Helping people achieve their LEVEL BEST
Welcome to our second Community Impact Report. It’s hard to believe we have been in our new home for two years – it has certainly been a whirlwind. Just a year ago we were wondering if we could top our first year, and here we are marking another unforgettable twelve months.
In 2024 it was a huge honour to be recognised nationally in both the National Diversity Awards and the National Learning Disabilities and Autism Awards. It was great to make new connections, network and celebrate the sector. Closer to home, we were proud to take home Highly Commended in both the Colchester Business Awards and the Essex Countywide Business Awards.
We have all been working hard to grow Level Best’s footprint and we owe a great deal to our amazing staff, sponsors and supporters who continue to create opportunities and make great things happen.
The overwhelming feedback we get from visitors to the café and gallery is what a welcoming, happy place Level Best is. For that, we thank our Trainees, who bring creativity, energy and a smile to everything we do.
Alison
Ling Manager, Level Best Enterprises
What an incredible 12 months we have had at Level Best! It is a source of great pleasure for us as trustees to see our enterprises thriving.
Our mission is to create opportunities for our Trainees and this report shows just how much of an impact our work has had in the lives of our Trainees and the wider community.
Over the years, we’ve developed a model that’s not just about work experience or learning; it’s about people. We’ve created a space that is a true hub for the local community, one that celebrates creativity, food, and nature, and where everyone is welcome. That’s a very special thing to be part of.
As we look ahead, our goal is to continue breaking down barriers and tackling inequalities, creating even more opportunities for young adults with a learning disability to thrive. NHS data tells us that only around 5% of people in England with a learning disability who access long-term social care have a paid job.
Studies also show that one in three young people with a learning disability spend less than an hour a day outside their home. Many feel isolated and lack opportunities for social connection. That’s something we are determined to change.
Every day, we’re making a difference and creating opportunities for young people to work with us to learn, build confidence and create a pathway to a brighter future. If you’re reading this and would like to be involved, we would love to hear from you!
Our journey
The Dacon Trust was formed as a registered charity by Geoffrey and Patricia Smith with the purpose of providing enrichment, education and life skills training for children with learning disabilities. Geoffrey and Patricia’s son David was the inspiration for the foundation, and one of the first students to attend the Trust’s school in 1972.
We opened a purpose-built school that could accommodate twelve children in Great Tey, just outside Colchester. A team of specially trained staff, including speech therapists, music teachers and physiotherapists worked with the children to give them the best possible experience for an active and meaningful life.
1980-2007 1970
We proudly opened our doors to the public on April 17th 2023. From day one, the community in Colchester and beyond has welcomed our enterprise, and we have achieved our aim of becoming a hub for all, from children and adults with learning disabilities to artists, families, charities, community groups and local businesses. Our café is bustling every day, known as the place to go for great coffee, delicious food, cakes and produce and a friendly Level Best welcome.
It was time for a new look to represent our evolution, and The Dacon Trust rebranded as Level Best Enterprises, focusing on each of our four enterprises: Café, Seasonal, Art and Gardening. This came with a new modern logo and colourful artwork depicting our four enterprises and a brand new accessible website.
Encouraged by the success of the school, we embarked on two other projects from our Great Tey site. The Dacon Trust Activity Centre, a further education and training centre where young adults were equipped with independent living skills, from cooking and computer proficiency to craft-making and horticulture. We also opened a small residential home.
During this time, the staff structure also underwent a huge transformation, bringing in a larger team to meet the Trust’s primary focus of maximising the number of people we could reach and support.
By 2008, the Dacon Trust had supported hundreds of children, young adults and their families and it was time to search for a new location that would support our next phase of growth. The Dacon Trust Activity Centre secured a lease for Darcy House on Culver Street East in the centre of Colchester.
Opening as Level Best Art Café with more space and a large kitchen and café area, the aim was to become a more accessible hub for young adults with learning disabilities – now known as our Trainees. Through the new building, Trainees could take part in a wide range of activities, from art to practical life skills and outdoor activities. Trainees could also exhibit and sell their art, and serve customers in the café area which was open to the public.
We opened the Oasis Café, operating from Foundry Court, Manningtree and providing freshly cooked, affordable breakfasts and lunches for the local community. With a large commercial kitchen, the venture had the capacity to support six Trainees every day and was a popular enterprise until its closure due to Covid-19 in 2020.
We also took ownership of our second allotment space, opening more sessions for Trainees and meeting the growing demand for our produce in the café. The purpose built gallery space is a hub for not just our Trainees to share their art but a place for local artists to exhibit.
Level Best is thriving! With a TripAdvisor award for one of the best places to eat in Colchester, a full art gallery schedule, new partnerships and collaborations, we are proud to say that it has been a record-breaking year.
Customers returned again and again for our excellent-value lunches, homemade jams and chutneys, and Trainee-made artwork. The café’s bright atmosphere and regular art exhibitions has made it a true community hub.
We’ve introduced a new visual aid station to make our café more welcoming and accessible to all customers, ensuring everyone feels included and supported.
Our City Centre Café is a TripAdvisor Winner!
In 2024 our Level Best Café was awarded a TripAdvisor Travelers’ Choice Award.
This remarkable achievement places our café in the top 10% of restaurants worldwide, as recognised by TripAdvisor customer reviews.
This award, and the wonderful reviews we receive every day are testament to the talent, hard work and outstanding customer service delivered by our staff and Trainees. Great food, a welcoming space and outstanding people make our café a special place to visit and it’s no wonder our customers keep coming back.
Bites in Colchester Cafés in the Colchester area Cheap eats in Colchester #2 of 91 #4 of 105 #3 of 116
Fabulous bright coloured Café, vibrant atmosphere to be as a customer.
My favourite spot in the city to get lunch! Always a friendly face and welcoming atmosphere. The aim of this amazing place �� is heartwarming. Watching the care and supervision of the unique young people that are training here.
Love their coffee and hearty breakfast options, all perfectly prepared. It’s an ideal place to relax or catch up with friends. Highly recommended!
My pleasure to come here. So good for the local community highly recommended an asset for the City.
Lots of lovely things to buy, cards and handmade crafts. Love the artwork and I had the best chocolate brownie I’ve tasted.
It’s lovely to have this in place for the community. For young people needing a helping hand to learn a new skill gain confidence. This is a great place.
We have introduced a range of new front of house products created by our Trainees:
Garlic & Onion Seasoning
Made from kitchen peelings by our Trainees, blended with paprika, salt, and pepper. Zero waste, full flavour.
Confetti & Potpourri
Handmade with dried flowers from our café garden and kind donations. Packaged in recycled jars to be eco and elegant!
Level Best Chai Latte Trainee-tested blends in compostable tea bags, sold in the café and to take home. Spiced, sustainable, and delicious.
7,594 cups of coffee 5,293 slices of cake
From April 2024 to April 2025 we’ve served... in our café!
3,275 pots of tea 2,293 scones
Welcome!
Home Grown and Thriving
Over the last year, our outdoor team has thrived…
Our two adjoining plots not far from Colchester city centre provide our Trainees with plenty of hands-on experience. They develop lifelong skills in planting, nurturing and harvesting products, as well as delivering our fresh fruit, vegetables and edible flowers to the café.
Trainees are introduced to a variety of sensory experiences that come with being outdoors and working with nature. Some favourite Trainee experiences include sowing seeds, watering produce, digging, weeding, harvesting and foraging.
Our Trainees are also taught how to identify and care for plants and produce, developing their horticultural skills and knowledge of seasonal fruit, vegetables, plants and flowers.
In 2024-25, our outdoor enterprises have continued to evolve with new produce, activities and collaborations.
Just a selection of the produce we have grown this year includes...
Growing More on Our Second Plot
Our second allotment plot is now thriving, divided into four large beds growing potatoes, carrots, onions, beetroot, and radishes. We’re also excited to harvest from our gooseberry bush, expected to be ripe and ready by late May to early June.
This year we have already harvested 3kg of Rhubarb and
3kg
Outdoor Adventures
This year Trainees also enjoyed enriching outdoor trips including pond dipping at Highwoods Country Park, a garden tour at Bourne Mill, and creative workshops at Acorn Village. At Peach and Pippin Farm, we explored orchards, met chickens, and tasted 10 apple varieties before pressing our own fresh juice all thanks to DEFRA funding.
Keeping our window boxes in bloom
To help keep Level Best Enterprises colourful throughout the year, our Trainees create and maintain beautiful window box displays that are enjoyed by visitors and bees alike!
We grew all sorts of flowers and vegetables from seed. Some we sold in the café and others we used to make a beautiful garden space outside.
Did you know?
Our home-grown and foraged produce is used in everything from the dishes we serve in the café, to many of our cakes and all our chutneys, relishes and syrups.
We are Park Rangers
Our Trainees regularly join Colchester’s Park Rangers working on the grounds of the renowned Colchester Castle Park. Their jobs around the park include preparing plots, maintaining the Imola Pond area, planting flowers and keeping the grounds clean and beautiful for visitors.
Leeks
Rhubarb Butternut squash Elderflower
We grow and forage produce
Super-Powered Seasonal Produce
With the help of our amazing gardening team, our seasonal enterprise is making and selling more produce than ever before.
Our move to a central location with lots of shelving to display produce has helped us reach a wider customer base. We now have loyal customers returning regularly to stock up on their favourites. We have also been able to foster new relationships with local producers.
Fresh Flavours & Trainee Triumphs
This year has seen a burst of creativity in our seasonal kitchen, with Trainees exploring exciting new recipes and techniques. Among the standouts are piccalilli, carrot chutney, lime marmalade, and a bold mixed fruit jam infused with spiced rum.
Our cordials continue to be a hit, with Rhubarb and Mixed Berry joining the ever-popular Elderflower. Trainees also mastered pickling our ginger and chilli radishes which sold out in just days!
It’s sorted and prepared in our dedicated produce area
We can and bottle We design and create our own labels
We take to market
In the last years we have prepared, packed and sold:
1,098
jars of jams, chutneys and marmalades
Top Sellers of the Year:
97 jars of pickled onions
We don’t just sell our produce – most of it appears in the dishes on our café menu too.
From Garden to Market
You’ll find our handmade jams, chutneys and cordials stocked at The Commons Café and Colchester Refill Shop, and featured at local markets including:
• The Minories Pop-up
• Rice and Spice Festival at Firstsite
• Colchester Arts Centre Pop-up
• S&B Christmas Market at The Two Brews Market days are more than just sales, they’re a chance for Trainees to gain confidence, meet new people, talk about their art and proudly share their creations.
Marmalade Chilli Jam Elderflower Cordial
Over the past year...
Creativity Builds Community
We didn’t think we could top last year but 2024-25 exceeded our expectations!
As well as a booked-out gallery space our Trainees have taken their art across Essex, gained critical acclaim and achieved recordbreaking art sales. We’re working with an ever-increasing range of mediums, getting inspired by other artists and loving the creativity!
Trainee Talent in the Spotlight
February brought exciting recognition for our artists. Naomi and Sophie had their work accepted into Power of Many: Celebrating Collective Strength, a special exhibition by Women’s Assemble and The Minories, shown throughout March 2025.
Level Best Trainees proudly displayed their work at local railway stations as part of an initiative by the Essex and Suffolk Community Rail Partnership, bringing their creativity to new audiences across the region.
Ten Trainees exhibited their work at The Minories Summer Open Exhibition, with Simon celebrating a personal success by selling his knitting piece.
Meanwhile, Ben earned a prestigious artist development bursary from Firstsite, with support from staff member Megan. The bursary will help fund professional drawing materials and the creation of his own commercially printed colouring book, a fantastic step in his creative journey.
The space isn’t just for exhibitions – we also hosted we exhibited work by 20 artists in our gallery. Our gallery space is booked until 2027!
LIBRARY READINGS FILM SCREENINGS MINDFULLNESS SESSIONS WORKSHOPS
Worth a total of £2,428
466 pieces of original artwork and Trainee produced art products sold over 12 months
Artist-Led Workshops
A number of our exhibiting artists have generously volunteered their time to deliver specialist workshops for Level Best Art Trainees. Over the past year, these have included:
• Mariya McAllister – Still Life Masterclass
• Mikey O’Rourke – Lino Printing on T-Shirts
New Trainee Art Products
Building on their creative achievements, our Trainees have developed a new range of original art products for sale, including:
• Notebooks featuring original Trainee artwork on the cover
• Original prints and greetings cards
• Pride key rings
• Labels for our new products such as make-at-home popcorn kits
• Barry Strawson – Expressive Painting
• Wendy Fransella – Abstract Painting
These sessions have offered Trainees valuable opportunities to develop new artistic skills and creative confidence, and we thank these artists for their time. If you would like to collaborate with us in 2025-26 please let us know.
Celebrating our Trainees
By the numbers from 2024-2025:
94 Trainees placements
Types of sessions:
8,798 Total sessions
3,202 Art 3,046 Kitchen 852 Front of House 842 Seasonal 856 Allotment
Lights, Camera… Level Force!
Our Trainees became true superheroes this year with the premiere of ‘Level Force’, a short action film created over six weeks with support from Colchester-based video company Jellyfielders. From costume design to performance, the project was full of passion, fun, and fearless storytelling. We hosted a redcarpet premiere for Trainees, staff, and guests, complete with popcorn.
“I was nervous at first, but I felt amazing seeing it on the big screen.”
Level Best Trainee
“Welcoming, friendly, fun, amazing, safe, cool, epic, exciting, fantastic!”
New Learning Experiences
Trainees explored new environments and skills through interactive workshops and cultural visits, including a Pioneer Boat Trip, Multiply Maths course delivered by Colchester Institute, library outreach, a chess masterclass with E2-E4, Colne Radio interview skills, Jellyfielders Superhero Workshop, wreath-making, visits to Colchester Castle, Bourne Mill, Peach & Pippin Farm, and a pop-up craft sale.
Partnerships & Placements
We’ve worked with Chelmsford College and Chatten Free School on long-term placements, and with Lexden Springs and Southview School offering taster sessions for students. Our Monthly Trainee Spotlight exhibitions in the Level Best Café continue to champion individual creativity, showcasing personal projects like Georgia’s Cats, Eb’s Figure Drawings, Saffron’s Rugs, the Wall of Felix, and Simon’s Knitting. In December, Trainees collaborated with exhibiting artist and Level Best staff member Beth, creating response pieces that became part of her exhibition.
Our Biggest Celebrations
This year has been one to remember at Level Best, from national awards to homegrown creativity, we’ve had so many special moments. Here are a few stories that made us proud.
More Opportunities for More People
In 2024–25, Level Best Enterprises launched new Trainee placements thanks to a partnership with The League of Remembrance, a veterans’ charity. Their support funded four, twelve week placements for young adults with learning disabilities, offering valuable skills development and real-world experience.
“I love coming here. Level Best has helped me learn new skills and make friends.”
Level Best Trainee
Placements spanned catering, gardening, arts, and seasonal produce, helping Trainees build confidence, independence, and practical skills. This support allowed more people to join our programmes, broadening the impact of our inclusive training.
J’s story
Many young people with a learning disability receive no financial support after leaving education. Despite volunteering in a charity shop and applying for jobs 21-year-old J had been unsuccessful in getting employment and was socially isolated. Earlier this year, thanks to support from The League of Remembrance, J started a fully funded placement that has hugely boosted his confidence.
A night to remember!
We were excited to launch our first Venezuelan Supper Club at St Johns Street, celebrating authentic cuisine from guest chefs Sofia and Yovanni. It was a wonderful milestone in our journey to bring the best to our community and the first of many.
Community Events That Matter
Level Best has become a go-to venue for meaningful events of all kinds. We regularly host coffee mornings for Essex Sight, evening gatherings with Creative Colchester, and seasonal events like the Made in Colchester Christmas Market. A highlight this year was an 18th birthday celebration, where our catering and accessible space made it possible for all friends and family to join the big day.
Making Our Mark
Over the past 12 months, Level Best was recognised across the region for our commitment to inclusion, creativity, and community impact. We were proud to be Highly Commended Community Charity of the Year at the Essex Countywide Business Awards, and finalists at the National Diversity Awards, the National Learning Disabilities Awards, and the Colchester Business Awards. These nominations celebrate the daily efforts of our staff, volunteers, and Trainees to create a place where everyone is recognised, supported, and empowered to be their level best.
“It means so much to see what we do being recognised beyond our own walls and it inspires us to keep getting even bigger!”
Level Best Team Member
We’d like to say a huge thank you to our Trustees, staff, volunteers, sponsors and every person and organisation that has supported us this year.
Most of all, thank you to our unique, talented, incredible Trainees. Each one of you makes every day a fun, creative Level Best experience.