St Katherines

St Katherines is now firmly embedded into the fabric of LEAF. It has become our central office which is open daily and is where Tony, his PA and the project manager work. It is also the location of the Youth Hub that meets weekly in the hall below.

Two sets of funding have allowed us to make substantial improvements to the building. Firstly, a grant from the Cathedral Charity has enabled us to undertake a complete refitting of the kitchen. This was done last month. Secondly, the granting of 106 money from the council will provide us with the opportunity to install underfloor heating. This work will be undertaken in January 2026 and will provide a much more effective and cost-efficient option in terms of heating the building.

The larger grant through the “Community Spaces” funding stream would have provided us with a substantial amount of money to build a mezzanine where offices and counselling rooms would have become available but sadly, we were unsuccessful in this bid. We still have plans to go ahead with this but at present we are struggling to find an alternative grant to fund this.

 

Funding

We are increasingly gaining additional funding for our community projects. We have secured funding for CAP (Christians Against Poverty) that will underwrite this service until June 2026. Ledbury Healthcare now contribute towards the costs of our Listening and Guidance service and Ledbury Primary School are contributing a substantial amount towards our additional provision work and funding 50% of our Family Worker salary. Thus, we are seeing organisations stepping forward to fund projects that they can tangibly see are making a difference.

However, the majority of LEAF’s funding still comes from individuals in the local churches and in many ways, this is the most heartening aspect of our funding in the sense that it is a tangible demonstration of the commitment of the churches and their congregations to the work. 

 

Project Updates

Ledbury Primary School has increasingly become a focus for much of our work in recent years. Initially starting with two mentors, the work has grown exponentially. We now have ten mentors going into schools, not just Ledbury Primary but into Eastnor Primary and John Masefield High School. In addition, there is a trained counsellor who has been working with children, and we are in the process of appointing a further counsellor who will be working two days a week both at primary and secondary level.

 

Our Family Support Worker continues to work with families in the school community. The core activity is a Tots group that runs each Thursday, staffed by Lydia with the support of long serving volunteers. Lydia runs courses for parents which are well attended and well received. These have included topics such as ASD and others relating to the parenting of neuro-divergent children. LEAF has managed to build good links with the Ledbury Children’s centre enabling the use of their space for much of our family work. Despite her hours being increased in September there remains a waiting list for her services

 

This September we were able to employ a full time “Additional Provision” worker. Jonathan works with children at the primary school that struggle in mainstream education. There are 26 youngsters benefiting from his work many of whom are either neuro-divergent or trauma impacted. Jonathan is working with the children to establish discrete projects, examples being ‘building a go-kart’, creating crochet Christmas decorations and ‘a football launcher to aid training’. In the next half-term Jonathan will be joined by at least one LEAF volunteer to support the project. Through the trusting relationships that are being built with the children, many are opening up on the issues impacting their lives. At present this is a one-year pilot project funded by both the school and a potential one-off grant from the Everson Trust. We are looking at how this can become more sustainable in the longer term.

 

In November LEAF presented to the cluster of schools around Ledbury with the aim of bringing all the schools together to explore options related to Alternative Provision. Ledbury Primary School reports there have been zero exclusions among children receiving LEAF support, including those referred due to risk of exclusion which is testimony in and of itself. Similarly, the school testifies that "LEAF is doing amazing things here, literally life changing. We would never be able to afford what we get through LEAF. Alongside this is the testimony of parents one of whom said "Without additional provision, my son would have been permanently excluded. Now he's back in class, proud of what he's made, and actually wants to go to school."

 

Away from the school the Listening and Guidance chaplaincy service based in the local surgery continues to thrive. There are three counsellors based in this work, but two additional newly qualified counsellors offer further counselling sessions to those referred by the GPs. The Listening and Guidance team have had over 450 referrals since the project began, and the waiting list remains full for much of the time. The well-being scores prior to attending compared with those after show an increase well above the national expectation for the time spent. It is estimated that we have seen over 5% of the adult population of Ledbury in the lifetime of this project.

 

The counselling strand continues to provide support for many in the community. We now have three paid counsellors and many of these receive referrals from the Listening and Guidance team. The Kintsugi Hope also continues to thrive. We are just completing our 8th course and each time the feedback has been incredibly positive with many of the group developing their own support network with friendships they have made.

 

On the practical strand the Knitting and Crochet group continues to meet weekly and reaches new members thereby filling a need for companionship. Planning is in place for the annual Christmas lunch which is always well received by people. The children’s work is also a source of blessing for many. We have held two summer events and a “Light Party” around Halloween. As we enter the Christmas season, we have the Advent party and other festive events where families can join us. What has been most pleasing related to these events is the consistent attendance of certain families which has allowed the LEAF team to build meaningful relationships with those who attend. Open the Book continues to operate weekly in both Ledbury and Eastnor Primary schools.

 

Having secured further funding for CAP we will continue our provision into 2026. We have two debt coaches but also a raft of befrienders who draw alongside those in financial difficulty. Denise has built good relationships with the Food Bank in the town and also works with Lydia to ensure there is holistic support for families. In our time in this work, we have cleared over £100,000 of debt which has been a wonderful release for many.

 

The Youth Drop-in has dropped down to one night a week and is being run by Ben Lea from Close House. We have just received an additional grant that will enable us to employ a part-time Youth Development Officer and Sessional worker which will allow us to open the drop in on further days as well as strengthening our fledgling relationship with John Masefield HS which is rapidly becoming stronger the more we work with them.

 

The Power of Integrating Services

One of the major features of LEAF’s work is that it is focuses on local people working in their local community. This allows for a true synergy of services in so many areas. Many are referred to counselling from Listening and Guidance, many of those mentoring in the primary school liaise with Lydia in her family support role and of course those mentored at John Masefield HS attend the Youth Drop-in. One anecdotal story will suffice to demonstrate this. A new member of one of our churches accessed the Listening and Guidance service through the local surgery. This in turn led to a referral for counselling where the Kintsugi course was mentioned which they also agreed to attend. Seeing the Alpha course was on the same night when Kintsugi finished they signed up for the Alpha course and have become a regular church member ever since. It is the relationship between the raft of services which provides LEAF with the real power to transform and change lives

 

 

Giving

If you wish to donate, then please head to the website https://www.leafledbury.com/ where you will find a donation button on the home page or make a bank transfer to LEAF using the details below:  
CAF Bank
Sort Code                           40-52-40
Account Number             00034459

We also are interested in hearing from you if you feel you could contribute your time and expertise to one of the areas we currently offer. LEAF provides an ideal forum for those from various churches to come together as one and enrich the provision of the services we offer to the community in which we worship and live.

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