Directors

Clive Rowe first came to Stoke in October 2016 from the George Homeless Hostel in Plymouth. After being homeless for 23 years he had finally decided that getting older and attacked on the street was no longer the life for him.

Clive brought with him his lifetime companion, Geezer – whose care was also a factor in Clive getting off the streets.

Since then, Clive used his position selling the Big Issue in Plymouth and particularly the last five years outside the Theatre Royal to good effect. He became a member of the Theatre’s engagement group, Our Space and realised a passion and ability for performance.

He has been in the cast of numerous shows, including Citizen, currently doing a project with Cardboard Citizens, an ex-homeless performers’ Forum Theatre Company, and is in regular demand as an advocate and spokesperson for the Big Issue, Homelessness, and mental and physical health issues that are particularly prevalent on our streets.

He is Chair of the Patients Participation Group of Adelaide and St Levan’s Doctors Surgeries and helps train medical students through his lived street experience.

Clive went back to college after leaving school at 13 with no qualifications and passed 2 GCSE’s at City College Plymouth during lock down. At 58, he started studying for a Level 3 Diploma in Theatre Production and Creative Arts.

Clive became a volunteer at the Village Hub when we first got the keys and was instrumental in helping repair and renovate the derelict premises, using his prior knowledge from working on building sites as a young man.

He is now an indispensable member of the Village Hub providing expertise on all manner of issues from supporting vulnerable people to signposting to benefits and proper health care.

He also founded the Squat Community Theatre group at the Hub where he writes, produces, directs and develops a number of budding actors to produce comedy sketches performed to the local community and at the Lab Stage, TRP.

Diane is a local resident of Stoke. She has been a paid member of staff for a year at The Village Hub and loves what has been achieved here in engaging the community.

She has lived in Plymouth for 6 years, prior to moving here she was in London and worked as an Events Manager for various charities.

She likes being organised, chatting to people and drinking tea – all important qualities!

She has two boys – her younger one goes to the local primary school.

Gareth lives in Stoke and is the founder and director of Iridescent Ideas (a social enterprise business advice firm). He has been a champion of the social enterprise movement in Plymouth and the South West of the UK. He was the elected chair of Plymouth Social Enterprise Network for seven years 2013-2020 and chairs Plymouth’s Inclusive Growth Group.

Gareth led Plymouth’s successful bid to become the first ‘Social Enterprise City’ in the UK and has a history of working successfully with a range of social enterprises from tiny start-ups to national organizations on issues such as governance, social investment and social impact.

Gareth said: “I’ve been here ten years and have fallen in love with Stoke and Plymouth. I walk my dog and my children play in Blockhouse Park all the time. The Hub is an amazing development for the village. I can’t wait to see what’s next.”

Jade calls herself a VERY proud local resident, and one of the founding members of The Village Hub. From litter picking to black berry picking to attending long evening meetings, there is nothing too small or too big that she will not try to be involved with.

She is currently a PhD research student, with a background in academic and physical education. She is passionate about community action and values the voices and opinions of our community members above and beyond strategic goals: If it isn’t borne from the people, it isn’t needed by the people.

She manages monthly litter picks with Clean Our Patch and Karen Pilkington offers advice and guidance regarding community action and organisation, grounded in up-to-date research, practice and policy. She is an excellent networker and organiser of community events including yoga, breathing, mindfulness and walking events.

She would also like to start some sort of evening ‘philosophy’ club once her studies allow her some more free time.

Joe Phillips has worked in renewable energy for his entire career, starting as a graduate engineer at a wind energy consultancy in Bristol called Garrad Hassan. He helped to establish the offshore wind engineering division, led the strategy and policy department and headed-up corporate communications before leaving in 2015 to establish Everoze.  Everoze is an employee-owned renewable energy company which has grown from 6 founders in 2015 to over 70 staff now, spread across the UK, France and Spain. They help to develop and finance a wide range of renewables and energy flexibility projects across the world. From the start, Everoze was established to be non-hierarchical – there are no line managers and individuals are empowered to make decisions and address the issues they identify through a culture of trust, transparency and collaboration.

Having moved to Stoke from Bristol for family reasons in 2018, Joe was keen to find ways to use his skills and experience to contribute to the local community. He helps the Village Hub in offering his experience of what works and what doesn’t when building an effective, self-managed organisation. He is also hoping that his renewable energy expertise might become useful to the extent that such technology becomes part of the future of Blockhouse Park. And he is an experienced bid writer. He feels passionate about the excellent work the Village Hub is undertaking and the positive impact it has already had on our community in Stoke.

Karen was an active member of local community association, The Stoke Traders and Residents Association and a trustee of local VCSE organisation, Plymouth Octopus Project. During the first lockdown of the pandemic she was able to put both hats together and coordinate mutual aid in the community alongside other volunteers. She had been moaning about a derelict shop in Stoke Village for 5 years being a blight on the landscape, when it suddenly became possible to move in. Encouraged by the indomitable Jade, they were joined by a group of volunteers and moved tonnes of rubbish, a collapsed ceiling and filthy floor tiles. Karen and Jade then sat in the dark for a good six weeks in a cold dusty bare space where lots of dreaming was done.

The Village Hub was born.

Karen is good at dreaming and holding lots of different ideas in her head at one time, probably less good at communicating them in understandable ways or grounding ideas into consistent practice. She passionate to see the Village Hub thrive as a community, not dependent on the few but a melting pot of the many, able to dream, work and build together for a long term future.

In addition to ideating, she has skills in community journalism, business and charity management and working with all types of people. She loves getting to know people and has a paid role at the Hub that primarily involves listening and talking.

Katie has lived in Stoke since jan 2010 I ventured into the village but had never attended community meetings due to being a single parent. As covid shut everything down Katie would have become very alone, but stumbled across the mutual aid that was being offered in Stoke. She became a volunteer at the Hub where she built relationships with locals and businesses.

When Lockdown hit a second time, it was if she had the world ripped out from under her feet. Katie says, “ my mental health took a massive dive to pre parent times If it wasn’t for my Friday in The Hub I don’t know where I would be right now.”

Katie now has a job working with adults with mental health issues and learning disabilities and can transfer a lot of skills into how visitors to the Village Hub are supported.

She often supports the Hub financially, donating items for the larder shelves, cleaning supplies for the volunteers and goodies for children at Christmas. She also bought the Hub its first fridge.

Katie promotes the Hub through her keyboard warrior skills as a great local advocate, fighting for and reporting community issues to make a difference to the place she calls home.

Katie also organises treasure hunts for local children around the area.

Zoe is a founder member of The Village Hub, being passionate about seeing this community thrive. She has lived in this area all her life and worked at the local Co-op for over ten years. Currently she is seconded to work alongside the community of Keyham to ensure that it remains strong and connected despite suffering from the tragedy that made it world wide news.

04-01-2021 – 13-03-2023

Aaron initially became involved in Stoke Village through the regeneration of the Stoke Village Fun Day, supporting its growth to ‘bringing it back to the Village’. He soon became enthralled with Stoke and Blockhouse Park, becoming involved in not only its events (Stoke Village Fun  Day, Silent Disco, and Window Wanderland), but also became a founding member of The Village Hub, as well as being its’ Chairman for the first year. After Aaron stepped down as a director, he continued as a paid staff member of The Village Hub, focusing on financial management, social media, research, and general support.

His skill set lies primarily in organisation, financial management, ICT, entrepreneurism, and a deep-seated nature to ‘do good properly’.

In addition to The Village Hub Aaron is the director of Diverse Events CIC, a not-for-profit that supports community groups across Devon and Cornwall in developing and implementing projects that support the local economy and enhance the overall prosperity of the community. It achieves these goals by increasing community cohesion and strengthening community spirit, primarily by running community events.