Yellow and Blue in Wrexham continues to grow

Yellow and Blue (YaB) has become an important part of the community and the development of the hub has left people with a "family" according to staff at the hub.

YaB has been developing the hub in stages and has expanded further into the unit on Henblas street.

Stage One was the front of the shop, before they knocked down a wall to make the café larger and give it more space. Stage Two was the development of this now doubled space.

In a recent Facebook post, they announced that they have nearly completed the heart of the town room which was the final bit of Stage Two.

Beth Klingenberg, the hospitality lead and volunteer coordinator said that the hub has been her happy place and is proud of how far it has come.

She explained the reason behind YaB and why Pete Humphreys, the founder of YaB, decided to start it back in 2017.

She said: "Pete lost one of his best friends to bowel cancer at 31 years of age and her favourite colour was yellow and her favourite flower was the sunflower.

"Pete then lost his dad, my father-in-law, and it was the same bowel cancer. They were five months apart so, that's the blue, that's where the name Yellow and Blue comes from. It's their legacy really for what we do.

"We offer so much support for everybody, we've got mental health we've got mother and toddler and we help people in recovery. We open every Wednesday night, and we help the homeless.

"We do a Pay It Forward scheme here, so people can pay forward a coffee, a hot drink or food so then we give it to someone in need.

"We had a good turn out on Christmas Day because we had customers paying forward for Christmas meals."

The tree of Knowledge at the hub

Kate Williams, who works at YaB explained what the hub has meant for her.

She said: "It's exciting for me because I've been through my own mental health issues and so for me to be able to spin my mental health around and give back to the community, that's all I've wanted to do.

"We have a thing in Yellow and Blue about having the right 'Why' and its about helping people and supporting people and its about not expecting anything back from it."

"I've had mental health issues myself and it's a happy place, and we support ourselves as staff. It's just a big family here and everybody that's here, we all love being here.

"It's a safe space and happy place for people."

A donated piano next to a picture of Pete Humphrey's late father

Both Beth and Kate are in university doing mental health degrees, with the hope of using what they have learnt at YaB.

The hub also wants to expand further in the future, having seen interest outside of Wrexham from people in Liverpool, and even London.