PIP Review, 2018 – 2021

Looking back on 2018 we can truly say we’ve had a blast!!! ….. and have achieved more than we ever thought possible. We have continued with our litter picks in Pill and have also managed to join forces and complete 5 river bank litter picks.

Pride In Pill’s Ups & Downs

We have worked with Newport City Council’s environmental team and successfully had the fence reconstructed under George Street Bridge to stop drug use. We collected 1,500 needles in 1 hit and this weekend only managed to find 21….. #community

We have run 3 not for profit coach trips
We have cut hair for the homeless with the support of local barber’s
We have attended the over 50s event at Newport Centre.
We successfully opened our pop up hub which ran for the duration of our biggest campaign #WrapUpNewport. This would not have been possible without the generosity and kindness shown by the people of the City of Newport and we are sincerely thankful to everyone who hosted a donation box or donated a coat … 5432 in total .
We successfully launched our food bank bin and were overjoyed to donate these items to our local food bank.
Our newest venture is direct donations to our city’s homeless community where we have been going out building trust and giving out hot drinks and food, this is something we hope will continue to grow in 2019.
These are just a few of the events we have run in 2018.
We would also like to thank this years sponsor’s Gwent Police, Newport City Homes, United Living, Admiral, Charter Housing and St Woolos Rotary Club.
We are also thankful for our Award for Pride in Gwent, Environmental Category 2018 and our nomination for The National Diversity Award 2018.

As 2019 comes to a close, we just want to share our fantastic year of volunteering with all our supporters. This year has seen friendships grow and our group go from strength to strength. We have completed 49 litter picks and 60 Supporting The Homeless food runs. We have arranged 2 community coach trips and our November Christmas Toy Appeal for the RGH was a great success. We were awarded an Aviva Community Award, Force Award from Gwent Constabulary, South Wales Argus Pride of Gwent – Community Hero Award, Coleg Gwent Community Engagement Award and nominated for a National Diversity Award. We have collected tons on rubbish off our streets and handed out 1,427 meal tickets and 134 hair cut tickets through our Supporting The Homeless Project.

We have gained links with local businesses and our bond with Stow Park Church Food Bank has seen friendships flourish. However it’s not all about facts and figures, its about people from all walks of life working together. It’s about community- getting out and about keeping your mind active and having common goals bringing community together, being accepted and understood, having a voice.

PIP will continue to work tirelessly to build community spirit across our city

We love what we do and our volunteers character and personalities makes our group shine.
I would like to give special thanks to our Chairman Paul and to all our amazing volunteers who volunteer for PIP along side full-time jobs and family commitments.

2020 started off so well. PIP had so many plans. Community trips, Elvis night, Christmas party and pantomime a list of planned litter picks and our usual Sunday night homeless runs. Sadly, back in March after volunteering at Newport half marathon the world turned upside down and as we all know Covid 19 took over all our lives. PIP look the difficult decision to scale back its events. Volunteers suddenly needed to shield or care for loved ones. Our Chairman Paul Murphy has continued to support the community throughout the pandemic with a small group of volunteers and his commitment to PIP is commendable
Even with restrictions and following Covid guidelines PIP has managed to take food donations from Sainsbury’s in Friars Walk nearly every evening since March. We have also had donations from M&S, WHSmith, Lidl, Aldi, Gwent Police, Asda, Superdrug, Friars Walk, Kingsway Centre and Starbucks. We continue to pick up 2 Greggs end of day food contracts. Huge thanks go to Harrogate Water and Just Love Food Company.
PIP continued to cut hair at Stow Park Church with Coleg Gwent students until March and have managed to support their food bank.
We have made connections with In2Change and worked with NCC rough sleeper coordinator we even had tea with The Mayor ….. we have been supported by some fantastic local businesses once again through our meal voucher scheme including Le pub, Hatti, Lahore, Falafilo Island and many more. We are truly grateful especially with so many local businesses struggling to survive.
PIP has managed to organise many litterpicks along side Steve Preddy when permitted and have collected litter from

The Tansporter Bridge 400 bags
Monkey Island 150 bags
East side 250 bags
West side 700 bags
Old Sainsbury’s site 400 bags
Pill 375 bags
City Centre 130 bags
A grand effort by dedicated volunteers

2020 has been a strange and difficult year for us all. PIP would like to send our deepest sympathy to those who have lost loved ones this year Here’s hoping 2021 will be the year we all look out for each other ….together yet apart stay safe!

PIP Review 2021

We wanted to reflect on our year and say a huge thank you to all our supporters and volunteers past and present for their kindness and compassion. You really are the most selfless, generous and caring people. Our volunteers have worked tirelessly since PIP was founded in 2014.

PIP started the year with what we are famous for- litterpicking! We continued to carry out our community picks throughout the year even in difficult circumstances. We collected around 4.500 black bags of rubbish off our streets which equates to a staggering 4.5 tonnes!!

Our Supporting the Homeless Project has kept our volunteers busy. With thanks to Sainsburys, Kingsway Centre end of day food contract. This has allowed us to go out every evening. Also our long standing agreement with Greggs and our local restaurants and takeaways supporting the PIP meal voucher scheme on Sunday evening’s. We have given out 2000s of snacks and drinks this year.
Alongside this we sign-post to other agencies, helping people to get off the streets. We have also been able to help our community hostels and looked after children. We distributed warm dry clothing, tents, sleeping bags and toiletries when needed.

Massive thanks must go to The Ashley Family Foundation for your generosity in providing us with a much needed grant.

We have now moved into our new PIP Headquarters which has proved to be invaluable during our December Toy Project. This saw PIP volunteers collect, wrap and distrubite with the help of Newport Transport, 1,400 brand new toys to children in South East Wales hospitals during the festive season. Absolutely astonishing!!

This would not have been possible without the kindness of local businesses friends, family and of course the amazing people of Newport. Our community never fails to amaze us !! We are so grateful to you all.
The list of businesses that support us is growing every year and your generosity and good will in providing us with much needed support which is gratefully appreciated. We look forward to the New Year and hope to continue our good work. Fingers crossed that things will once again be a little more normal and we can re-introduce our community coach trips.