Swindon Soroptimists visit the Nelson Trust
Many thanks to Carrie and Rae at the Nelson Trust for their time giving a tour of the Swindon site to our Club members and for welcoming our South West Soroptimist Regional President, Margaret Parkinson. It was great to learn a bit more about how the Trust has expanded the provision to the women it supports in Swindon, and the team shared some of their plans for the future in Swindon. It was absolutely engrossing; we can’t believe how they’ve grown from the original three staff members to a team of 24!
The Swindon team now supports 537 women, and each Key Worker has a caseload of 40 clients. Referrals to the Nelson Trust come via a variety of routes, including local police forces, as well as self-referral.
Carrie and Rae took us all over the buildings and through the different areas, from the kitchens, the computer suite, the quiet room, and even to the lovely creche (right). We admired the beautiful artwork on the wall, which like most of the art at the Trust, was done by the service-users themselves.
Future plans
From its modest initial beginnings, the Nelson Trust has now bought the two neighbouring buildings it currently occupies in Swindon and it has planning permission to connect the two. The plans for the refurbishment are splendid and promise to improve the facilities for the women who use the centre. We’re so excited to see what the team will do next for the women they support here in Swindon.
Nearly all our club members were able to join us for the tour, so in exchange for the staff’s time giving the tour we brought along our annual 25 Easter eggs for the Nelson Trust. To sweeten the deal, we brought some mini eggs for the staff!
We also added our regular food donation for their twice-weekly Lunch club. Deputy Manager Carrie thanked us for our invaluable support and assured us the women and their children would enjoy the eggs.
Happy Easter from all of us at Swindon Soroptimists!
You can learn more about the Nelson Trust and how you can support the Trust’s work at the Nelson Trust website.