Plans to transform town centre shop into community hub gather pace
Rother District Council purchased the former Edinburgh Woollen Mill in Devonshire Road, Bexhill, in 2024 using money awarded by the then Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.
The council is now working with Rother Voluntary Action (RVA) to turn the idea into a reality, through this Levelling Up grant, to renovate the building for the benefit of voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations.
Councillor Christine Bayliss, Rother District Council's portfolio holder for regeneration and economic development, who has driven the project, said: "I am so excited to see the plans for the Bexhill community hub moving forward.
"This is a real win-win for the town, helping our residents to access key services in a central place and contributing to the regeneration of Devonshire Road."
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The new hub will make essential services and support much more accessible for all the residents of Bexhill and wider Rother area.
It will also be used as a co-working space with the voluntary and community partners such as Citizens Advice 1066.
Kim Richards, RVA chief executive, said: "We are thrilled to receive this funding to help support the groups we work with.
"We are really looking forward to working with the hub partners to develop a valuable and useful new resource for the Rother voluntary sector.
"This is great news for everyone in Rother and the wider community."
Residents and community groups will have opportunities to engage with RVA to help shape what they want to see in the hub through workshops and events to be held later this year.
Details for these will be shared on RVA's social media and www.rva.uk.com.
The creation of the hub has been a partnership between RDC and RVA with other partners and came out of the Anti-Poverty Strategy.
There is a lot of work still to do, but over the next year, residents and visitors to the town will be able to see its progress.
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They quickly formed a bond, mapping dreams for the summer on their communal white board. "We would plan out our all events," Mannby said. "And we'd show up in flocks ... It's really cool when you walk into a room and see a sea of men and then there's group of eight girls. We like to say we fix a ratio wherever we go." Poole found the house through connections from a previous work experience. She wanted to be around other women who can talk at the dinner table about things like honing agentic systems, building secure stablecoin wallets and yes, Taylor Swift. "I wanted to go deeper," Poole said of why she applied. "To have a community of dreamers, not just supporters, and a place I could really work 24/7. It's nice to do that in a place that feels fun as well." Poole works to music at 2X speed reverbed, an indication the hustle isn't waning. But she also spent the weekend at a San Francisco Giants game and giggled through midnight pre-Demo Day delirium. "That energy is palpable and helps prevent burnout for me," Poole said. FoundHer House gives Poole balance and "femininity," she said. "It feels like we're all helping each other," she said. "Every conversation, I'm helping move the boat an inch forward and everyone's rowing." Influencers meet entrepreneurs The women living in FoundHer House are the latest in a wave of entrepreneurs leaning on influencer tactics to extend their reach. The house built on members' existing followings. Fatima Hussain, 19, runs @ an Instagram guide to college with over 100,000 followers. Mannby has nearly 60,000 Instagram followers personally and her company, Treffa, has over 30,000. Their roommates' high engagement inspired Safronov-Yamamoto and fellow resident Chloe Hughes, 21, to start creator profiles, too. Brand partnerships in the form of yacht parties, ping-pong tournaments and Nobu dinners in New York City hosted by Rho, a business bank that supports FoundHer House, have provided financial support. "Our thinking was there's so many women who haven't moved to SF, who haven't taken that leap," Mannby said. "But the more we share our stories and our lives, the more it inspires people to take the leap themselves." With their rising profiles has come some judgement, Safronov-Yamamoto said: "We have had our fair share of hate comments on our personal social media accounts ... They're doubting or work or doubting our abilities." But social media helps them raise awareness that tech jobs exist for young women, Poole said. "We want to give women a platform to come to SF, get to know the tech scene and be in a place they can reach out because they know they exist and feel confident enough to do that," Poole said. "That supersedes these other ripple effects going on." It's working. 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"It feels like there's always someone there to lift you up, especially in a space that's so risky," Poole said. "It's that extra feeling of someone has my back always."
