Each programme is run by a small trustee-led panel, reviewed every March, and accountable to a single trustee chair. We add programmes slowly — and only when we are confident we can hold them for a decade.
Same-week heating grants, electric blankets, draught-proofing, and a 24-hour emergency fuel voucher for older neighbours living alone or on a fixed pension.
The programme runs from 1 October to 30 April every year. Grants average £142; the maximum a household can receive in a single winter is £600. We pay the supplier directly wherever possible so that nobody has to wait for a transfer to clear.
In 2024–25 we paid 482 same-week grants and fitted 71 sets of draught-proofing on the cottages along the lane between Tenbury and Eastham village. Eighteen radiators were replaced under the partnership with the local heating engineer (Eastham) Ltd.
A weekly, no-appointment mental wellbeing drop-in, staffed by a part-time BACP-accredited counsellor, a primary-care link nurse and four trained volunteer listeners.
Quiet Visits opens every Tuesday from 10:00 to 17:00 in the upstairs room at Hockerills. There is also a quieter, by-appointment hour on Wednesday afternoons. No referral is required; no notes are kept beyond the day, unless a person specifically asks for a follow-up.
Last year, 318 people visited the room — 64% returning more than once. Our partnership with Tenbury Mind covers any onward referral, usually within two weeks. The room is named after the sycamore in the parish churchyard, under which the founding trustees signed the 1984 Scheme.
A members' food club at Eastham Village Hall — £4.50 per visit, no referrals required, fresh fruit and veg from local growers, household goods at cost price.
The the Practical Recovery Aid programme was conceived as a deliberate alternative to a foodbank. Members pay a small subscription, choose their own shopping, and bring their own bag. We work with eight local growers (Teme Valley Farm, Eastham Farm, Ness, Frankby) and partner with the Co-op's surplus programme. Tea, biscuits and conversation are free.
a small number of parish households in 2024–25, including 88 carers and 117 older neighbours. The the Practical Recovery Aid programme is open Wednesday 13:00–17:00 and Saturday 09:30–12:30, all weeks except Christmas week and August Bank Holiday weekend.
Bursaries and equipment grants for 14–24 year-olds in the parish — uniforms, apprenticeship tools, exam fees and driving lessons that lead to a first wage.
the Mobility & Equipment fund is our youngest programme, established in 2024 with a small designated reserve from the local benefactor. Bursaries are typically between £80 and £400, decided within ten working days by a panel chaired by trustee a trustee. The most-funded items are safety boots, scientific calculators, and the first month of bus passes.
104 bursaries paid in our first year — average value £218. 81% of bursary recipients reported a 'positive outcome' (employment, training place, exam result) at six months. We are now in conversation with the Teme Valley Engineering Co-op and Tenbury Apprentice Hub about a 2026 pilot of paid placement bursaries.
Twice-weekly friendly phone calls from a matched volunteer — a small, well-kept conversation, usually around twenty minutes, for as long as a neighbour wants one.
Founded in 2009 by the trustees and the late a trustee. We now match 264 callers with the trustees across the district. Volunteers attend a two-evening induction and quarterly listening-skills refreshers. Every call is logged in writing, briefly — when the next call is due, and whether any practical worry was raised — but never in detail.
We do not advertise the programme publicly. New callers come almost entirely by word-of-mouth from GP surgeries, district nurses, and other Trust beneficiaries. There is a small waiting list of around six weeks. We never charge.
Up to £350 per year for unpaid carers in the parish — a night away, a garden tidied, a replacement washing machine, a weekly cleaner for six weeks of repair, a hobby resumed.
The Carer Relief is deliberately one of our most flexible programmes. We pay whatever a carer says will help them keep going. The fund was started in 2016 after a survey of Trust beneficiaries found that 28% of our older clients were themselves caring for someone unpaid.
Applications take fifteen minutes by phone, are decided within five working days, and are renewable annually. We trust the carer to know what helps them. We do not require evidence of caring relationship beyond a brief statement. Last year we paid 168 grants averaging £244.
The Trust's two-and-a-half-acre allotment behind the parish church — produce for the Practical Recovery Aid programme, ten community plots, a tool-library, and a bench for anyone.
The Garden & Practical category grew quietly out of a 2010 lease from Worcestershire County Council on a previously-derelict site behind the church. It is now our most-loved place. The allotment produces around 1,400kg of vegetables and herbs a year for the Practical Recovery Aid programme, and hosts ten community plots tended by Trust volunteers, two local primary schools and a group of apprentice gardeners.
We run an annual Apple Day (the third Sunday of October), a Seed Swap (early March), and a winter Tool-Library week in January where tools are sharpened, oiled and lent free for the spring. The bench at the south end of the allotment is open to anyone who wants to sit there. It has the date 1984 carved into it.
One-to-one casework with a Trust adviser — benefit appeals, utility arrears, fleeing-domestic-violence grants and council-tax negotiation.
Discretionary Grants is the oldest of our paid programmes. the trustees and our two volunteer caseworkers handle around 1,400 casework conversations a year. Around 30% become full cases — months of accompaniment through appeals, hearings and tribunals. The rest are one-off problems closed within a week.
Our caseworkers are not legally qualified but are trained by the Cheshire West Citizens Advice and supervised quarterly. For matters requiring qualified advice, we have a standing referral with Eastham & Tenbury Law Clinic (free, by appointment). We do not undertake cases involving immigration, employment tribunals or criminal proceedings.
You can ring 01584 781237 (Monday–Friday, 9am–5pm), drop in to Hockerills on a Wednesday afternoon, or write to us using the contact form. The Trust does not require a referral, a doctor's letter or a council form.
