Monday 27th April 2026, Cherwell Collective CIC attended the Community hubs event at Makespace, Didcot, where we joined 8 other local community hubs and special visitors to talk about the work that we do at Cherwell Collective and the future of community hubs within Oxfordshire.

Over the course of the last few months, these community hubs have been meeting in facilitated sessions to discuss challenges and potential solutions for our communities across the county. 

Cherwell Collective CIC team at the event

Joined by my colleague, Migle Didzgalvyte, we spoke with attendees about the various projects that come under Cherwell Collective (Cherwell Larder, Climatarian Kitchen, Harvest@home, Oxford party library, and WISH) as well as the great work that our team and volunteers are doing on the Good Waste Charter, the Sustainable Fashion Show, and our annual WISH survey.

Attendees were blown away by the level of impact that we’ve been able to have on the community and the great services that we offer, and we were even able to engage them in a short survey on waste, identifying which items they found more challenging to recycle. We had a varied response with challenges in recycling fabric, electrical items, food wrappings, aerosols, and polystyrene.

Cherwell Collective were also one of the organisations that helped provide catering for the event, with lovely plant-based canapés from our Climatarian Kitchen. We provided hummus and sumac on lentil crisps, beetroot tartlets, and our house-made vegan banana peel bacon, lettuce, and tomato mini sandwiches. Our vegan BBLT’s are always a hit at these sorts of events, as people can taste what is possible with surplus, innovation, and dedication to reducing the carbon cost of our diets. 

Once the meeting was underway, we were welcomed by Kay and Emma, who introduced the event and project. Next we heard Martin Reeves, Chief Exec of Oxfordshire County Council, talk about how important community hubs are and why they are valued. He invited everyone to share our struggles as community hubs, so he could take action and encourage other councillors to work together.

Martin Reeves, talking about the positive impact of community hubs

Following on from Martin’s inspiring speech where he stressed what great work local community hubs do, we heard from Steph and Makena about the challenges that community hubs face, how they have a positive impact on our communities, and what their research to date has shown. 

Cherwell Collective not only facilitates a local community hub at WISH in Kidlington, but also leads a countywide partnership. The WISH Partnership increases connection to others and connectedness to nature, which has been found to improve well-being and to have a massive impact on community wealth building. We have been sharing our learnings from leading these innovative projects with members of the council over the last few years. 

Finally, we heard from Shaheen Warren from Power to Change who spoke about the national picture for community hubs, before a closing speech from Councillor Liz Leffman.

More information on the Community Hub Alliance will be available later in the year. 

In the meantime there are many ways in which you can get involved with the great work that we do here at Cherwell Collective, such as attending our upcoming engagement sessions on waste, visiting our Climatarian Cafe that’s open 5 days a week, or helping us learn by completing our WISH Survey.