Make Good Things Happen

Welcome To Be Buckfastleigh

Slide 1
This Week's Newsletter

Activities and information for 26 April 2024

Details HERE.

Slide 1
Life At Riverford - What Will You Grow Into?

Information about the forthcoming open day, and a new video about working at Riverford.

Details HERE.

Slide 1
Huge Savings to be made at the Social Supermarket

For a suggested £3.50 donation, you could get a shopping list like this at the Social Supermarket.

More details HERE .

Slide 2
Meet Emma and make new friends at Talkative Tuesdays

Weekly chat and snacks at the Living Room

More details here.

Slide 2
A Warm Welcome on Wednesdays

A free weekly session to try crafts, and to meet folks.

Details HERE.

Slide 2
Goodbye to Games Night. What next?

More details HERE.

Slide 2
Many thanks to Teign Housing for their recent support

More details HERE.

Slide 2
Swallow, Swift or Housemartin?! Our Be Wild guides can help...

More details HERE.

previous arrowprevious arrow
next arrownext arrow

Who we are

Be Buckfastleigh is a Community Interest Company set up to tackle health, social and economic inequalities in Buckfastleigh and other small rural places. In 2023 we changed our name to Better Places to reflect the work we do across a cluster of communities across south Devon. We aim to  make thriving and inclusive communities for everyone, especially those in most need of support. 

Our team is:


Bekki Erikson – programme delivery manager;

Emma Blackmore – activity co-ordination and delivery Buckfastleigh;

Rachel Bastyan – project co-ordination and delivery;

Claire Allford – Bridgetown Alive project delivery;

Lisa Robillard – Bovey Help Hub project delivery.


Our Directors are Dr. Su Maddock (Chair), Ed Whitelaw and Pam Barrett.

What We Do

We provide a range of free activities, services and support which connect people to each other, to their community, and to nature and the environment. We run Little Lambs early years, Hello Summer, Be Wild, Be Active, the Buckfastleigh Social Supermarket, Saturday Socials, SEN Parents Carers Cafe and a whole host of projects across Buckfastleigh, Bridgetown, Bovey Tracey, and in Princetown and South Brent too.

We also help upskill other local groups with a range of advice, such as choosing the right organisational structure, applying for grants, using social media, safeguarding and other key governance matters

Our rural communities struggle to access their share of services and support provided by government, national and regional organisations and the charity sector. We help bridge that gap by creating organisational capacity to enable rural people to access things like Household Support Grant and Holiday Activity and Food funding, COVID vaccination clinics, energy efficiency advice, training and skills, input into consultations etc. We also use our voice to develop a better understanding of issues affecting rural communities and identify opportunities for developing better and fairer approaches.
We make good things happen!

Sign Up For News & Events

Don’t miss a thing: find out about our community projects straight to your inbox! We promise not to bombard you with messages and you can unsubscribe anytime.

Please have a look at the film below to see some of the ways we are trying to make things better!