Guernsey group supports people in life transition

Thursday, 2 July 2026 12:55

By Euan Mahy

Frankie the dog, Sonia Mills and Marc Winn.

New Beginnings has helped 150 people to change careers, start a business or deal with a life crisis.

For the past two years, Marc Winn and Sonia Mills have been weaving magic into their group called New Beginnings.

Marc says they support each other through major life changes:

"Job loss, new to the island, building a new business, marriage breakdown, any particular time when someone needs a new 'village' to support reinvention.

"We walk around with magic wands, and if you’ve got a wide group of 100 people or more in a 'village' - usually someone has the experience or the solution for them.

"Just teaching people how to ask for what they need, in a diverse community, gets most problems solved."

The wands may be plastic, but Marc says they're an important prop in a serious process:

"People are very isolated, and that has significant costs on the health service and the economy, and we believe that when we bring people together through reinvention, magic happens."

Sonia says the group has grown through social media and word of mouth and has a track record of achieving:

"We've had about 150 people come through our process in the last two years, and some of them have suffered extreme loneliness, but actually 75% are starting new businesses."

"This group helps transform lives."

New Beginnings has an ambition to find a permanent home, but for now, they meet at the Bathing Pools cafe every Wednesday and Friday between 10 and 1.