 The Aldingbourne Trust is a local charity that supports people with learning disabilities and/or autism to have the same opportunities as everyone else to live independent lives. At the Aldingbourne Country Centre one of our key enterprises is the Open Farm. The people we support are a much valued part of our team. They play a key role In keeping our animals happy and healthy as well as helping us to maintain high welfare standards.
From the moment they arrive in the morning they are ready to get stuck in. No job to small or to big and definitely no job to dirty! Our daily essentials consist of feeding all the animals, poo picking the fields, cleaning the bird houses, and cleaning the guinea pig huts. As well as this we also like to carry out regular health checks on each animals to ensure they are healthy as they can be. Many of the people we support enjoy doing this, they take great pride in knowing our animals are healthy because they have contributed to looking after them so well. A few even help us to administer medication when needed. Another part of their job includes the public. We run guinea pig handling sessions and alpaca feeding on a daily basis. The people we support love to teach the children about our animals and how they care for them. The farm isn’t just about cleaning up after our animals, they all enjoy human company. We often take the ponies down to the woods and the people we support take it in turns to lead them independently. Our farm members are passionate about all our animals and a few have formed a bond with them over time. Many of the people we support are also interested in the behaviour and training of our animals for example: James, who works on the farm on a Friday, has bonded with the ponies. Particularly Rupert. He adores James giving him a tail scratch and will occasionally let him sit down next to him while he is having a snooze. Josh , who works on the farm on a Friday, has bonded with our 3 muscovy ducks. When they first arrived they were frightened of people. Josh spent lots of time working with them to gain their trust. They will now eat out of his hand! Vicky, who works on the farm on a Tuesday and Friday, is helping us to train the donkeys. Tom and Jerry the donkeys are a bit cheeky and don’t like to walk on a lead. Vicky is helping us to teach them how behave in a positive way. Whilst the Aldingbourne Country Centre is currently closed, our animals are still a top priority! We are caring for them daily and spending extra time with them until they can see you all again. For more information about the Aldingbourne Trust or our Open Farm please visit www.aldingbournetrust.org
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 We’d love to introduce you to John Westlake! He’s one of the people we support at the Aldingbourne Trust through our WorkAid scheme, and in very exciting news he has been offered the chance to publish a poetry book that he has written.
John is a creative talent, and following guidance and encouragement from our WorkAid team – but really with very little prompting! – he wrote The Kaleidoscope of Dreams, a fabulous poetry book. Impressively, he has received offers from three publishing contracts! However, these all require a financial contribution from him, the minimum amount being £1700. This is a lot of money for one person to raise, so to get going, John has created a GoFundMe page in order to gain some help in raising the funds. The goal is to raise £1900 so that he can go the full way with the publishing contracts, or if £900 is raised, this will enable John to self-publish his book. It would be great to be able to support John to keep going on this writing adventure, if you would like to support him, visit his fundraising page at https://www.gofundme.com/f/new-author-seeking-to-launch-new-book Our award winning WorkAid scheme works both to find suitable work placements for adults with learning disabilities and / or autism and help employers to support and get the best from their new employee. The WorkAid team support individuals through a tailored programme designed to prepare them for the world of work and empower them through raising self-confidence, independence and self-esteem. The range of support offered is vast, including skills training, CV development and interview preparation, plus continued guidance and help for both the individual and employer throughout the start of their working journey. To find out more about WorkAid, read some of our success stories, and find out how your business could benefit, head to https://www.aldingbournetrust.org/workaid.html#/  The Digital Media Studio at the Aldingbourne Country Centre is a creative hub where adults with learning disabilties and/or autism are able to access digital technology and use it to design mugs, make digital artwork, short films and stop-motion animations. Members of the Digital Media Studio have been learning Photoshop skills recently. They have been using the software to make Guinea Pig name tags for our brilliant Open Farm. After a few lessons the Photoshoppers were able to make these name tags independently. They have also been using Photoshop to design greetings cards which we then sell in the ACC Gift Shop. The members use templates to create a wide range of cards for different special occasions which include, birthdays, Mother and Father's Day and Christmas amongst others. Our biggest sellers have been a range of cards using images designed by our brilliant Earthworks group members. The Earthworks members have made collages and pictures which we scan and make into cards. Earthworks have loved making them and watching them being made into printed cards. For more information about our Digital Media Studio visit their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/accdigitalmedia  |
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