Suffolk Mind centre transformed by 21 young volunteers
Posted by: electime 16th September 2026
Saxmundham community hub refurbished as part of Volunteer It Yourself and Toolstation partnership
Toolstation, one of the UK’s largest suppliers of tools and building supplies, has joined forces with social enterprise Volunteer It Yourself (VIY) and Dulux, to refurbish the Saxmundham hub for Suffolk Mind, better known as The Willows.
The centre provides mental health counselling, courses, therapeutic services and community programmes to residents in the Saxmundham area.
To support the local community and transform the centre, VIY, a social enterprise which challenges young people to learn trade and employability skills by helping to fix local community space, offered their services in partnership with Toolstation and Dulux.
21 young volunteers from VIY joined forces with volunteers from Toolstation to complete the refurbishment, with products supplied by the retailer. Young people joined from various community partners including Suffolk County Council, Orwell Housing, Apprenticeship Suffolk, while lots of young volunteers joined independently from the local community too.
The volunteers were responsible for making the rear courtyard garden a more welcoming wellbeing space, they helped to expand the parking spaces by removing overgrown shrubbery and redecorated internal spaces too. All of the refurbishment has helped to create a much brighter and more welcoming space for the local community.
In addition to refreshing the space, the refurbishment also helped young people learn DIY skills and consider a career in the construction and building industry, while renovating a space everyone can benefit from. Through its partnership with Volunteer It Yourself (VIY), Toolstation has helped create opportunities for the 21 people in attendance to gain City & Guilds qualifications and boost their employability skills. In total, 14 accreditations were awarded in Carpentry, Health and Safety and Painting and Decorating.
Among the volunteers were Megan and Ben. Megan, 21, first heard about VIY through her local town council’s Facebook group. She was particularly keen to explore a career in painting and decorating and wanted to gain more experience. After the project, VIY put Megan, who’s currently NEET, in touch with Suffolk New College, where she’s due to start later this month on a fully funded course to get her CSCS card. It’s a great next step towards getting her foot in the door of the industry. She was also selected to receive a Toolstation gift card for standing out during the project, which will help her start building up her own set of tools as she takes her next steps into the industry.
Ben, 17, lives with his aunt, who works for Mind and she uses the room Ben helped decorate to support people in the local community. He arrived on his first day quiet and unsure, but quickly came out of his shell, built his confidence and made friends with Megan, who he’s stayed in touch with. Knowing he’d helped create a space that will support others, including his aunt made the project even more meaningful for Ben.
Jon Neal, CEO of Suffolk Mind, said: “We’re so grateful to VIY, Toolstation and the group of local young people who have worked so hard making our hub in Saxmundham more functional and welcoming to the people we help. It was a real pleasure to visit and see them in action, and to hear some of their personal stories. It was clear to me that VIY has built their confidence and helped with their self-esteem, and also provided them with opportunities to make lasting friendships.
On top of that, they are earning qualifications and have improved their employment prospects as a result of working on this project.
These sorts of opportunities are few and far between for young people in rural Suffolk, and we are delighted to have been able to support this opportunity.”
Chris Other, Customer Director at Toolstation, said: “We believe that supporting communities involves creating positive change where it’s needed most. Partnering with VIY means we can help improve living conditions and share valuable skills with the volunteers from the local area. We believe that this project will encourage young people to develop confidence and learn practical trade and building skills and to consider a career in the trade.”
Ed Sellwood, COO and Co-Founder at VIY, said: “We’re proud of our long-term partnership with Toolstation, helping to inspire and diversify the next generation of tradespeople over the past five years, whilst helping to improve spaces that matter to communities where resources for improvements are scarce. We look forward to planning for 2027 and beyond to inspire more young people and benefit more communities in the UK.”
Toolstation has supported VIY since 2020.
