20th Anniversary
Green Pennant Award
Northchurch Shop
The shop at Northchurch is now open on Saturdays!
"We believe in everything natural, and aim to be as sustainable as possible..."
Situated amongst beautiful surroundings, next to Sunnyside church in Berkhamsted Our purpose built Activity Centre at Sunnyside has been equipped so that our service users can carry out a range of Independent Living activities, such as cookery, housekeeping and computing. These, coupled with visits to the town centre for shopping, the library and frequent market stalls to run our service users learn confidence and independence, whether they still live with their parents, or are in sheltered accommodation.
Our eclectic outdoor resources at Sunnyside comprise areas of allotment land, which we are utilising in a variety of interesting ways. We grow a wide range of organic fruit and vegetables for cooking meals at the Centre, and have established an area of soft fruit beds which provide a plentiful resource for making preserves.
In 2003 we began a 5 year programme to renovate a large area of overgrown allotments and planted an apple orchard specialising in local varieties, a mixed hazel, ash and birch coppice and a mixed variety willow coppice.
These areas, designed for sustainable harvesting provide a variety of resources which our service users can work to create assorted gardening accessories, such as canes, fencing materials, pea sticks, trellises, etc.
No more wasted talent...
We believe there is a massive gap in the UK for adults with learning disabilities to be employed or appreciated for their skills, and then given a chance to channel them. If they had the chance to channel these skills it would prevent them from being overlooked and opportunities wouldnt be missed.
At both our activity centre and Northchurch, there are a majority of people we work with that have huge talents, whether them being creative or academic. Our aim at Sunnyside isnt just to enable them to develop their talents and improve their confidence, but to provide a facility and relevant productive tasks for them to elevate these fantastic skills in every way possible.
For some years now, we have been in partnership with the Environment Committee of Berkhamsted Town Council to jointly manage a grassland area of wildlife interest on our leased land at Sunnyside New allotments, which offers clients the opportunity to practise conservation skills. This type of rough grassland is becoming increasingly scarce in this part of the country. Ecologists from Hertfordshire County Council and local wildlife trusts have visited this site which is rich in anthills, wildflowers and grasses, and where there is a healthy population of lizards and good bird biodiversity. We will be in the process of restoring several areas of scrub encroachment this winter, and will plant native fruiting hedgerows and develop a working management plan.
We are currently in the process of converting parts of our building into a permanent exhibition space where all work, from tapestry to hat knitting will be displayed and available for purchasing on a regular basis.
