B&Q Evesham

Working in conjunction with a local food bank we aim to address the increasing problem of holiday hunger. School holidays put a strain on families who may struggle to meet the costs of extra meals and treats as well as reducing available funds to go out and enjoy time as a family. We aim to provide free lunches and open access at our Adventure Playground, allowing children and families to get outside, enjoy the chance to play, create, join in the den building and campfires and make the most of their opportunities. Children and families will be encouraged to get involved in the preparation and cooking as well as helping to grow as much fruit and vegetables onsite as possible. This will help to increase confidence and skills as well as a better understanding of health and nutrition. We hope to work with local companies to reduce food waste and keep food miles to a minimum.

Freedom is a family run group that was established in March 2016. We decided to open a disco for adults with learning disabilities because the local disco held at Marilyn’s nightclub had unfortunately shut down. Freedom disco proved to be a huge success and quickly grew in popularity, it bought people within the learning disability community together and provided a safe and welcoming environment for them to enjoy an evening out. With the success of the disco, the next addition to freedom was Freedom Day Centre, a group for adults with learning disabilities and other special needs, we opened to the public in July 2017. Our aim is to help our service users to gain new skills, grow in independence and become more involved in the community. We host a variety of activities that meet educational, social and therapeutic needs. These include maths, English and science, computer courses, sensory relaxation, swimming, art and design, woodwork, football with our football team (freedom united), gardening with our local church and at our allotment, cooking in our kitchen and working in our cafe, dancing and drama which we show to the public in our talent shows and performances. We also do group outings such as day trips to theme parks, zoos and museums. We were also invited to the houses of parliament by our local mp for a day out which was fantastic. Another important part of our day centre is cafe freedom, which is our “inclusive” cafe meaning we will do our best to meet everyone’s needs. We serve homemade meals at an affordable price and include daily meal offers throughout the week. All proceeds from our cafe go back into our day centre. Over the past two years we have received a tremendous amount of support from our local community and members of the public, this has enabled us to become a well established service that now provides a wide range of facilities for everyone to enjoy.

Founded by Caroline Gould in 1984, we now deal with over 8,000 casualties every year, with our aim being to release the mammal/bird back into its natural environment as soon as it is fit. We have fully equipped veterinary facilities and we are available 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Education is also a vital part of our work and we give school and college lectures, talks to various groups and we run courses (Hedgehog First Aid and Rehabilitation') at the hospital on a regular basis. Our running costs are over £70,000 every month which we have to raise ourselves. We would not be here today without the regular support of the public and your donations, however small, are vital to us.