A chat with Ursula Wastall of Small Wonders Stay 'n' Play, #Wolverhampton, which is run by volunteers at Lifespring Church off Chapel Ash and is going from strength to strength with a 12-mth waiting list. - after a starting with a handful of children
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00:00Ok Ursula, so you're the founder here at Small Wonders Stay and Play in Wolverhampton.
00:05Just explain how long it's been going for and what you think it means to the community
00:09of this facility.
00:10So we've been going for 12 years, we started just as a small group and it literally exploded
00:17and we now have a waiting list of about 90 families, so they're waiting about a year
00:22to get a place.
00:23That's incredible.
00:24So we have a messy room and a sensory room which we actually funded through a competition
00:29we won in the Express and Star a number of years ago and for a lot of people it's like
00:36a lifeline that they come, they'll create new friends and just a place where they can
00:42create memories and try out toys and just they can come and have a coffee and a piece
00:48of cake and a sit down and they know that we'll help and support them in any way that
00:54we can.
00:55I mean it's a wonderful idea.
00:56You're all volunteers as well aren't you?
00:57Yeah.
00:58And I think for us it's about, it's not about the money, whereas a lot of groups it's about
01:04the money and it's all about the child, at Small Wonders it's as much about the adult
01:09as it is about the child because the adults, if the adult is in a good place then the child
01:14is going to benefit from both that as well as the child enjoying it themselves.
01:21And then we charge £1.50 but if people can't afford it, finance has never been the main
01:27issue.
01:29Right.
01:30And we will just, people can come in.
01:31Oh that's good.
01:32For nothing.
01:33So people shouldn't really feel as though they can't come if they can't afford it.
01:36No.
01:37Finance is not a problem here.
01:38That's brilliant.
01:39And all the money that we do take gets reinvested into the group, that's how we buy the toys.
01:45Right, yeah.
01:46And we do homemade cakes and fresh fruit.
01:48We do, you know, just lots of nice things.
01:51We give out flowers every week to one of the parents of carers, just to encourage them
01:58and tell them how amazing they are because being a parent and carer is a very thankless
02:02task a lot of the time and so we want to just encourage them and tell them how amazing they
02:09are and what a good job they're doing.
02:11I mean it's a wonderful atmosphere here and everybody I've spoken to has said how much
02:14they enjoy it and how much their children enjoy it.
02:17What do you think it is that's just so special about the place?
02:20I think a lot of it is about love.
02:23That we just love whoever walks through the door.
02:27And care for them and we want to help them to be a better them and we are very accepting.
02:36It doesn't matter what beliefs anybody has, although it's held in our church building,
02:41it's not a religious group, it's just a group where anybody can come, no matter what their
02:48faith or...
02:49It's open for everybody really.
02:50And it doesn't matter whether you've got lots of money or no money, you're still really
02:54welcome, yeah.