Span Arts’ new community arts programme, the Cheerful Project, is looking for volunteers to spread cheerfulness throughout central Pembrokeshire.

The Cheerful Project is here to help organise exciting creative opportunities in rural communities with the aim of reducing isolation and increasing cheerfulness.

After five months of meeting local people and putting on taster events, they are now looking to sign up volunteers to help them achieve their goal and will be holding three local meetings in Narberth, Maenclochog and Clarbeston Road where you can find out more.

If you think you have what it takes to join a cheerful team near you, Anna, Sophie and Rowan who manage the project would like to hear from you. Are you keen to see more going on in your local area? Do you want to put something back into your community or learn the ins-and-outs of putting on a community event?

The team are looking for people to help run events, programme workshops, drive minibuses, promote the project and act as community ambassadors. There are also opportunities to help out at Cheerful HQ in Narberth for anyone looking to gain work-experience with thriving rural arts charity Span Arts.

Volunteering makes you happy; in 2013, researchers at the University of Exeter published a review of over 40 studies from the past 20 years on the link between volunteering and health. The paper showed that volunteering is associated with lower depression, increased well-being, and a 22 per cent reduction in the risk of dying.

Span Arts’ manager, Gwen Watson, said: “When we came up with the idea for the Cheerful Project, volunteering was at its heart. We hope that the project will be of benefit to rural communities not just because of the fabulous community events we will be hosting, but because we are offering a well-supported scheme to enable people to volunteer locally.

The team is organising three community meetings to discuss your ideas and create local steering groups to help guide what the project does over the next two and a half years. They are hoping that you will join them to have your say and find out more about being a Cheerful volunteer.

Cheerful Meetings

Narberth on Monday, November 2, from 7.30 pm, at the Span Arts building; Maenclochog Hall on Wednesday, November 4, from 7.30 pm; Clarbeston Road Memorial Hall on Monday, November 9, from 7.30 pm.

To find out more get in touch with the project by emailing [email protected] or calling Span Arts on (01834) 869323 or visit us online www.span-arts.org.uk