Our Impact
As an organisation our mission is to improve health and wellbeing for adults with complex needs primarily those who are homeless and rough sleeping.
Video by New Fruit Productions
Our mission
Our mission is to improve health and wellbeing for adults, some with complex needs, primarily those who are rurally homeless and rough sleeping.
Who we help
Our primary target beneficiaries are homeless people and those at risk of homelessness. However we also intend to be of benefit to:
People experiencing long term unemployment
People living in poverty and financial hardship
People with addiction issues
People with learning disabilities
People with mental health needs
Ex-offenders
People who have experienced crime or abuse
How we help
Our community garden veg box scheme and cut flower subscription provides us with income and food to support Daisy House, the direct access hostel for anyone who is experiencing rough sleeping or homelessness.
Dairy House (DAC) is not a typical Direct Access Hostel!
Set within a thousand acres of explorable farmland, woodland, orchards and gardens, the Dairy House offers a 12-week residential placement for citizens of Somerset (Mendip Priority) who are either rough sleeping or at risk of rough sleeping. The program takes a wholistic approach to recovery, employing therapeutic interventions alongside community living and person-centred support work, so as to find sustainable housing pathways for its residents. Support services are further augmented by volunteers and pro-active partnerships with outside agencies
The accommodation is in an idyllic cottage at the heart of working farm near Stratton-on-the-Fosse. The rural location provides up to of 2000 acres of explorable farmland, woodland, orchards, and gardens. The majority of people sleeping rough in Somerset are self-isolating, living outside of the built-up areas – DAC offers a softer transition from this lifestyle.
In addition to the services, you would expect from a Direct Access service in terms of pro-actively working through a support plan, DAC operates as a community house. This has been spearheaded by Suzanne Addicott who worked in a pioneering community house project in Hong Kong with St Stephens Society, started by Jackie Pullenger
The residents cook and eat together and engage in a number of structured activities including art, woodwork, pottery, animal care and gardening with our partner project “Root Connections”. Residents also get to engage with recovery work through counselling, relapse prevention and other groups. This approach is focussed on a wholistic preparation for the next steps after leaving the farm.
Our story
Connect Community Church’s Direct Access Community (DAC) is an innovative project forged out of a partnership between Mendip District Council, Addicott Partners (Manor Farm) and the Connect Centre which launched in 2015 and is called the Dairy House.
In addition to the services you would expect from a Direct Access service in terms of pro-actively working through a support plan, DAC operates as a community house. This has been spearheaded by Suzanne Addicott.
The residents cook and eat together, and engage in a number of structured activities including art, pottery, animal care and hedge-laying. This approach is focussed on a wholistic preparation for the next steps after leaving the farm. As part of the activities and wholistic treatment for residents a community garden was developed enabling volunteers from the local community and residents to come together and farm produce together.
In early 2018 The Connect Centre won some funding from Somerset Community Foundation to launch a Community Interest Company which is a non-for-profit company where all profits go toward ending homelessness. Our partnering charity is Connect Community Church who oversee the management and running of the Dairy House providing the additional wrap around support needed to give residents the best possible chance of recovery and positively progressing.
Beneficiary stories
“While I was a resident at Dairy House, Root Connections was starting and I have really enjoyed being involved in the project since it’s early days.
In many ways it has helped me massively with my confidence and self worth, I feel I have a safe place to go where I can have an input in an idea and it’s put into practice, and also learn a lot from the many different volunteers as everybody has different levels of gardening and vegetable growing.
I find it gives me something to look forward to on a Friday as a volunteer and while I was resident it helped my physical and mental health a great deal.
It really good to see the group working and learning together and being able to teach each other things, everybody has an input about how to push the project and help it grow.
My previous life was massively different, this project has been really positive for me and been a key part in helping me turn things around and gain new skills and knowledge in something positive and constructive, such a reward when eating the vegetables we have all worked hard to grow.”
How you can help
There are plenty of ways to help us increase our impact.