Bud Harper has been the Centre Manager of Cathays Community Centre for the past ten years. During that time, he has helped to transform the Community Centre into a thriving and financially sustainable charity, now employing over 100 staff members. We spoke with Bud to reflect on his early days at the centre and to explore what he believes have been the most significant changes over the years.
Can you take yourself back to your first day at Cathays Community Centre? What do you remember most about that time?
Eleven years ago, I was working for the council’s youth service, running a young people’s music studio. At the time, the council was closing many youth centres, and our studio was among those set to shut. We tried everything to save it, even exploring the idea of setting it up as an independent charity. We were in discussions with the council about whether they would let us keep the equipment and offer some form of ongoing support.
I knew Cathays well and they were having similar problems as the Council were withdrawing funding from the Centre and the Charity was having to go it alone!, Interestingly, I regarded Cathays as my rival back then — almost our enemies! (Bud laughs). We used to compete in ‘Battle of the Bands’ events between youth centres, and it was usually either us or Cathays who came out on top.
I knew the previous centre manager, Jon Wilson, and I also knew some of the young people who attended Cathays, people like Joel, Rob, and Rafi (who all ended up working here). I began visiting Jon to see whether we would be happy for me to relocate our music project to Cathays. He was very supportive, but during those conversations he mentioned that he was leaving his role. He told me there was a vacancy coming up for an administrative position at the centre. Since I was facing redundancy anyway, I decided to apply.
So you decided to apply for the job. Did it go smoothly?
The job I initially applied for was only 15 hours a week, doing admin work. Amelia (who still works with us as a freelancer) was the one carrying out the interviews. Amelia was more or less running the day to daty at the centre because Jon had been on leave. At the interview there was also a lovely woman called Jo, who had previously been the admin person. At the time, there didn’t seem to be many trustees involved.
During the interview, I mostly talked about how much I had always liked Cathays Community Centre. I first came here when I was about 16. My older brother had been involved at the SWICA MAS Carnival that used the Community Centre as it’s base camp for two weeks of the summer. The Carnival would march in procession from the Centre into ‘Town’ on the day of the Carnival all in amazing costumes and drumming. My brother persuaded me to come along and it was one of the first big experiences as a young man!. There were lots of people from different backgrounds including from the Caribbean, and it was such a great experience. I remember thinking, wow, this place is amazing. I took part for about three years in a row, every summer, so I always had really good memories of Cathays.
But my enthusiasm didn’t get me the job, or at least, not at first. It took a long time for them to get back to me, and in fact they had offered the role to someone else. That person later changed their mind, so they offered it to me instead. There was no one else to give it to. I didn’t know any of this at the time and only found out later that I hadn’t been their first choice!
Ohoo! What a story! What were your first impressions once you started working there?
Before he left, Jon showed me around, but the only thing he actually showed me was how to use the coffee machine (laughs). That was my entire onboarding.
I then started in June 2015 , and I remember it clearly because I’d just had a knee operation. It was all a bit chaotic. I turned up on crutches with a big brace on my knee, which made it a bit of a funny start. There were very few staff members back then, In my first week, I remember working with Joel, Jon O’Shea, Amelia, Angharad and Debbie (who were already here) trying to learn the ropes, but there were very quickly some memorable moments.
On my second day, someone from the council turned up to inspect the electrics! The main power supply was housed in a cupboard that was completely wooden, and when the electrician saw it, he said, “That’s so dangerous! You’ve got to close the centre and get it fixed immediately.” So that was only my second day. There was a funeral party booked for the weekend. I had to ring them and say that it might not be able to go ahead. They were obviously very upset, especially as people were travelling down from Birmingham. Luckily, we managed to get the electrics fixed and everything made safe by Friday, and I managed to sort it all out so the event could go ahead in the end.
Lots of other things were chaotic too. In the youth club, there was loads of paperwork and furniture piled up behind the pool table and the whole place was incredibly messy. I think Jon Wilson had moved house and a lot of his belongings were stored at the centre. I remember thinking, “Oh God, how are we supposed to hire out these rooms?” Everything was just stacked in corners.
The only thing that was really working well was the Inclusive Youth Provisions that Debbie ran, I remember thinking that I should just do as much as i could to support Debbie as you could see how brilliant she was.
The Practice Rooms were open but Joel would have to come over from Lidl where he was working to open up for the bands!
What did the centre look like?
It was very different from how it looks today. As I said, it was very, very messy. All the rooms looked a bit old and tired. The Bingo Hall wasn’t open at all and had been left derelict.
You had to walk through the main hall to get to the Practice Rooms which was strange for people who had booked out the hall. The Practice rooms were dilapidated and had a big old boiler in them and a walk-in cupboard that you couldnt get in as the roof had fallen down.
There was a private recording studio upstairs, and the café was only open maybe once or twice a week and hardly anyone came in. It didnt have the front doors back then! The kitchen was literally empty as all the units had been ripped out, i eventually found them on the balcony and put them back in!
The Garden looked very different, no Yurt, Pergola or Community Fridge!
In some ways, it was a great place to start working because there was so much to do and the centre clearly needed new energy. We’ve done so much building work over the past ten years, it’s crazy.
What do you think have been the most significant moments for you in terms of your career?
There wasn’t a lot of structure to the Centre at the time I started and it was supposed to be being run by a committee, but who exactly was the committee? No-one knew! After about a year I complained to the board that there was no management structure and that I felt I was effectively running the place, and they then agreed to take me on as Manager.
At the start I kept thinking that we needed to do something with the building because it wasn’t generating enough income. We focused on making it clean and tidy and on making it look professional. We believed that if the building looked nice, loved, and cared for, people would want to come.
One thing I’m really proud of is that we tried to identify what was needed to run it properly. One of the big changes was introducing duty managers. I remember thinking we needed someone on site at all times and responsible, checking the building, and making sure everything was running smoothly. It’s now such a fundamental part of the centre. I used to do a lot of duty management myself then; I was often at the front desk, working from there. My shift away from that in hindsight has been quite significant for me.
We offered Joel more hours so he could leave his job at Lidl, which was a big moment for us. But we couldn’t have Joel and me doing everything on our own, we were open 9am-11pm 7 days a week and we needed more help. We weren’t getting paid for most of the hours we did for those first few years, So We brought a youth member Rafi in as a duty manager when he was only 17. My attitude was very much, “Who’s here? Who’s interested? Let’s go and do things.” I was also lucky because I’d worked at a similar centre years before, so I was able to bring volunteers over from there. That’s when we really started to build a team, something I’m very proud of.
I knew a lot of young people and musicians, so I brought many of them over too. One young person Josh, I had known, started running the café full time. Also Tom who I had known previously as a volunteer took on the finances. He didn’t have a background in finance, but he was eager and bright, and he learned quickly which helped us out massively. Suddenly there was a lot of energy in the place and we also had people like Fran and Mia running Youthclubs who had originally come on student/work placements with us.
You’ve worked with many people. Would you like to highlight some who have been particularly important over the years?
Joel, Debbie and Jon O’Shea have been the only people here longer than me. They’ve been incredible. Whatever was needed, they were always there, and I think their love of the place has set an example for everyone else who has followed. I’m under no illusion that there was a Cathays Community Centre before me. But I came in at the time of a difficult transition for the Centre and that gave me an opportunity.
I mentioned some of the others earlier who started the ball rolling for me in helping create the team and structure that is more recognisable today. When I look at those green shoots, you can see how they paved the way later for successful stable projects like Day Provision and Impact which Hannah, Sarah and their teams have so amazingly developed. There’s too many other people to mention to be honest. But I’d like to think that everyone knows how grateful I am to them for the amount of dedication, love and hard work they have put in.
Has there been anything that’s gone completely wrong over the years?
It’s been a big learning curve. And it’s the mistakes you make that you hopefully learn from.There was a lot I needed to understand very quickly here: health and safety, finance, HR, employment law, insurance, safeguarding.
Then there was Covid, which was extremely challenging. It was a strange period for everyone. All of a sudden, services had to move online. We’re a community centre, and suddenly we had to close. What was going to happen? The first few months of Covid were stressful!
There have been some difficult situations. We’ve had young people go missing and been in accidents.etc. Staff and members have also had some tough times and those moments stay with you.
How do you imagine the centre in a few years’ time?
It’s an easy question to answer, in a way… I don’t know. And that’s the beauty of it.
Looking back, I was in the right place at the right time. There was an opportunity to do something, and really it’s up to everyone else now to have that opportunity to shape it. Rhys and the staff now have an exciting new future to create!
…That’s something you reflect on. I started with chaos, and it’s been one of the most enjoyable parts of the job trying to build from there. The creativity in affecting change is hugely motivating, and it’s probably one of the reasons I’ve decided to leave as it’s become more difficult to maintain that level of creativity or feel that I’m making such a difference anymore!
When I think about volunteers, and why do people volunteer? I think they want to make a difference to the world and see a tangible outcome from their effort . It’s rewarding to see the change that you can have on other people or things.
Now, the centre is someone else’s baby.
What are you going to be doing next?
Honestly, I don’t know yet. I’ll see what the journey brings. 🙂
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