Working Together Annual Report 2021 – 2022
Welcome to the Working Together Annual Report, covering the year 1st July 2021 to 30th June 2022.
Looking back... It’s been another successful but challenging year at Working Together.
In our last annual report (2021) we were beginning to move out of lockdown and developing a new normal as we began to learn to live with Covid. This didn’t happen as quickly as we might have wanted, with the guidance for those ‘at higher risk’ from Covid requiring caution in relaxing Covid safe rules.
To keep everyone as safe as we can we haven’t re-opened the café to the public, but we began to gradually invite family, friends and supporters to join us for drinks and snacks by pre-arranged bookings. We have also been instrumental in working with the Baptist Church, providing the meals to support the relaunch of the Thursday Community Lunch at Rockspring. We have continued our relationship with the Food Bank, including supporting their new, monthly Open Table events.
These partnerships are firmly rooted in our food and independent living skills ethos and provide purposeful opportunities for our members to engage with the local community alongside the development of new skills and abilities.
We’ve strengthened our relationship with the Ludlow Spring Festival and Food Festival, where we operate the Bag Creche, providing a strong purpose for our members together with the opportunity to attend and volunteer at some of Ludlow’s most prestigious events.
These are all valuable opportunities, as was our involvement in Ludlow’s Fringe Festival and Eco-Carnival, to encourage the inclusion of people with learning disabilities in all aspects of community life and promote the positive role people with learning disabilities can play in the local community – core parts of our charitable purpose and mission.
Through our daytime service we continue to grow the range of activities on offer and have increased the number of members who attend on a daily basis and will continue to build on this in the forthcoming year.
Members have an increasing interest in gardening, making the most of the outside space at Rockspring and building good working relationships with our Community Gardeners to grow fruit and vegetables that we can cook and share with the wider community. What started as an occasional Gardener’s Club has quickly developed into a core activity with all our members enjoying the opportunity to grow, tend and harvest the crops.
Alongside our food and cooking activities members continue to enjoy our longstanding Writers’ Club and Sewing Bee.
In September 2021 we took over the Charity Bookshop in Craven Arms and welcomed its loyal volunteers into the WT family. Bookshop sales are an important, sustainable source of income for the charity and we are grateful to all the bookshop volunteers for their fantastic fundraising efforts.
The bookshop is providing excellent opportunities for our members to learn new skills as they are involved in sorting and selling good quality books online. There are also opportunities for supported volunteering at the shop itself.
Youth Club continues to flourish on a Tuesday evening with a new young cohort enjoying all we have to offer. Diversity also got back underway in 2022 and is starting to find its feet fortnightly on Wednesdays with a growing membership.
We pay tribute to all our members for their determination to demonstrate what a positive contribution they can make and their commitment to making Working Together what it is.
Thank you to all our staff, volunteers, trustees, supporters, funders and friends for enabling us to continue to successfully move forward in such a positive way.
The Fee Star Award
As many of you will be aware, our colleague and close friend, Fiona Calderwood, passed away in 2021.
Fee was at the heart of Working Together and brought us fun, laughter, care and compassion and she is sadly missed by everyone.
To remember Fee we will be presenting an annual award.
The Fee Star will be presented to a person who has really shone by bringing fun, laughter, care or compassion to Working Together. in the previous year.
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