"Let everyone know how lucky they are to have you!" was the message delivered to the Flavel community arts and education centre recently by visitors from Crediton.
Three officers from Crediton came to the Flavel
for a fact-finding session last week. They represented a group hoping to create
a similar facility to the Flavel Centre in Crediton, and were led by Arts
Centre Director, Rosemary Stephenson; they met with David Chapman (Flavel Trust
Chair) and Christine Freeman (Flavel Treasurer).
The visitors had done their homework, and had
collected facts and figures from five other similar venues, but the Flavel was
top of their poll and the model they wished to imitate. So, the Flavel is not
only a fantastic asset to Dartmouth, but it is also model that other Devon
towns aspire to and hope to emulate.
"To
my certain knowledge, this is the sixth Devon town to send a group to learn
from the Flavel experience," said David
Chapman. "Every town in Devon seems to
want a Flavel! The key factors they like are the independent charitable trust,
which belongs directly to the people of Dartmouth and surrounding villages; the
purpose-built centre; the financial model ---and, of course, our great
volunteers! Centres like those in
Honiton and Teignmouth and many more owe a good deal to information gleaned
from our present general manager, Sid Davies, and from former and present staff
and trustees," he said.
The Crediton group-leader, Rosemary Stephenson,
said they will continue to keep in touch with the Flavel, as they develop their
scheme. "It was a really useful and
inspiring visit," she said. "There
are so many lessons to be learnt from how you created and run your very
successful centre."
