Well, it’s been fantastic this week to get away from Westminster and spend much more time in the constituency as the Parliamentary recess begins.
As many constituents will know, over the past few years I’ve organised a series of summer lunch clubs to prevent kids who would otherwise have relied on free school meals from going hungry over the school holidays. We’ve got off to a great start this year but the problem of holiday hunger is clearly getting worse. I’ll be posting a twice-weekly summer lunch clubs diary to keep you up-to-date with my work on this alongside our brilliant partner organisations. You can find my first entry here. Within my first diary entry, you can also find details of the food items we’re still looking for to support our work throughout the summer. All donations will be gratefully received and I know the kids really do appreciate it.
Earlier this week, I was delighted to visit the Wales Centre for Advanced Batched Manufacture (CBM). CBM is an industry-focussed advanced research, new product development and batch manufacturing facility. They also form a key part of the University of Wales Trinity Saint David’s SA1 Waterfront development. It was great to meet the team and learn more about the exciting work they’re doing in our city. It’s great to see such skilled jobs and innovation coming to Swansea and I hope that their work continues to expand into the future.
On Thursday, it was great to visit Include, a not-for-profit organisation that has been providing free independent community support to offenders for the past 10 years. Many constituents will know that I regularly campaign on issues around our criminal justice system and particularly on rehabilitation. I really enjoyed visiting the Include Hub which is run by ex-offenders, for ex-offenders, their families and the wider community. It was clear that the lived experiences which former offenders share with others were really having a positive impact and this is a really good example of how we can help reduce reoffending in the twenty-first century. We must move away from the “throw a way the key” mentality and focus much more upon what we can do to improve people’s lives when they leave prison. A huge thank you to the team for having me pop by this week – it was an absolute pleasure to meet you all.
Lastly, after a busy advice surgery earlier today I’m heading off to Llanelli Pride this weekend in the sunshine.
As always, please do get in touch with me if you have any issues or concerns to raise with me as your local MP. I hope you all have a lovely weekend!
