Our Projects

Citizens Advice Surrey Heath

We are a local charity with the aim of providing free, confidential, impartial and independent advice and support to help Surrey Heath residents find a solution to the problems they face, whoever they are and whatever the problem.

We are extremely grateful to Frimley Fuel Allotments for their generous grants, not only to expand our work to help people find a way through the challenges of the rising cost of living, but  also to support our clients with a funding pot that we can access to help people in crisis with their fuel bills whilst we look to find a solution.  This means we can deal with the immediate emergency and, where possible, put things in place to prevent problems escalating further, causing greater hardship.

The rising cost of food, fuel, utilities and interest rates, has pushed increasing numbers of people into poverty and financial crisis.  Demand on our service has never been higher and we consider ourselves fortunate to have Frimley Fuel Allotments who share our aim to support those most vulnerable in our local community.

Kate Sawdy – CEO
(October 2022)

White Lodge

White Lodge is a special purpose built site in Chertsey that is dedicated to providing a world which is inclusive to all, regardless of ability.

After 60 years of service delivery we provide a comprehensive programme of services that support disabled children, young people and adults from north west Surrey and the surrounding communities who have a broad range of complex disabilities. These include Cerebral Palsy, Multiple Sclerosis, brain injury, stroke, learning disabilities, autism and much more. Both they, their families and carers find it very challenging to access mainstream activities and White Lodge is here to support them.

Thanks to the support of Frimley Fuel Allotments we are able to support several families in the Frimley and Camberley area. These families benefit in the following ways.

Five children aged between 2-5 years, access our children’s therapy service which offers a unique holistic and family programme which is tailored to meet the child’s needs with an experienced team of physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists. This intervention is critical for their development into their schooling years and helps them feel able to integrate and maximise their abilities.

8 children come to our weekend and holiday Play and Youth Clubs which are designed for children and young people to socialise and participate in fun activities. These include arts and crafts, outdoor play and sports, cooking, sensory experiences, PAT dogs, bouncy castles, visits to Forest School and they even get the chance to DJ, plus much more.

We also support three adults who regularly come to our accessible hub called Rendezvous where adults with disabilities can access a range of stimulating social day activities, fitness, rehabilitation and trips out which develops life skills and promotes independence and the feeling of inclusion. The hub is very much like a family, with a warm welcome and a smile for everyone.

As a charity that is so reliant on voluntary donations and fundraising we are so grateful to the trustees of the Frimley Fuel Allotments for granting us this vital support. Thank you for helping us to enable ability.

Mike Hey – Head of Fundraising and Marketing
(October 2022)

St Andrew’s Church Frimley Green and Mytchett

I am writing to thank the Trustees of the Frimley Fuel Allotments for their approval of the £1,000 grant to St. Andrews Church Frimley Green and Mytchett to use towards buying music equipment for use by young people in the Frimley Green and Mytchett area.

I’d like to mention a special thanks to the trustee for taking time to visit the church to meet me and get to know about our vision regarding young people. I also extend my thanks to the grants administer for her correspondences and administration efforts.

We bought a full set of band equipment between May and July. As planned, we are in the first phase of the project, training up our own church Youth Worship Band who practice weekly and have made great progress. Many of the five young people that we’re training up haven’t had any experience with playing instruments before however, they have already played together in our Sunday service on several occasions with good feedback.

The next phase of the project is to teach young people from outside our church community. We’re in the process of developing a Youth Hangout that meet on a weekly basis on the church premises. The young people attending have expressed an interest in learning band instruments and we are planning the resources needed to start teaching them.

Again, we’d like to extend our thanks to the FFA for it’s grant that has already enabled us to pass on some transferrable skills to young people and provide a safe space for young people to be encouraged.

We know that many will be blessed through this music ministry and that in time, we’ll all be able to witness positive transformation in our community as lives are changed by Jesus Christ.

Rohan Mohanty – Children & Youth Worker
(April 2022)

Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice Update

Phyllis Tuckwell provides important Hospice Care for patients and families who are living with an advanced or terminal illness such as cancer, across West Surrey and North-East Hampshire. Its Doctors, Nurses, Therapists, Counsellors, Patient & Family Advisors and Pastoral Care team visit some patients in their own homes, while other patients are looked after on the In-Patient Unit (IPU) at its Hospice in Farnham, where they can receive 24 hour medical and nursing care.

Prior to the Covid pandemic, the IPU held ten single rooms and two four-bed wards. However, to reduce the risk of infection within the Hospice during the pandemic, only one bed on each four-bed ward could be used. In order to maximise the use of these ward spaces, Phyllis Tuckwell has converted one ward into two single rooms, each with en suite facilities, while the other ward has been separated into two individual areas, giving the IPU a total of four additional single beds. Frimley Fuel Allotments have donated towards this work.

“We are delighted with the new rooms we now have on the IPU, and so pleased to be able to care for more patients who need our support,” said Jackie Johnson, In-Patient Services Manager at Phyllis Tuckwell. “We would like to thank Frimley Fuel Allotments for their generous donation, which has helped us to complete this conversion work and ensure that we can care for the maximum number of patients possible, whilst maintaining the highest level of infection control.”

Claire McDonald – Individual Giving Manager
(February 2022)

St Martin’s Church, Camberley

At St Martin’s, Camberley, we are deeply passionate about reaching out and building strong and caring relationships with our local community. We are extremely grateful to Frimley Fuel Allotments for their generous grant, enabling us, amongst other grants, to take the next step in order to achieve this by serving our local community through generous hospitality.

Every Sunday morning, preceding the Sunday service, a nutritious breakfast is offered to everyone in our local community in a warm and welcoming environment, conducive to building community through the development of strong and healthy relationships with others. We offer a range of breakfast foods such as bacon rolls, pastries, and fresh fruit as well as filter coffee and fruit juice. 

Whilst the breakfast is open to all in the local community, we particularly reach out to the marginalised or vulnerable by having a special focus on those who have benefitted from our initiatives to tackle food poverty such as our Free Food Stall and the delivery of our emergency food parcels. 

There is a clear gap between the breakfast and the service so that there is no sense of compulsion for people to stay on. By building partnerships with other members in our community we will involve others in the delivery of this project, thereby building our communities’ own capacity to meet local needs. 

Chris Richardson – Vicar of St Martin’s

Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice

Phyllis Tuckwell provides important Hospice Care for patients and families who are living with an advanced or terminal illness, across West Surrey and North-East Hampshire. Its Doctors, Nurses, Therapists, Counsellors, Patient & Family Advisors and Pastoral Care team visit some patients in their own homes, while other patients are looked after at its Hospice in Farnham, where they can receive 24 hour medical and nursing care.

The In-Patient Unit at the Hospice currently contains individual 18 beds, ten of which are situated in single rooms, with the remaining eight situated in two four-bed wards. Due to the importance of reducing the risk of infection within the Hospice, Phyllis Tuckwell is currently unable to treat more than one patient on each ward, and so to maximise the use of this space is working on converting each of its two four-bed wards into two single rooms with en suite facilities, giving it a total of four additional single bed rooms. Frimley Fuel Allotments have donated towards this work.

 “We would like to thank Frimley Fuel Allotments for this generous donation, which has made a huge difference to us as we work to convert these wards into single rooms,” said Sarah Church, Chief Executive at Phyllis Tuckwell. “Having these additional single rooms will provide our patients with comfortable, private facilities, and enable us to ensure that we can care for the maximum number of patients possible, whilst maintaining the highest level of infection control.”

Claire McDonald – Individual Giving Manager

Prior Heath Infant School – Laptops for Schools

We would like to express our sincere gratitude for the laptops that you donated to Prior Heath Infant School and report on the way in which they have been utilised to support the children’s learning.

During the most recent period of national lockdown, we were able to use the laptops to support our vulnerable learners with their remote learning. Many of these children were previously without access to IT at home or were reliant on the use of shared equipment. Having their own laptop allowed them to be fully engaged with their home learning and ensured that their academic progress wasn’t impacted upon, whilst they were unable to attend school. The laptops continue to be utilised to support our learners.

Many of the children returned to school in March with reduced writing stamina and being able to complete their work through the use of IT, has removed this barrier to their attainment. The Chrome Books have become a vital part of everyday learning within the classrooms as well as during intervention sessions, which have been implemented in order to allow children to catch-up with any missed learning. The additional resources have been invaluable.

Once again, thank you. The donated laptops really have made a difference to the teaching and learning at Prior Heath.

Lindsey Chivers – Headteacher

Supporting Families – Home-Start Surrey Heath

Home-Start Surrey Heath were delighted to receive an extremely generous donation from Frimley Fuel Allotments towards our core operational costs of supporting families in the borough of Surrey Heath.

We support families across the borough, with at least one child under 5, through our fantastic team of parent volunteers, who offer emotional and practical support. Families are referred for a variety of reasons including, but by no means limited to, mental health illness, physical illness and disabilities, isolation, bereavement, children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities, domestic violence, financial and/or housing problems.  

Our services are free and non-judgemental and we support families from all cultural and religious backgrounds. 

This grant has made a huge difference to us and acknowledges the vital work our volunteers carry out in the community.  As Covid 19 measures ease, our volunteers will continue to provide vital support for families and we will work harder than ever to find ways to make sure families continue to have the help they need to ensure they thrive.  Our tailored, responsive and trusted help remains essential and with the generosity of Frimley Fuel Allotments, this donation goes a long way towards making this possible.

Again, a huge thank you from all at Home-Start Surrey Heath.

Stephnie Waight – Manager

Donation helps Field Lane project

purchase life saving PPE

We are delighted to have received a generous donation from the Frimley Fuel Allotments for our two projects in Frimley, Surrey. The money was used to buy life-saving Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

The projects are home to 12 young people with learning disabilities. We offer them support in a safe and secure home environment. Our aim is to help our clients to make positive, sustainable changes to their lives, gaining the skills and confidence to reach their potential.

Lockdown has presented additional challenges for our clients, many of whom find any change to their routine uncomfortable to deal with. Having to adapt to the ‘new normal’ during the Coronavirus crisis has been extremely difficult for our clients and the staff who support them.

Ensuring the safety and wellbeing of our clients is paramount and we have had to introduce new measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19 to our projects. The cost of purchasing supplies of PPE is above our usual expenditure but has been crucial to keeping our clients and staff safe and well.

As this crisis continues, being able to have ongoing supplies of essential PPE will ensure we can safeguard the lives of both our clients and our staff.

Photo: Clients enjoy a meal together at our project in Frimley

Rawle Beckles, Head of Fundraising and Communication

Dementia Friendly garden

at Frimley Park Hospital

A representative from Frimley Fuel Allotments, joined us for the official garden opening for our elderly unit at Frimley Park Hospital.
Joined by our dementia and charity teams, we all enjoyed a wonderful singing along with our patients! Tea and cake was truly welcomed and the rain managed to stay away!

The generosity of your charity, enabled us to continue the project after the first phase of painting, adding art to walls and planting lovely tubs was completed. The seating then took on a whole new purpose giving a place to sit and relax without being on the ward yet in a secure environment.

The matron and the hospital arts officer worked closely and totally loved working on this project. Having the vision of giving the ward a beautiful place for patients and families to escape too.

Patients who joined us for the opening, expressed how important the area has become for them and their visitors. Quite tear jerking for us all.

Thank you once again to you all at Frimley Fuel Allotments, and your joint vision in helping us create a space for our patients and families.
Onwards to our next project to create therapeutic spaces. A much needed space both mentally and physically for all.

Camberley West Girl Guides

Please can you pass on our thanks to Frimley Fuel Allotments for their kind and generous grants over the years to help towards the hall rebuilding fund, internal decorations, fire safety improvements, a new boiler and recently help towards converting our huddle room into shower facilities for sleepovers.

The grants you have provided have helped immensely with the feel of the hall and made it more appealing to outside parties. The feedback regarding the conversion of the huddle room to a shower room have so far have been positive.

Thank you for your continuous support.

Mrs Sarah Reed and Mrs Amiee Jervis-Smith

Joint Camberley West District Commissioners

Portesbury School

‘Portesbery School caters for children with severe learning difficulties and we have a number of students with profound and multiple disabilities. We are so grateful to Frimley Fuel Allotments for funding our portable Eye Gaze system, which enables our more physically disabled students to use their eyes to play cause and effect games on the computer, which can eventually lead to using Eye Gaze to make choices and communicate. The system is in constant use and will make such a difference to so many of our students and their families.’

Adele Devine – Leader of Visuals and Communication & class teacher at Portesbery School

St Mary’s Church Centre, Camberley

We were thrilled and delighted to receive a very generous donation of £6,000 towards the refurbishment of our kitchen.

Hospitality is at the heart of St Mary’s, and with over 43 separate groups using our premises, and hosting over 600 people a week through our doors, our catering facilities are in much needed demand!

Your generosity has enabled us to increase the number of people we can serve, and reduce the amount of time taken to do so. Our upgraded kitchen now has a purpose built cooker, microwave, dishwasher and portable bain-marie, and a kitchen design suited to preparing, cooking and serving refreshments and hot meals efficiently and effectively.

At Christmas we served a three course hot meal from scratch to over 80 people – something that would not have been possible before the upgrade. Many of these are isolated and lonely people, who would otherwise have had little contact with other over Christmas. What a difference it made to them!

In the Autumn term we hosted a chef giving a series of six cooking lessons to several local families. It was so encouraging to see our Kitchen being used as a training venue, and so rewarding to see local parents learning to prepare delicious and healthy meals on a budget. Meals from a different country were featured each week so the range of food being introduced was eye opening and mouth watering!

Once again, thanks you for your generous donation.

As you can see from the stories above, it has made a world of difference to us and the families that we serve.

Without the generosity of Frimley Fuel Allotments, none of this would have been possible.

David Reed, Community Network Officer