Salt of the Earth: Meet Victoria Smith-Dunn, community champion, in Oatlands, Harrogate

Often the person they help benefits so much more than the person who offers the act of kindness.

Then there are those people who impact a large number of lives with what they do.

They become involved in community endeavours and champion causes which defeat social isolation and ensure both social and mental wellbeing for those around them.

This week's Salt of the Earth is one such person.

Victoria Smith-Dunn, 47, is finding new and different ways to fight social isolation in the Oatlands area of Harrogate.

To say that Victoria possesses community spirit in abundance is an understatement. She is involved in a number of projects aimed primarily (but not exclusively) at helping young people and new mums.

She set up Oatland’s Community Group in 2016 with the intention of organising social events to tackle isolation.

She then went on to create Tuki cafe. A community cafe on the south side of Harrogate for people who struggled to get into town. The cafe is held in St Mark's church and is run by youths aged from 8-16. They are supported by Victoria and a trustee.

Victoria said: “The cafe was set up to cross the generation gap while empowering young people to make a difference and gain work experience.

“The cafe does generate an income and we do make a profit that is donated to local charities.

“The WI run stalls, our kids make cake, the value in cross generation socialisation beats a lot of other activities.”

Most recently Vic helped to set up “A seat at our table.” She said: “ Lots of people get together to cook Sunday Roast once a month. There are 40 people at any one time on a rota and we try to make sure everyone can come at least twice a year. Volunteers cook all the food. There is no charge but people can donate.”

Victoria is chair of Oatlands Community Group, she also spent time as the chair of Oatland school PTFA and is involved with Oatland’s pre-school and community centre charity.

In 2016 she set up and ran Ready Steady Mums - a walking group on a Friday morning to build social links for new mothers.

Victoria said: “I realised that there were massive gaps in the community where people needed opportunities to meet people socially.

“I noticed that a lot of breakdown in communication comes from social media

“People put out the very best version of themselves, sharing a version of themselves that is very hard to live up to.

“I also saw a lot of unkind behaviour online. People were happy to voice their opinion which was hurtful.

“I got my husband, Chris, to build me a private members social media page where people pay £1pw to encourage positive, respectful, supportive behaviour.

Victoria launched My Lifepool Harrogate in August 2017.

She said: “Nobody wants to pay to be unkind. I want to be able to say thank you very much but I don’t want your £1. The goal is not to raise money but to provide social opportunity.”

“My Lifepool is there for everyone. It improves social connection, builds community, supports local.

“I didn’t want kindness to cost £1 a week so I spoke to local businesses and asked them to be partners.

“Everybody has a virtualID that they can show at 180 local businesses and get discounts on items such as dinner, coffee, clothes, appliance fitting.

“By the end of the month you save way more than you pay to be a member.

“I also chair Maternity Voices Partnership. It’s a maternal organisation that works really closely with midwives to provide feedback from the community about the service they offer.

Victoria has also spearheaded the response to the coronavirus crisis via the Oatlands Community Group. She said: “Just before lockdown I could see it was coming and I knew how many people were going to be isolated so I asked Chris to build a system referral by service match someone in need with a suitable volunteer.

“It’s like being helped not by a stranger but by a neighbour, It’s helping to build a much more cohesive stronger community.”

My Lifepool has been so effective that Victoria has been approached by a social enterprise in York who are now looking at implementing the scheme in the city.

Lizzie Fee, 36 said of Victoria: “She’s a neighbour who lives on the next road. She always wants to help everybody, young, old, new mums.

“She always stops for a chat when she can and organises things to bring people together.

“She makes the community stronger, she’s genuinely lovely.

“You feel like you can call her if ever you need anything.

“If you’re having a bad day she’s always got some kind words to say.”

Laura Macdonald, 40, said: "“She’s one of the most philanthropic people I know.

“She’s the founder of Oatlands Community and raises £1000s for charity.

“During Covid she arranged to lend out a megaphone and bingo cards for people to play in the streets

“She also set up Maternity Voices Partnership.. It’s like a friends of hospital group for the maternity ward.

“It provides feedback from new mothers so the maternity ward can keep on improving

“My own experience was used to provide feedback and debriefed midwives and used as a learning experience.”

“Victoria has thrown everything into that, then set up My Lifepool, she’s really keen on bringing people together. She has two kids of her own, she throws everything in, she’s amazing.

“I’ve only been living here for five years, but she’s made a big difference to my experience of living in Harrogate.”

“It’s not only mummy groups she runs as part of My Lifepool, she also set up a working mums group. She built the group for everyone.

“It’s hard to believe there is only one person setting this up. It’s just her with a plan to bring the community together.”