2020 has been a strange year I think we are all agreed? For all of us at The Prospects Trust 2019 was EPIC. We celebrated 30 years of our amazing charitable enterprise, supported over 60 Co-workers with additional needs at Snakehall Farm AND we even opened a shop. We marked our 30th anniversary milestone by boldly attempting to raise £30K for 30 Years in order to Shovel the Hovel and Make more room for tea!
The Hovel in 2019
We (you) raised the £30K needed to entirely renovate an old dilapidated farm barn, the Hovel, our build was due to start in the spring of 2020 and be fully in use by now. However Covid happened and new, exciting, progression got sidelined by risk assessments, face coverings and washing our hands (lots). Here at The Prospects Trust we are not going to let a little global catastrophe like Covid dampen our can do attitude and we are pleased to report our Shovel the Hovel Project is back on track. In fact its nearly complete!
We will update this post with lots of lovely images, perhaps even a film, if we can stop washing our hands and wiping the screen of the Ipad, to show you just what great things we do with your grants, donations and support at The Prospects Trust.
Co-worker David learns how to plaster the new Tea Barn area for all of his Farm Friends
Thank you to every fundraising runner, corporate volunteer, trust fund trustee or grant officer who donated to this appeal. Thank you too to everyone who attended our 30th Anniversary Farm Open Day, our big community fundraising event of September 2019. Wow just think 2000+ people in a field dancing, hugging and using real money – that really was so last year!
Wow! We can’t send you a Co-worker letter of thanks, we can’t name you in our annual accounts, we can’t even look you in the eye and sincerely say thank you to your face but to us here at The Prospects Trust we thank you our amazing Anonymous donor(s).
We have just finished thanking all of our donors supporting our Canopy of Care Crowdfunder and realised just how many anonymous donations we have recieved for this appeal and so many others.
Since we started to use LocalGiving to manage our online donations we have received over £10,000 in anonymous donations, from the one off to the regular monthly donor. This year with our Canopy of Care and Survive to Thrive appeals a staggering £6,700 has been donated by the silent giver.
So today we raise our cup of kindness to you, the Anonymous Donor. May your day be as super as you are. You are our nameless hero who is now know as the ones who cannot be thanked. You know who you are and now hopefully you know how much you mean to us all at The Prospects Trust.
We thank you for your support.
To join the ranks of our Unnamed Donors you can donate anonymously or in person here: Local Giving Page
We are really proud of our Co-workers for their adaptability to change caused by Covid-19. They have embraced keeping their “Tilly Tractor” distance, wearing face coverings and washing their hands…..and well washing everything. Take a look at our foggy Thursday in action:
We have made a “Doorstep” Co-worker film! Last month we delivered Prospects Parcels to our socially isolated Co-workers, safely being supported in their homes during lockdown. We are all missing having our Co-workers on site at Snakehall Farm, serving customers at Unwrapped and keeping everyone’s garden’s tidy in the community. It is the strangest of times so we wanted to share a little joy and connect our people back to our charity.
We are a CARE farm still farming, we are a SOCIAL enterprise still trading but without the people its the trickiest of times. Please share our Keep Tilly Tractor Farming film, please Donate if you can and please stay safe.
A big thank you to:
all the Co-worker cast (and the behind the scenes support crew – their families and carers),
to all the Co-workers who didn’t want to be captured in film but have their own Tilly on a Stick at home and can’t wait to come back,
to all those who have supported The Prospects Trust over the past 30 years and are continuing to support us right now,
to all of our new and loyal customers who are shopping local and keeping our enterprise trading,
to all of our new fundraisers and donors picking a small charity to support we seriously do a little dance for every £5 that gets donated
to all of our staff (either staring in the film), working behind the scenes or trying to turn their own gardens into farms during furlough,
to our Trustee Board for allowing the already stretched resources to make time for this joy,
And a special mention to the talents of our Support Workers Adam T and Adam V for the film and music magic.
We have a volunteering “boot camp” with a difference starting this month at Snakehall Farm. Forget your lounge based Wicks workout or your daily Boris walk we can offer you a different way to get fit, an 18 acre farm needs volunteers to help weed and get ready for the big harvest of 2020.
We are an 18 acre care farm, but in light of the recent pandemic we have closed our farm gates to our co-workers (adults with additional needs) and are working on a rota based tiny workforce. Because of this, we are finding it hard to keep on top of the weeding and watering at Snakehall Farm. Being organic, we do not use any chemicals, which makes our veg taste great but the care of the crops is more laborious.
We are looking for volunteers to come in for a couple of hours a day, ideally in the mornings when it is not too hot in the polytunnels. We are all abiding by social distancing rules, so we would ask that our volunteers do the same. The idea is that we will set a task away from other staff and once completed, our volunteers can go home. We have all the tools and equipment necessary, but we ask that you bring in your own gloves, and wear good boots. Toe protectors would be ideal, but not vital, as we wouldn’t be asking you to use any tools that are deemed dangerous. We also ask that you bring in your own tea/coffee/water to avoid cross contamination.
Interested? Give us a call to find out our next available slot or email [email protected] for more details.
Simply donate your lockdown Haircut or beard trim cost savings to our Bad Hair Do Care fundraising appeal and help keep our farm growing while our Co-workers are socially shielding.
Step 2: Share your Bad Hair photo on our @TillyTractor Facebook Page with your donation AND nominate your usual hairdresser or barber* to win a Produce Hamper full of goodies from The Prospects Trust at Snakehall Farm & Prospects Trust Unwrapped. Use the #BadHairDoCare.
Step 3: Grab the scissors and a bowl………………………..there’s only a week between a bad and a good haircut!
*for logistic reasons only please ensure your nominated hairdresser/barber is based in a 20 mile radius of CB25 0HZ or CB7 4EG,
Ely’s first
zero waste greengrocery and refill larder, Prospects Trust Unwrapped, made a special
top of the class delivery to its friends at Highfield Ely today while on their
busy home delivery rounds. Highfield
School learners have been part of the social enterprise since it opened last
September and the team at Unwrapped wanted to send some treats to their
frontline friends.
Prospects
Trust Unwrapped had to transform its retail offering practically overnight with
the early warnings of Covid-19 and in just once month has turned from a “buy
just what you need” busy and bustling shop into a non-contact home delivery
service of larder bulk buys. As a
registered charity that supports people with additional needs, their mission is
#survivetothrive until the time that Unwrapped can reopen and continue to
provide innovative social care placements in the shop.
Tom
Cockerton, Manager of Prospects Trust Unwrapped said “we have been astounded, and
at times overwhelmed, by the swell of customer orders and loyal support to our
social enterprise. It helped that for a short
while we were the only shop in Ely to have toilet rolls and bread yeast, which
we still have in regular supply. Our
customers are now making weekly orders of our fruit and veg boxes stocked with seasonal
and organic produce as well as their core staples of porridge oats and coffee
beans. I like to think in a small way we
are not just providing critical groceries we are also keeping in touch with our
customer fan base”.
Prospects
Trust Unwrapped closed its café and put a temporary halt to training placements
at the end of March before the national lock down began as a quick measure to
keep everyone safe, especially their Co-worker trainees. Overnight the shop created
a basic online delivery form, using the skills of a returning Uni student and harnessing
the whole of the small workforce, launched Unwrapped Home Delivery.
Customers
can now select all their regular store cupboard basics and get their family’s five-a-day
weekly veg & fruit online. The staff
team prepare the order and give a phone call to the customer to let them know when
to expect a non-contact doorstep delivery.
Clare Rees, Unwrapped Support Worker said “we are proud that we can
still continue to provide that friendly personal service, something our shielding
and vulnerable customers really need in these times.”
Maz
Baker, Development Manager for The Prospects Trust said “as a small charity we
are facing the hardest of times, as are so many other frontline services and
social good causes. Nobody is excluded
from the challenges of Covid-19 but as a charity we want to #StrivetoThrive. We felt it was right to reach out to other
organisations that are providing frontline care to keyworker children, and, our
special friends at Highfield School. The
best way to survive is to support each other.
We hope that people will continue to support us by shopping with us at
Unwrapped”.
The
Prospects Trust has launched a charity appeal, #Survive to Thrive to help the
30 year old charity weather the lockdown and be ready for a bumper harvest with
the Co-workers (adults with additional needs) once they are safe to return to
their day placements at Snakehall Farm, at Unwrapped and on the Garden
Team. Donations can be made https://localgiving.org/appeal/survivetothrive/
or via Facebook https://www.facebook.com/tilly.tractor/posts/2936117949758755.
Prospects
Trust Unwrapped was selected as an Aviva Community Fund good cause before the outbreak
of Covid-19 and due to the challenging circumstances, Aviva has extended their Crowdfunding
period, donations to support Unwrapped can be made online at: https://www.avivacommunityfund.co.uk/refill-not-landfill
You must be logged in to post a comment.