Park Life Heavitree is a community charity (no. 1172365) based in and around Heavitree Pleasure Ground, Exeter. We have the broad vision to help create a safe, welcoming and supportive place where people can come together and be part of a thriving community. We have been working on grass roots, volunteer led community development here since 2010. We won the Pride of Exeter Community Group of the Year Award in 2015 and The Prince of Wales Award for Community Work was presented to us by Lady Arran at the Devon County Show in 2016.
We have a team of trustees, a board of directors for the cafe and up to 70 active volunteers working on our aims of:
* Reducing social isolation
* Improving physical health and mental health and wellbeing
* Creating a safer, stronger and more active community
We help to do this in a variety of ways including regular Events in the Park – eg. Mother’s Day, Easter Egg Hunt, The Big Picnic, Heavitree Fun Day, Community Carols etc. We offer a ‘Meal Share’ scheme for people in need and a Cooking / Lunch club with neighbours. Facilitating and promoting sport and leisure activities such as Junior Park Run, Tennis For Free Coaching, Heavitree Running Club, Heavitree Volleyball, Park Yoga Heavitree etc all help to provide opportunities to exercise with others. We are active members of city wide groups such as the Exeter Green Space Network. Over the last few years we have delivered grant funded activities like our Health and Wellbeing project around food and our current Get Active Exeter programme. During the Coronavirus Pandemic we have been actively supporting our community through prescription and well being box deliveries.
In October 2021 we completed work on the cafe and community hub facility in the park to help us deliver further services and activities and better meet our aims.
The cafe opened in November 2021 and the hireable Hub space is now available to book. The hub is 75m2 with additional kitchenette if required. There is shared use of the toilet facilities and access to the cafe and secluded outside space within the park for use by Hub users. The price is £18 per hour and bookings can be made by visiting the Hub page.
