This interview is part of our Valleys Voices Heritage Project, where we spoke to staff (past and present), volunteers and community members about their experiences with Valleys Kids over our rich, almost 50 year history.

Debra first became involved with Valleys Kids in 1986, starting as a volunteer after attending a baby group with her sister. She supported school trips and sessions before joining a government employment scheme that suited her as a single mum. After the scheme ended, she continued volunteering until being employed as a play worker in 1992.

She valued Valleys Kids for its flexibility, friendliness, and sense of community. It supported her personal and professional growth—most notably enabling her to complete a degree at age 40. Over the years, she also helped others develop in the same way she had been supported.

Debra believes Valleys Kids is vital to the communities it serves. It provides trusted, accessible support across all ages, often acting as a “significant adult” for children when school or home life is difficult. She highlighted large-scale outreach projects across RCT, including play vans and double-decker play buses that brought play opportunities to highly deprived areas with no community buildings. These projects offered creative, child-led play and inspired many future teachers and staff.

Her favourite memories include staff training days full of laughter and creativity, and large all-centre events like the Little Bryn Gwyn play day, where staff and children came together to create something “magical.”

Debra sees Valleys Kids as a dynamic organisation, able to adapt to changing community needs. She is also proud of the creation of Penny Farthings, the coffee shop developed after the sale of the old Penygraig library. Now based in Soar, it has become a warm community hub offering volunteering, work experience, and groups for all ages—helping to re-energise the entire building.

Overall, Debra describes Valleys Kids as flexible, supportive, creative, and essential—both to her own life and to the lives of countless people in the community.