Our History

Our story began during 2020 during shifting levels of Covid restrictions. A small group of service users engaging with Taith, would meet regularly on Zoom during stay at home times until restrictions were eased in May of 2021. Then we would visit various outdoor locations including Bute Park. Our group facilitator suggested that one of our monthly outdoor activities for Bute park could be a boule ‘chuck about’, based on the French game of Petanque, played with steel balls.

This was enjoyed so much by us all; it was decided we would make it a regular monthly thing. As the summer progressed, the much talked about ‘alliance’ of service providers taking over service provision was imminent. Unfortunately, during this time service users were not being kept ‘in the loop’ and some service provision was suspended leading up to the transition and for a few weeks following. A lot of us were concerned and distressed; we had no idea what would happen to us, how our support would look going forward and when it would re-start. No one knew if they would be getting a new keyworker, when one-to-ones and group sessions would re-start and would they be different, how would they look so on and so forth.

This uncertainty, lasting for around six to eight weeks, led to a lot of instability and worry amongst us. We came up with a solution to help minimise the impact by agreeing to meet at the park once a week, every week to play boule. We would still meet even if the weather was too wet to play, it was still good to get out for a meet up, a cuppa and a chat. This gave us some consistency, we were able to maintain our social connections, offer opportunities for peer-support, get out for some gentle exercise in the fresh air and to have some fun.

This small informal and completely independent group soon became known as the Phoenix Heroes with Cardiff & Vale Drug & Alcohol Services (CAVDAS) declaring their support in the autumn of 2021. During the wetter and colder winter months, with this CAVDAS support, we took refuge at St Andrew’s Place for some fun and gently competitive indoor games and activities.

Not unlike the ever evolving, ever changing immortal phoenix itself, it was reborn as Phoenix Heroes Activities Cymru CIC, a non-profit community interest company in late October 2023.