As you may know, The befriending scheme (TBS) is on the shortlist to win a share of Persimmon Homes’ “Building futures” £1 million fund, to go towards our Friends Community Farm Hub. due to this, Persimmon’s have recently reached out to us and invited our CEO, Shirley Moore and Operations Manager, Hannah Seymour to attend a Gala event. This event will include a ‘Great Persimmons Bake Off’ which Shirley and Hannah have been invited to judge, as ‘VIP guests’. Due to the scale of the event, this is an exciting opportunity to make more people aware of our organisation and the work that we do. As well as this it is a chance for us to secure more votes and boost our chance of winning a share of the £1 million fund! With the date of the event still to be confirmed, we are waiting in anticipation for more details…
VOTE NOW TO BOOST THE BEFRIENDING SCHEME'S CHANCE OF WINNING A SHARE OF £ 1MILLION FUND!
The befriending scheme (TBS) is on the shortlist to win a share of Persimmon Homes’ “Building futures” £1million fund, to go towards our Friends Community Farm Hub. However, in order to win, we need your online votes!
Persimmon Homes Eastern region is backing TBS to be a prize winner at a gala dinner in October, where cash awards of £100,000, £50,000 and £20,000 will be made to those who gain the most online votes.
The befriending scheme’s CEO, Shirley Moore, stated “It is a huge achievement to have been selected as a regional finalist, but now we really need people to get behind us and get voting so that we are in the strongest possible position to earn one of the top three cash awards on the night.”
““For 30 years, our registered charity has offered befriending services, friendship and learning opportunities to vulnerable and isolated children, adults and families in Suffolk, including those with mental health needs and learning disabilities. Our new venture is a Community Care Farm in Sudbury that will provide a safe outdoor environment with learning and friendship opportunities, including a Forest School programme. Our hope is to make our Farm and buildings completely accessible welcoming and friendly. This Funding would be an enormous boost. It would enable us to reach even more vulnerable people, allowing us to provide valuable ‘independent living skill’s’ education in a ‘family inclusive’ environment.””
Meet Fudge, one of our beautiful bunnies at Friends Community Farm.
If you visit the farm you may also come across this little pup, Oscar!
Your votes could help us gain the funds to provide a friendly, welcoming environment at the farm. We hope that vulnerable people will feel comfortable and relaxed whilst visiting our lovely animals, such as Percy and Pedro, our Angora Goats!
Voting could not be more simple; just log on to the voting page and select The befriending Scheme to vote for us! We would really appreciate everyone’s support.
‘Building Futures’ is being delivered through the Persimmon Charitable Foundation, which last year donated £620,000 to support children’s sport. Through ‘Building Futures’ - across Persimmon’s 31 regional businesses and its head office - a total of 128 grants of £1,000 have been awarded to groups supporting Sport, Education & Arts and Health.
One-to-One Befriending
We are always looking for new volunteers to support our services. If you are interested in volunteering as a ‘One-to-One Befriender’ fill out our expression of interest form, which can be downloaded form our ‘Volunteer’ page. For more information about this service call us on 01787 371333.
Lowestoft Hub had an exciting visit for their nature themed day...
On 19th July, these adorable miniature Donkeys paid a visit to the Lowestoft Hub!
The members enjoyed a fun-filled day with activities including pond dipping, bird watching and indoor nature crafts. As well as this there was an Ice cream van available for those who wanted a sweet treat!
The members were able to walk and pet the lovely miniature donkeys.
Introducing the newest additions to our 'Friends Community Farm' Hub!
We would like to welcome our not so little additions to the ‘Friends community Farm’ (FCF), our 3 month old Emu chicks! They seem to be settling in really well amongst the other animals.
The birds managed to cope with the recent heatwave by dipping into their own little pool.
We are yet to name these two…watch this space for a competition to choose their names!
In other FCF News, our volunteers have been working hard alongside Ashley, harvesting crops!
Community Farm Leader, Ashley displaying the fruit and veg harvested from the farm with long-term-volunteer, Vincent.
We are so pleased with the fantastic produce!
New Wildlife pond at the 'Friends community Farm Hub'
We now have a new wildlife pond at the Assington friends community farm hub, courtesy of Team 12 of the National Citizens Service (NCS)! As a team from the NCS, ‘Team 12’ have decided to help The Befriending Scheme with our new project; the community farm hub in Assington. The group of young volunteers have created a pond to help attract new wildlife. We hope that this will also create a calming and relaxing learning environment for members who wish to visit the farm.
Please take a moment to visit the ‘NCS Team 12’ JustGiving page, through which they are kindly fund-raising for our charity.