One of the people we support, Peter Spencer is a very keen illustrator who attends the creative art classes, and he has been nominated for The Learning Disability and Autism Leaders List for his outstanding contribution to art.  The winners of the awards will be announced later this year in December.
 
Peter has Tourettes, which can make him both excited and nervous, but he loves to use his imagination and writing stories.  Peter has already written and illustrated his first children’s book ‘The Bluegaloo’, which he created with a little help from his family and friends. 
 
Peter says “When I was a young boy I read lots of children’s books by many famous authors and have always wanted to write, dreaming of creating many wonderful and fantastical creatures”.  He wants to be able to write stories for children and young adults around the world.

He says he could never let anything get in the way of his dream of becoming an author.  “It is important that you too keep your eyes and ears open and one day you might get an idea for your own story and make your own dream come true”.
 
He likes to help other people to deal with their speaking and learning disabilities and enjoys giving support and friendship, hopefully helping them to achieve their own dreams. He is also currently helping the fundraising team by drawing illustrations for their charity cookbook.
 
If you would like more information about our Creative Arts Studio, please visit our website www.aldingbournetrust.org/creative-arts, and to find our more about our award winning charity that supports adults with learning disabilities and/or autism to live the lives they choose. ​

Community Wood Recycling is a network of independent recycling centres, coordinated by the National Community Wood Recycling Project.  Local award winning charity the Aldingbourne Trust are proud to be part of this network with their Wood@Aldingbourne recycling enterprise.  
 
At the Aldingbourne Country Centre near Chichester, Brian Alden and his team run the Wood Recycling service, where they will collect your waste timber in an environmentally sound way preventing it going to landfill and are cheaper than hiring a skip.
 
Sue Livett, Managing Director at the Aldingbourne Trust said “We have saved over 300 tons of waste timber going into landfill, which is the equivalent to about 34 double decker buses.”
 
The wood that is collected is sorted on site at the Country Centre, and they have a regular donation of scaffold boards from a local scaffolding company, which are perfect for use in the garden. 
 
Shelley Moore from Worthing visited the Country Centre and purchased a selection of the boards an said “We love our scaffold fences as it gives a quirky, recycled edge to our garden; great value for money and we are supporting a charity at the same time – Thankyou”.
 
The Wood team also work with the people we support to create handmade items such as bird houses and other ornamental items.  Any wood that is not suitable for sale is not wasted!  It used to run the biomass boiler at the Country Centre, providing heating across the site. 
 
The Aldingbourne Trust is a charity who takes pride in being sustainable, and holds the environment at its heart.  Their newly opened Quarry Building at the Country Centre has solar panels on the roof to generate electricity onto the local grid, and the building has also been designed to let in natural light in helping to reduce their electricity consumption.
 
The wood shingles that cover the building have a higher insulation value than standard building materials, allowing them to reduce energy consumption by keeping the building cool in the summer and warm in the winter.  Their bio mass boiler also runs from the waste wood that the Wood Recycling team collect.  
 
The decking around the building has been made from recycled tyres, and they have a rainwater harvesting system to provide water to flush the toilets. 
 
The Aldingbourne Trust is a local charity that helps people with learning disabilities and/or autism to have the same opportunities as everyone else to live independent lives.  Visit their website www.aldingbournetrust.org for information on our wood recycling project, venue hire facilities, becoming a corporate volunteer, and more about their award winning charity. 
 

When the Aldingbourne Trust was founded over 40 years ago, the centre focused solely on horticulture.  Today it has over 14 social enterprises, however horticulture is still at the heart of the Aldingbourne Country Centre, as it provides hands on learning and development opportunities for the people we support with learning disabilities and/or autism. 
 
James Simpson has been attending the Country Centre for over 10 years now, and he has developed a vast knowledge of horticulture that he is often giving advice to others and helps to identify plants around the centre.  He has grown many plants and trees from seeds, including the Alder which was recently planted by the Duke of Gloucester to commemorate his visit to the Aldingbourne Country Centre earlier in the summer.  
 
James loves to maintain the orchard at the Country Centre where there are many varieties of apples and pears growing.  “My favourite apple is a cross between and apple and a pear, but tastes sweet like a pineapple” said James.  He has recently started to grow a new apple tree, using a seed from an apple a colleague had for his lunch.
 
The horticulture enterprise is supported by volunteers who work closely, and often one-to-one with the people the Trust supports.  Clare Seaby has been volunteering at the country centre since last November, Clare says “This is my happy place, I love to come and volunteer here as I enjoy the interaction with the clients, it is extremely rewarding and I really enjoy being here.”  Clare enjoys volunteering here so much, she was telling her neighbour Kath about the Trust, and now Kath volunteers at the centre alongside Clare.
 
Kath Sartin has been volunteering for three months now, she said “Clare’s face would light up when she was telling me what she had been doing that day with the people she was supporting.  So I decided I would volunteer too, I look forward to coming each week.”
 
The Trust is always looking for new volunteers to support their horticulture and other enterprises.  Every volunteer makes a real difference to the people they support.  If you are interested in finding out more about volunteering with the Trust please contact Tracy Milward on 01243 544607 or [email protected]. 
 
Why not pop along to find out more, as you can visit the horticulture department and café at the Aldingbourne Country Centre without purchasing an entrance ticket to the whole site.  We are located just off the A27 between Tangmere and Fontwell.  You can also visit our website www.aldingbournetrust.org for more information about our award winning charity that supports adults with learning disabilities and/or autism to live independent lives.

The Aldingbourne Trust is inviting the local community to take part in a worldwide initiative to learn how to save a life.
 
The Restart a Heart campaign (RSAH) is an annual initiative led by the Resuscitation Council (UK) in partnership with The British Heart Foundation, British Red Cross, St John Ambulance, and Yorkshire Ambulance service which aims to improve the low numbers of people surviving out of hospital cardiac arrests.  In 2018 over 238,000 people were trained in CPR by regional Ambulance Services and private providers as part of the campaign.
 
On and around Wednesday 16th October 2019, an alliance of organisations all over the world will be coming together to increase public awareness of cardiac arrests and increase the number of people trained in life saving CPR by organising and facilitating training events.  This is the sixth annual Restart a Heart campaign and the second annual World Restart a Heart (WRSAH) campaign.
 
As part of this worldwide initiative, Aldingbourne Trust have teamed up with Avanti Training Solutions www.avantitraining.co.uk, to hold free CPR training for the local community at the Aldingbourne Country Centre on Friday 18th October from 11.30am.  You are invited to come along on the day to find out more, and learn the basic CPR skills needed to help make a difference when it matters. 
 
John Bowles, Avanti Training Solutions said “As a first aid training provider, I'm very much aware of the science and changes to CPR guidelines and how these have increased survival rates in recent years, yet we in the UK still lag behind other countries. My mission is to raise public awareness of sudden cardiac arrest out of hospital. You have less than one in ten chance of surviving SCA in the UK.” 

“It is important to teach members of the public how to help restart the heart of someone who has suffered a cardiac arrest (their heart has stopped beating). Giving them the knowledge and confidence to recognise and then start providing them with life saving cardiopulmonary resuscitation CPR and use a public AED device.” 
 
Michelle Mckinley Bell, Enterprise & Development Manager at Aldingbourne Trust said “We are so pleased to be hosting this event, to be able to give the local community the opportunity to learn these essential skills which could help save someone’s life.”
 
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.  Visit our website www.aldingbournetrust.org for information on our venue hire facilities, and more about our award winning charity. 
 

We have had a fabulous summer of fun at the Aldingbourne Country Centre over the school holidays.  With our first full summer events programme since the opening of our new Quarry Building, we had record breaking number of visitors reaching nearly 10,000 over the 6 weeks. 
 
Our events included our ever popular bounce about and splash about days, along with visiting entertainers from KAPOW Wrestling, and out annual Mini Boom kids music festival.  Sally Morash from Hampshire said “Best day out we’ve had for ages! This wonderful trust is full of brilliant activities for young children, we loved the Crazy Golf, Maze & the Bouncy Castle event!”
 
Visitors also enjoyed visiting our open farm, sand and water play area, ride on tractors and new soft play area which was open in time for the summer.  Sophie Holden from Arundel said “Had a fab day today, my children played on the tractors, crazy golf and the sand and water area kept their attention for ages.”  With so much to do, families enjoyed another great day out at the Aldingbourne Country Centre. 
 
Heather Finch from Worthing said “My 5 year old loves going to the Country Centre, we've now got him a season ticket and he's been 5 times in the summer holidays already!  It’s always a lovely chilled day out, never too busy!”
 
If you like the idea of supporting a local charity by having fun, the Aldingbourne Country Centre is well worth a visit.  Open everyday from 10am until 4.30pm.  With a woodland walk, open farm, mini golf, ride on tractors, sand and water play area, wooden train and castle play area, and delicious locally sourced and home-cooked food in our own onsite café which features an indoor slide. 
 
Visit our website www.aldingbournetrust.org for more information about our award winning charity that supports adults with learning disabilities and / or autism to live independent lives.

Two Sussex families; the Edwards’ and the Carson’s, recently took on the challenge to walk Snowdon to support a local charity, The Aldingbourne Trust, which supports adults with learning disabilities and/or autism to live independent lives. 
 
“Our children are very active, and love the idea of a challenge.  They decided they wanted to climb a mountain, so we suggested Snowdon as an achievable first challenge as they have been training with local West Sussex walks since before January” says Stuart Edwards.
 
The two families decided that if they were going to do the challenge they could also support a local charity, and discovered that the Aldingbourne Country Centre was equidistant between the two family homes.  “Once they visited the centre they were really buzzed up to raise their money to help support the people they met” said Stuart.
 
Setting up a fundraising page on the Aldingbourne Trust’s website, they were able to raise over £300 in the first week, and recently presented the Trust with a cheque for over £1,100 in total from their fundraising walk.
“They were so delighted to reach the top and the weather was perfect for walking. The clouds cleared just enough to get some great views. Their orange balloons really stuck out in the cloudy sections, the path steepened as they neared the top and the footing got worse, they said it reminded them of a cheesecake base.” Said Stuart.   
 
The Aldingbourne Trust were truly grateful for the support from the two families, the community spirit means a lot to the people we support at the Trust. 
 
Visit our website www.aldingbournetrust.org for more information about our award winning charity that supports adults with learning disabilities and/or autism to live independent lives.