Putting the heart back into Maud: the work of the Maud Village Trust and the Old Mart Community Resource Centre

Having meaningful community leadership at a local level to drive community-led health is vital.

Vicki Brown, General Manager, describes the health and wellbeing work of the Maud Village Trust and how they work in partnership with statutory services to run a community health and wellbeing hub in the area.

Following the closure of the village's agricultural auction mart, Maud Village Trust (MVT) was formed from local residents of the Community Association to help identify the needs of their community, to acquire and establish an alternative purpose for the former mart site and to bring new community benefits to the area, driven by a dream to 'put the heart back into Maud'. 

Shaping service provision through partnership working

The Trust does an varied amount of work across the area, but of most interest to CHEX is the Old Mart Community Resource Centre which opened in 2008 and provides a community-based health and wellbeing hub, operated in partnership with the Aberdeenshire Health and Social Care Partnership by the Partners of the Health & Wellbeing Hub group, of which MVT are a core part.

The hub is home to a number of healthcare professionals and a wide range of health services. The MVT works to shape service provision by identifying community needs and sharing information, as well as by developing a wide range of initiatives which address health-related community issues, such as poverty and cost of living crisis, physical activity, mental health and wellbeing, and community resilience.

These examples give a snapshot of the partnership work going on to improve the health and wellbeing of people in this community, and you can find more on the services (and some lovely photos of the centre!) on the MVT website. 

Old Mart Gym and the ABC Referral Service
During the initial Resource Centre consultation, a need for a community gym was identified by the community, and the Centre now houses a modern and accessible gym, which has over 1000 members from the local community and surrounding areas.

It is important that the gym is a place where anybody in the community could come and feel comfortable, regardless of fitness level or knowledge about physical activity. The ABC health referral programme was developed to support people living with short and long-term health conditions and disabilities to become more active. Referrals to the gym can be made by local GPs, physiotherapy services and other health professionals. The success of this scheme has led to an increase in service demand and additional classes are now being run to specifically support people with arthritis and the gym now also provides gentle seated exercise classes. 

The Aberdeenshire Wellbeing Festival in Buchan
Aberdeenshire Wellbeing Festival is held every year to raise awareness of community activity and events which promote and support all our mental health and wellbeing. Festival activities in Buchan are developed and co-ordinated by Partners of the Health & Wellbeing Hub, and this year's events and activities included health walks, taster sessions of fitness activities, conversation cafes and other social events to foster community spirit and wellbeing.

The Just Ask Project
This project is a self-referral pathway which gives families experiencing poverty access to support in a number of key areas. The service is designed to reduce stigma and lessen stress for families by providing a central point to request support; ask once and the advisor can then refer to other service partners without the need to contact multiple services directly. The project offers support in a number of key areas: food, home items, toiletries, baby items, adult & children’s clothing, shoes, gas & electric as well as financial advice and support.

The Trust also runs the Central Buchan Christmas present appeal in December, to make sure that children living in families who are struggling financially can join in the festive fun.

Conversation Café
There are a range of wellbeing activities happening at the hub’s Conversation Café, and these can address targeted key issues like the cost of living crisis, warm-proofing your home, and information on financial assistance and support. The Café is important for creating a space for this type of signposting and helps our communities stay informed. There is even a waiting list for speakers to talk so it is clearly a popular venue!

Central Buchan Resilience Hub
In the event of a power outage, the Centre opens its doors from 9am to 8pm to provide a warm space with refreshments, Wi-fi, hot water, charging points and activities.

Listening Ear
The Listening Ear is a service that creates a space for adults to talk about the things affecting their mental health and wellbeing. The Listeners are not an advice service – they ask open questions, encouraging and supporting people to feel able to verbalise what is impacting on them, helping them to think aloud and find their own solutions. Listeners support people in their quest to make sense of what is happening to them, walking alongside the person as they tell their story. The Trust has Listeners in 5 settings across Aberdeenshire: Mintlaw, Maud, Banchory, Alford and Haddo with more to come in the new year.

The importance of understanding the local context

Being able to support our community’s health and wellbeing at a local level is so important, especially because we live so rurally, as this can in itself present many specific barriers such as transport issues and the cost of getting to services further away. Our projects and services have overcome these barriers and supported many families and individuals across Aberdeenshire, at times when they have needed it most.

We are in the fortunate position of being able to work with statutory service providers to make their services more relevant to our community’s needs, and to be able to present them in a more understood and localised way to bring about better and more successful uptake of this support. Our future is about continuing with these great services and further developing them in line with community need, as well as to raise awareness of what we are doing.

Community-led health creates a better understanding in communities of the issues affecting health and wellbeing and the provision of statutory services, and it brings us together to find solutions. It helps us target the real health issues that the community is facing and this can only lead to happier, healthier communities – our ultimate aim.

If you’d like more information on the work of the Maud Village Trust, you can email Vicki.