foyer of the £64million hospital and will provide a focal point for storytelling and entertainment sessions for the children.

The chair was made at Wales CRC’s Community Payback workshops in Lewis Street, Canton, Cardiff, by offenders carrying out unpaid work with the CRC as part of their community sentences. It was crafted from recycled pine wood, salvaged from a school adventure playground and took two offenders 150 hours to make.

Wales CRC’s workshop manager Steve Powell said: “Under the guidance of Community Payback Supervisors Nigel Jeffries and Mark Skyrme, the offenders learned carpentry skills and made an impressive bespoke chair which would cost thousands of pounds to buy.”

“By donating it to the Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospital, they are giving something back to the community.”

The chair is the latest project in an ongoing partnership between Wales CRC’s Community Payback teams and Cardiff and Vale University Health Board.

Jonathan McGarrigle, Head of Performance and Energy at the Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, said: “We are so grateful to the CRC for making this chair for the hospital. It will give many hours of fun to the children attending the hospital and their families.

“It’s great to have a positive relationship between the Health Board and Wales CRC’s Cardiff workshops. They have already built planters and renovated benches at University Hospital Llandough and are currently undertaking a project to renovate and repair more than 30 benches and a gazebo in the University Hospital of Wales gardens.

“We hope it will be an ongoing relationship as the unpaid work they are carrying out allows us to concentrate our efforts on other areas of the hospital. It also gives the offenders the opportunity to raise their self esteem and learn new skills.”