We started in March 2019, as a coffee morning two hours a week at the Storehouse Church in Cambridge Road, Dorchester. During the morning we would have professionals drop by to answer any questions the carers had.
Our coffee mornings became quite popular and we were asked to provide more and more services so we opened our first drop-in office in February 2020 in Trinity Street, Dorchester with the support of the Leonardo Trust, just as the COVID epidemic hit (great timing!) .
Throughout the COVID pandemic we supported carers by delivering food parcels, gifts and doing online bingo and quizzes. Christmas 2021 we sent out 300 boxes of Christmas food to unpaid carers and their families with the support of Community Share and Storehouse Church.
In 2022 Mark had a chance meeting with Gary from U-think PDP who offered us a contract to be based in the old Marks & Spencer's building in South Street, Dorchester. Whilst there, we grew even bigger and expanded our services to provide art and craft activities and a retail outlet as well as our support services.
As most charities will know, we were dependant on other charities supporting us in our early days of operation. Having to move out of the old Marks & Spencer's building in South Street at short notice due to the building being purchased we decided we could finally stand alone and rent our own premises long term (why not, we are here to stay!).
Now we are still based in South Street for our support services and our art and craft activities but our retail outlet is now based at a separate venue. We are mainly self-funded through our retail outlet, with the occasional donations of which we are very grateful for. Without these funds we would not be able to provide the services that we do for unpaid carers and their families. Being a completely volunteer organisation there are still costs that need to be met on a daily basis in order for the charity to run and continue to support carers and their families.
THE STOREHOUSE CHURCH
TRINITY STREET
SOUTH STREET (M&S)
Sue Watson
Founder & Chair
Mark Watson
Founder & Trustee
Dave Rose
Treasurer & Trustee
Tammy Hutchinson
Trustee
Libby Cowling
Trustee
Kelly Johnson
Carer Support/Community Engagement
Rob Rose
Volunteer
Tracie Purkiss
Volunteer
Sophie Watson
Volunteer
Ben
Volunteer
Ken
Volunteer
Ollie Farrow
Volunteer