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Impact Report 2020

Contents Welcome .....3 2020 at a glance .....4 Who we are and what we do . . . . . 6 Make Lunch .....8 Gillian’s Story . . . . . 17 Oasis: Pantry . . . . . 18 Sarah’s Story . . . . . 23 Kinship Carers Support Group . . . . . 26 12 Step Fellowship . . . . . 28 More about us . . . . . 30 Lydia’s Story . . . . . 31 Sharing Our Values . . . . . 32 Our Building . . . . . 33 Funding . . . . . 36 Partnerships . . . . . 37 Join In . . . . . 38

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Welcome Welcome to the 2020 Oasis Hub Bath impact report! We’ve committed to producing this report every January to reflect on the year just gone, and to measure the impact we’re having on those we’re working with through the projects we deliver. You’ll see those all-important facts and figures, but you’ll also hear stories and feedback from those who have participated in our work – from recipients of our covid response food parcels, to members of our weekly food pantry. There’s also a chance to read more about who we are and what drives us, as well as our hopes and dreams for the future. In addition to this annual impact report we produce a quarterly digital newsletter called ‘Hub News’. That’s a great way to keep in touch with everything we’re up to. If you’d like to receive a copy of that direct to your inbox, just let us know by emailing welcome@oasisbath.org, or go to our Issuu page https://issuu.com/oasishubbath to view the latest version online. You can also find us on social media, and there’s loads more information about all of our projects at www.oasisbath.org. Thank you for reading this, and for your support of Oasis Hub Bath! Jo Dolby Hub Leader

At a glance 131

223 7 Support groups hosted in our building

People who have benefitted from our weekly food pantry

People who have accessed one of our regular support groups

3468kg 28 Amount of food delivered to our food pantry from FareShare

2020

Pantry Volunteers

2020 2829

Individual bags of food delivered to families on low incomes through our food parcel project

Food Parcel Project Volunteers

8.5 tonnes Amount of food redistributed through our food parcel project

,760 5 3 £ £15,450 Raised through grants and trusts

Raised through Crowdfunder appeals

At a glance 5

Who we are Oasis Hub Bath is a partnership between Hay Hill Baptist Church and Oasis Community Partnerships, and exists as an independent charity (no.1138904) and company (no. 7236345). Hay Hill Baptist Church funds and hosts the charity in their building, which has now been renamed as Oasis Church Bath. Oasis Hub Bath was launched in 2018. Vision Our vision is for community – a place where everyone is included, making a contribution and reaching their God-given potential. Mission The Oasis Community Hub model brings together and integrates all our work in a local community to ensure that people’s needs are addressed holistically. In a local community we deliver services and partner with others to provide integrated care and support to all, across our core themes of community development, education, housing, advice and support, personal and spiritual development, health and wellbeing and social action & campaigning. However, we are not primarily a service provider. We seek to become part of the community and to put relationship and connection at the heart of all that we do. We therefore work with and alongside local people to bring about change. Values Our five ethos values are: • • • • • 6

A passion to include everyone A desire to treat everyone equally, respecting differences A commitment to healthy and open relationships A deep sense of hope that things can change and be transformed A sense of perseverance to keep going for the long haul

What we do Our Delivery Model The way the projects and services of Oasis Hub Bath are delivered can be explained by the tiered model here.

Direct Delivery This encompasses anything that Oasis Hub Bath deliver directly and independently, even if other organisations are involved.

Partnership Delivery This includes projects and services we co-deliver with one or more partner agency or organisation.

Hosted Delivery These are projects and services that are delivered by other agencies or organisations, but which use our facilities as a base.

Our Governance Structure

Our Staff

Trustees Stephen Natt (chair), Dave Vernalls (treasurer), Rob Trickey (secretary), Ben Senneck

Hub Leader Jo Dolby

Hub Team Administrator Elayne Morgan

Pantry and Make Lunch Co-ordinator Claire Henwood

Church Steering Group Claire Shelswell, Stephen Henwood, Jo Dolby, Rob Trickey

Hub Steering Group Lea Lawton, Sara Reynolds, Jo Rich, Jo Dolby

Make Lunch

Make Lunch,

in normal years, runs holiday clubs for primary school aged children and their families, providing enrichment activities and hot, nutritious meals in two locations of the city in each week of the school holidays. In 2020 these activities were significantly curtailed by Covid-19, and in fact we were only able to run one face-toface session in February. Early in lockdown, we started to offer support directly to a number of our Make Lunch families who had indicated they were struggling financially, with that impacting on their ability to provide enough food for their families. When the scale of the pandemic, and it’s likely impact and timeframe, became clear, we consulted with our families to work out the best way for us to support them. From that, we started to deliver weekly food parcels of store cupboard food, chilled food and fruit and vegetables.

We continued this from April through until the end of August, and expanded the range of people we were supporting as other organisations approached us to help their clients who were struggling. Of the 50 families who registered for food parcels, 70% said they were struggling to afford food because of the pandemic, with a further 22% saying they had found this very difficult even before the pandemic. In both October half term and the Christmas holidays we were still unable to meet in person, and so arranged to deliver food and activity packs to our families again. October half term news headlines were dominated by the campaign on extending Free School Meals into school holidays, headed up by the footballer Marcus Rashford.

We had decided to increase the number of families we were supporting this Christmas by 50%, and ran a successful fundraising campaign to support this. We were visited by Dine Romero, the leader of our local council, and Kevin Guy, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, to help them understand the scale of the issue, and hear how we have been tackling this issue over the last 4 years.

We then received an additional grant in December specifically to expand our Make Lunch provision over this winter, and were able to support 84 families in total. Our local MP Wera Hobhouse visited to see for herself how our share of the money raised through her October Holiday Hunger campaign with local charity 3SG was being spent.

Our Beneficiaries

Our Food

Our existing Make Lunch families, who would previously have attended our clubs, originally came to us through a combination of close links with several local schools, other children’s professionals in the area, and word of mouth.

The majority of the food our families have received this year has come through Fareshare Southwest. Significant quantities of the fruit and vegetables we delivered between April and August was funded by the Salvation Army, and provided by Bath Wholesale Fruiterers.

Through the food parcel delivery project we had some additional referrals through housing associations, PCSOs, other charities and local schools. Our Make Lunch members live primarily in the south-west of the city, often in Twerton, Foxhill, Whiteway and Southdown, with a few in Odd Down and Oldfield Park. On the other side of the city, we have clusters of families living in Snow Hill and also around Julian Road. Wanted to thank you so much for the food and presents from Oasis. Really really helped. Thanks so much. I pretended the Elves left the Activity Bag on the doorstep for them on Christmas Eve.. BIG Excitement!! Thanks so much to all you very kind people. 10

Many families cited the fruit in particular as a highlight of their deliveries, and we had many anecdotal reports through our volunteers of children desperate to see what fruit was in their delivery that day! This Christmas, we were very fortunate to be offered some Christmas food, and other staples, from Bath Foodbank to send out with our Christmas deliveries. We are very grateful for their generosity. Thank you so so much. I can’t express how grateful I am… The kids will come back to all that lovely stuff to do this afternoon. Of course the food is wonderful too. I didn’t expect that at all.

Our Activities When we were able to run our clubs face-to-face we would provide a series of enrichment activities, focussed on improving health & wellbeing, increasing skills, providing opportunities for families to engage with each other, and to provide experiences children might not have otherwise. We do this through sporting activities, street dance lessons, cookery sessions and a great array of craft activities for parents and children to participate in together. We’ve had to find different ways to do that this year. Read on to hear about what we’ve done! To support families confidence in cooking we’ve delivered Jack Monroe’s “Tin Can Cook”book and provided links to cook-along videos from the Virgin Cook It team. We also gave the families a recipe booklet created by some of our volunteers called “Let’s Cook Together”, which showed very simple recipes and ways to adapt them to make more dishes. To go along with that, we provided some of the basic equipment and store cupboard foods needed to cook these recipes. We shared our recipe booklet with other local organisations, and were very encouraged with the amount of positive feedback, and indeed the number of other organisations who wanted to share it with their members and clients. We’ve provided outdoor play equipment and games such as frisbees to encourage families to be active, and to engage in playing together. We delivered printed copies of the free e-book “How to stay calm in a global pandemic” by Dr Emma Hepburn, along with mindfulness activity packs. We’ve also created highly popular craft kits, covering a wide variety of ages, and have had some brilliant feedback. 11

Our Partnerships

I’d like to thank absolutely everyone who has made sure we have had amazing food parcels every week. My son and I have been overwhelmed by the quality and amount of amazing items we’ve received. We would like to thank everyone that have ensured we have such great food parcels every week, and given up their time and risked their own selves to deliver to us every week. Thank you all so very much. (Sarah)

Make Lunch was set up in partnership with Southdown and Whiteway Church & Community Partnership, based in Southdown Methodist Centre. We work closely together to plan and deliver all of our Make Lunch sessions, and the key Make Lunch team involves people from both. A new partnership for us this year was with the Salvation Army. They offered us their city centre café as a base for the food parcel project, and provided large quantities of fruit and vegetables for our deliveries each week, along with some truly amazing volunteers! We’ve previously partnered with Get Sported, Virgin Cook It and Motus Dance, and had intended to again this year. We’ll be looking to resume our local partnerships when we are able. We are part of the Affordable Food Network in Bath, which is a forum for all local organisations and charities involved in low cost or emergency food provision. This has proven a very valuable network, and we are working jointly on a number of initiatives which will benefit the wider group. Part of the work that has happened from this group is a series of press releases on affordable food networks within Bath, which are highlighting a different organisation or type of provision monthly.

We the Habilas (myself, wife, and 3 children) wish to express our profound gratitude to Make Lunch Team as well as the Oasis Hub Bath in collaboration with the Southdown Whiteway Church and Community Partnership for delivering food parcel to our address. We don’t take this act of charity for granted as it has been of tremendous support to our dear family. This means a lot to us. Toward this, we have been constantly praying for your wellbeing and God blessing especially in this challenging times. Your generosity makes us see life in a different spectrum and are inspired to positively touch humanity in some way. (John Habila Mormi) The food parcels have been extremely helpful and very much appreciated! They have made lockdown a lot more bearable, as the school parcels are definitely not enough to live on for a week. Thank you so much! (Anonymous) Thank to these weekly parcels we were able to give all 6 of our children and ourselves healthy meals 3 times a day and make snacks for them in between. The games and books were also a hit with the children each week and gave them something to look forward to. It also meant that as parents we weren’t worrying about food each week. (Anonymous) I would like to say a big thank you to you all for all your hard work - heaven is definitely missing a few angels. I am having surgery in a few weeks so these food parcels are a god send. Keep up the good work and stay safe. (Yvonne)

What was the impact of our Food Parcel Project from March to August?

652 36

20 Number of delivery weeks

2103 Total number of individual deliveries

6.551 tonnes

Number of volunteers

adults

1122 Miles travelled by our drivers

Number of bags of food delivered

families Food redistributed from Fareshare

Number of beneficiaries

120

children

What was the impact of our Food Parcel Project from October to December?*

196

37 726

Number of delivery weeks

= families

Number of beneficiaries

adults

210 Miles travelled by our drivers

185

Number of volunteers

2 tonnes

103

children 14

Number of bags of food delivered

Total number of individual deliveries

Food redistributed from Fareshare

Please note:- this includes the second Christmas holiday delivery on 4th January, and includes an additional 28 families we were able to support as a one off this Christmas thanks to a specific, additional grant. These additional families included women and children living in a number of refuges, and other families who are members of our Pantry but whose children are either pre-school or secondary school age.

23,897 Thank you so much to yourselves and the volunteers, massive help this Christmas and every other time!! So grateful (Sarah)

The recipes are an amazing idea and really helpful. Thanks so much. (Anonymous)

A big thank you to all involved you have made life a bit more bearable and the packages were gratefully received. You have all put yourselves at risk for the sake of others. I wish you all a very happy, healthy and prosperous New Year. Stay safe and thanks again (Yvonne)

I would like to say a massive thank you for all the help me and my kids received over the Christmas break, thank you!!!!

Number of individual meals served from April to September

4,284

Number of individual meals served from October to December

28,181

(Sasha)

Total number of individual meals served 15

It’s been so good to see how amazingly all of the team have responded to the changes we’ve needed to make to Make Lunch, and to see all our new volunteers become part of the team too. It’s so great to be part of such an amazing team! (Claire, steering team member)

It was great to be part of the Make Lunch team yesterday! I would love to be involved again. I suspect that the new lockdown will make these deliveries more important than ever, and I’m keen to do my little bit. Thanks to you and all the organisers behind Make Lunch for making it happen! (Matt, new volunteer)

May I take this opportunity to congratulate the Make Lunch team for their wonderful organisation - it is an honour to be able to help.

(Janet, volunteer)

Looking ahead in 2021 We’re expecting to carry on with delivering food and activity packs up until the beginning of the summer holidays. We’ll then be taking a bit of time to plan for the relaunch of our face to face sessions, hopefully in October half term. We’re looking to expand the partners we work with, and will be working on all of that behind the scenes while we continue our deliveries.

Gillian’s Story* “I wanted to tell my story of how I’ve been supported by Oasis. Two years ago I found myself in this not very familiar city, going through an expensive separation after leaving an abusive relationship. With young children to care for and with no family this side of the country, it’s been a difficult journey with little let up. Having stumbled across the lovely staff at the Salvation Army in town, they arranged for me to start receiving food parcels from Oasis, as part of their covid response food parcel project. Oasis then also introduced me to the Oasis Response Fund, which released some emergency money to me that relieved some of the immense financial pressure I was under. Being a single parent and knowing most of the money in the bank does not belong to me, but would be swallowed up on the next expensive legal bill, just being in the supermarket would make my head spin as I had to make difficult decisions about what I could spend on food for my family. The Oasis Pantry has literally been an Oasis. Knowing that I have this reassurance of healthy and varied food being able to be purchased by myself at low-cost has certainly eased the pressure. They see me at my worst, I’m always tired from work, always weary coming through the doors week after week, but I know that I will be able to collect some nutritious and lovely food for my family and be greeted by smiling faces, familiarity and friendliness. My own family is very far away and friends have been cut off because of the pandemic. It means a lot to know that Oasis are there every week come rain or shine, come lockdown or not lockdown. When the food pantry is physically not open there is always a food parcel delivered, created with love, care and consideration of who is receiving it with little extras for the children and for this Mum. I know the food will be there and the support will be there when needed. It’s an extremely important facility for our community, and I’m extremely grateful for it and all who are involved with this amazing project.”

Thank you, Gillian*, for sharing your story with us!

(* name has been changed) 17

Pantry Oasis:Pantry opened in September 2020, to fulfil a growing need for long term access to low cost, high quality food. This need had been identified through a number of different channels, including the long term holiday hunger project run by Oasis (Make Lunch), and the emergency Covid-19 food parcel project which delivered weekly food parcels for 19 weeks in mid-2020. The pantry model has been adopted nationally to complement the crisis response offered by foodbank, and to offer people a way to stay out of crisis situations. Oasis:Pantry is a community membership model – people choose to become members, which then means they can access a range of chilled foods, fruit and vegetables, storecupboard foods and toiletries each week for a small membership fee. We offer two membership levels, one at £2 each week and one at £3.

Our key principles We believe that everyone should be able to access high quality, nutritious food at a price that is affordable, and that everyone should be treated with dignity and respect. We follow “Dignity in Practice” principles to ensure that people who are experiencing food inequality feel welcomed, valued and involved, and feel that they have choice and control over the food they eat.

Our members Our membership has grown to its current level of 75 members, and on average between 30 and 35 attend on any given week. Reasons for membership are varied: Some members have joined because of the impact of Covid on their household situation and finances. Perhaps because someone in the household has been furloughed or made redundant, or because they don’t qualify for any of the support measures put in place because of the nature of their employment; 60% of members are unemployed long term; nearly 20% of our members are being supported having left their homes through domestic abuse; two thirds are supported by support workers across a variety of different areas.

By age group

By gender

Our Food

Our partnerships

The bulk of our food is sourced through Fareshare Southwest, who deliver approximately 130kg of food to us weekly. They also offer occasional deliveries of a pallet of ambient food. We have a great working relationship with a local school, who ring us each week to share any chilled or fresh food from their own Fareshare Southwest delivery that they cannot utilise.

We have established networks with several local charities and agencies. We have a strong partnership with several different teams within Julian House, namely the Supported Housing team, Renew and the Homeless and Rough Sleepers team.

We are also part of the CropDrop scheme in B&NES, set up to match up allotment holders, and occasionally other organisations eg hotels with kitchen gardens, who have a surplus of a particular food with local organisations who can distribute that produce more widely. We have been fortunate enough to benefit from several CropDrop deliveries this autumn, which come with QR code links to recipes for us to distribute with the vegetables. Any surplus food we have at the end of a session is redistributed again – either to Julian House, or to a local lunch club who are making and delivering soup and bread to their members while they are unable to meet in person. Everything is used! 20

The attendance rate for the supported housing and Renew teams is good, however the attendance of the members referred by the rough sleepers team is low. A member of the Julian House staff team attends the session each week, and the support workers are actively encouraging members to attend. We’re also working ever more closely with Genesis, both with the team at the Gateway Centre in Snowhill, and with the Foodbank team. We have received referrals from both, and are working with one of the Foodbank Trustees exploring options for providing wrap-around support and referrals to other agencies.

I’m a domestic abuse survivor and have 2 young children. My benefits were stopped by mistake and I started to struggle to make ends meet. The Pantry has been a life saver over this period as I’ve been able to get nutritious food at a fraction of the usual price. The extra support over Christmas was amazing too and the presents we received really made the day. (Anonymous member)

Word of mouth has proven to be a very powerful way of attracting new members. Of the 17 referrals by word of mouth, 5 can be linked to one member, with another due to join on their recommendation imminently! We are part of the Affordable Food Network in Bath, which is a forum for all local organisations and charities involved in low cost or emergency food provision. This has proven a very valuable network, and we are working jointly on a number of initiatives which will benefit the wider group. One of the great things to come out of this group’s work is a series of press releases on affordable food networks within Bath. Every month a different organisation or type of provision is featured.

It is important for me during this difficult time to be a member of Oasis Pantry. It helps me a lot to manage my financial difficulties as they provide variety of food at an affordable price compared to the original price of the items. Volunteering is a choice in the pantry, so I have started to volunteer with Oasis’s team who are very supportive and friendly, I was keen to have this opportunity. (Anonymous member and volunteer)

It’s been fantastic. Clients may sometimes rely on foodbank and that can become a dependency. Some of our clients come from a good 10-15 minutes walk away - they come with a sense a pride and independence. There’s no shame attached, they are having an experience of going shopping, and choosing their food, not receiving a handout. That transactional relationship is really important because it requires commitment. There’s not a sense of entitlement - there’s a sense of gratitude. (Hannes Lann, Julian House supported housing team)

I’ve looked forward to my weekly visit to the Pantry, it is good to have some structure at the moment, a place to go which is safe and welcoming, and is there to help. Everyone is really friendly and it really brightens up my very lonely at the moment days. Thank you to you all for everything you do for me and others. Thank you for being there for us. Thank goodness for the Oasis team….. Thank you for all you’ve done for the year. Thank you for today…there were so many nice things. Hearing the words “how are you doing?”, when this is the only time I might hear this in a week, is very valuable.

“Being part of Oasis:Pantry is such a privilege. Connecting with our members each week, and seeing their response to coming into the pantry is so special. We have a few people who come from outside our immediate area, and in each case it’s because they value the relationships we’ve built so much. For others, coming to the pantry at the moment is the highlight of their week – a chance to get out, to have a fixed routine in their week, the chance to say hello to another adult. One of the most important things for me is that our members feel really welcomed and comfortable when they’re with us, and some of the conversations we have are a real testament to the amazing atmosphere our volunteers create. Everyone has a story, and I feel really privileged that some of our members choose to share theirs with us. Hearing words like those in the box above, and having conversations like that weekly, really brings home to me just how important it is to have the Pantry open and running as we are, and how the ethos and values of Oasis rightly underpin everything we do. I love working with our amazing volunteer team too – they are such lovely people, and have really gone over and above to support the Pantry this year. Coming in to work at the Pantry is honestly such a joy – I look forward to it every week!” (Claire Henwood, Oasis: Pantry Coordinator) 22

Sarah’s Story Sarah first heard about the Pantry through a leaflet from her child's school, where there had been an assembly about the Pantry. It seemed ideal, as finances had come under additional pressure due to the impact of Covid 19 on her work situation - she couldn’t work, but didn’t qualify for any of the support provided by the government. Sarah is now one of our regular members, and her words below describe the impact the Pantry has had on her family. "In these exceptional times, with the uncertainty of income from my self-employed work, and as a single parent, I have found the Oasis Pantry a lifeline and fantastic service. A service that, if it didn't exist, I would struggle to put nutritious food on the table for my family. Through the generosity of consumable donations from the various sources, and with the wonderful welcome I receive each week, I don't know how I would have kept my financial head above water if the Pantry didn't exist. The joy of walking through the door, not knowing what will be available that week, is great. Seeing other people walking out with bags laden full of such a range of products with smiles on their faces (bearing in mind that their eyes are smiling, whilst wearing face masks), and their grateful demeanours, is so good. When I open my kitchen cupboards to fill with the items I have collected from the Pantry, knowing that it is affordable, it is such a relief. I don't know what I would do without the Pantry. I am so very grateful to the team that make this happen."

Thank you, Sarah, for sharing your story with us! 23

Current Members

Average attendance since beginning of November

(Direct Beneficiaries)

131

3,468kg

16 weeks Total number of beneficiaries

Total weight of food delivered

(including partners and children)

28 Number of volunteers 24

12 Previous Make Lunch or Food Parcel volunteers

New volunteers

124kg

Average weight of food delivered weekly

Looking ahead in 2021 We expect membership to continue to grow through 2021, with a maximum anticipated membership of around 100 members. We will continue to develop our existing partnerships, and explore potential new partnerships. In life beyond this stage of Covid-19, we can’t wait to open our community café, offering the opportunity to develop deeper relationships, and offer wrap-around support to our members. We’re already talking to several local organisations about how we can work together in this, and will use the “dignity in practice” approach to underpin this. We’d like to develop a network of charitable supporters – schools, churches, local business - who can help to support and promote the pantry in a variety of different ways. We’ll be looking at what our members tell us would be useful for them, whether that’s additional provision of, for example, perishable staples such as eggs and milk, or particular skills development such as cooking lessons. We’re looking to develop a standard format for recipe cards, which we can then share with the Affordable Food Network so we can create a joint bank of recipes for all groups and their members or clients to access.

Kinship Carers Support Group We run a Kinship Carers’ Support Group in partnership with BANES Council’s Family Placement Team. Kinship care is ‘when a child lives full-time or most of the time with a relative or friend who isn’t their parent, usually because their parents aren’t able to care for them’. (source: Grandparents plus). There are around 200,000 children in the UK living in kinship care, and approximately 100 kinship carers in BANES. Research shows that around half of children (52%) are in kinship care as a result of parental drug or alcohol misuse, although other reasons include bereavement, imprisonment, parental abuse or neglect and parental ill health. Almost half of children in kinship care have some kind of special needs (49%), most commonly emotional and behavioural difficulties. Despite these complex needs kinship carers often don’t receive the same level of support as foster carers, so our monthly support group provides an important service and enables kinship carers to access vital peer support, as well as being able to talk with social care and be signposted to relevant support and resources. While some of our planned sessions have had to be cancelled or moved online due to Covid, we’ve managed to meet consistently throughout 2020 and have a regular group of 6 – 10 attendees. During a typical session we have unstructured time for people to talk and share what’s going on for them, and we also invite speakers and guests to share their insights on various relevant topics such as attachment and social media. 26

During the first lockdown our volunteers were able to put together self-care packs for over 20 kinship carers in BANES and beyond.

It has been very good to know that I am part of a supportive group that understands the problems and issues that being a special guardian brings. (Sophie, Kinship Carer)

Oasis’ involvement in running the group is essential not just because they have provided us with a safe space to run the group but also because their involvement in its running demonstrates its impartiality. Kinship carers have often endured extremely stressful experiences through the court process and many people are disillusioned with professionals and particularly social workers. Oasis have been able to offer a support group which is for carers with no other agenda. It enables us to continually give carers the choice over how the group is run, whether they want professionals there or not and supports people to rebuild trust in services. (Hannah Simpson, Senior Practitioner, BANES Council Family Placement Team)

It was really good for my wife and I to have the chance to meet others with caring difficulties and to be able to talk about things. (David, Kinship Carer)

“Thank you so much for the care package. It meant a great deal and made me feel that we are not alone” (Shelley, Kinship Carer)

The support group is invaluable, as it offers our carers a safe space to come together to give and receive support, discuss hot topics and access key training. The opportunity to work alongside Oasis has been key in creating the warm, informal and relaxed environment that help makes our carers feel so welcome. (Alison Walker, Family Support Practitioner, BANES Council Family Placement Team)

Twelve Steps Fellowship Through our partnerships with Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and Narcotics Anonymous (NA), Oasis Church Bath is home to six different addiction support groups. AA and NA provide a range of peer led support for addicts at different stages of their recovery. We offer our building at a significantly discounted rate, without which many of the meetings we host would close down.

enough to d in k is t c s Proje nonymou A s “The Oasis ic t o c r o hold Na a literal life e r a s allow us t g in t e These me get clean meetings. th people trying to to o ears trying y saver for b le ip lt u with m reciate and those e all massively app .W eetings, stay clean ave face-to-face m to h andemic.” p e h t t the ability u o through particularly

“It has been a lifeline to my men tal health, I was very much in a dark place at the beginning an d the groups have helped me st art to feel more hopeful.”

elped “It’s really h clean of me to stay ain drugs and g well as support as er people support oth eeds.” with their n

“It has helped me face myself head on. I’ve improved my relationship with myself and others.”

127 6 Addiction support groups hosted weekly in our building

Number of sessions

“Our group pported, u s y ll ta to feels couraged n e d n a to listened by at all times am.” the Oasis te

217 Attendees at our addiction support groups

ing and f “Becom ember o m a s a g continuin proved my life AA has im those around of and that rably.” u s a e m me im Quartet Community Foundation’s recent ‘Vital Signs’ report reveals a 25% increase in drug use in BANES, and the need to focus on early intervention and prevention. Groups such as NA and AA help people who are recovering from addiction stay clean and sober, and provide them with the support they need to stop them from going back into active addiction. 29

More About Us

come as you are

Oasis Hub Bath exists because of a partnership between Hay Hill Baptist Church and Oasis UK. Hay Hill Baptist Church was built in 1869 and has a long history of social action and community work in the city.

attendance is not a requirement for anyone accessing or volunteering at our projects, nor is it an intended outcome or strategic aim of the hub’s work. We want to be really clear about this.

Alongside social action the church is committed to the inclusion of all and after a period of research and reflection, Hay Hill approached Oasis UK with the desire to join the charity, and become Oasis Hub Bath – a registered independent charity with the support and infrastructure of Oasis UK. We did this because of our strong alignment with the Oasis ethos and values, and our belief in the Oasis hub model as an exciting method of community transformation.

As a church, we’re excited about a progressive and evolving faith, one that is growing, changing and asking good questions. We value dialogue over monologue – we know a healthy church community is one that is diverse and holds together lots of different experiences and beliefs. We want everyone to have a voice, and be completely free to ‘come as they are’ and ‘become fully who they are’.

As part of this new partnership, Hay Hill Baptist Church changed to Oasis Church Bath and forms part of Oasis Hub Bath. Christian faith motivates us as a charity, and drives us to bring about justice and help those who are in need in our community, just like all charities and movements are inspired by a certain set of values or beliefs. Our hub projects and services are governed separately, and Christian faith or church 30

We meet on Sundays but we also have various mid-week groups and activities, as well as groups for children and young people. One of the things we’re most proud of as a church, is our affirmation and celebration of the LGBT+ community. Historically the church worldwide hasn’t exactly been known for that, and we’re determined to change the story when it comes to LGBT+ inclusion and the church.

Lydia’s Story I’ve always felt a connection to God, but I found forging a relationship with a church to be much more difficult. Growing up as a gay Christian, I felt that I was walking on eggshells every time I entered a church. When I came to Bath for university, I spent much of my first year trying out churches. I even ended up finding one that I loved, but I felt the same issue; though everyone seemed lovely, I could never gauge their opinion on the LGBTQ+ community. As a result, I felt I could never fully open up to anyone because I felt too scared to mention anything relating to my sexuality. Eventually, the process became so draining that I stopped trying to find a church. Then, in December 2019, I stumbled upon a poster advertising Oasis’ LGBT+ affirming Christmas carol service. I remember being shocked that such a thing even existed, and knew immediately I had to go. I dragged one of my housemates along and, sitting at the side of the packed church, I almost immediately felt at home. As the service went on, I became more and more emotional. I realised that I had never sat in a church and heard queer people discussed, much less in a positive way. It had always felt like such a taboo subject, something that could maybe be okay so long as I didn’t bring it up. But here I was, surrounded by people who filled themselves with God’s love and openly poured it onto everyone, me included. From that day onwards, Oasis has continued to amaze me. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that support for the LGBTQ+ community is a topic constantly discussed, rather than just reserved for a once-ayear token service. For the first time in my life, I feel completely comfortable discussing my sexuality with everyone in the church community. My favourite thing about Oasis is that I can be truly myself, surrounded by those who not just accept me, but celebrate the way God made me.

Thank you, Lydia, for sharing your story with us! 31

Sharing our Values Changing the story when it comes to LGBT+ people and the church is something that requires practical action as well as cultural change. As well as working hard to make our church an inclusive space, we’ve been involved in conversations and collaborations with others to enable those beyond our own community to reflect on what inclusion might look like for LGBT+ people of faith. Here’s some of what we’ve been up to recently… In December 2019 we held an LGBT+ affirming carol service in partnership with our friends at St Stephens Church and Christchurch. The church was absolutely full, and it was a deeply moving evening. Many of those who attended told us that it was the first time in a long time they’d felt safe and welcomed in a church setting. We hope to repeat the event in 2021. Our Hub Leader, Jo Dolby, has been able to support local charity Off the Record’s LGBT+ youth groups ‘Space’ and ‘Outer Space’ by visiting to share a bit of her own story, and to talk about inclusion, faith and sexuality. Young people who attend Outer Space worked with Jo to create a film with messages they wanted to pass on to churches. You can view that film by going to https://vimeo.com/oasisbath/lgbtmessagetothechurch or use the QR code here. Jo also took an assembly at St Mark’s School in Bath as part of LGBT+ history month, again discussing inclusion and the church.

Our Building In 2019 we received a grant from St Johns Foundation to conduct a feasibility study on our grade two listed, 150 year old building, Oasis Church Bath. This building is home to many of our projects and services, as well as those of other charities and community groups. The building is an incredible resource – it has three separate floors as well as a balcony office space, and is centrally located on the Paragon in the Walcot/Lansdown part of the city. However, it also provides some significant challenges, and is in need of a major refurbishment having not been upgraded since the 1980’s. It is our hope to complete this refurbishment in the next five years, turning Oasis Church Bath into ‘a home for the city’. In 2019 we commissioned local architects Connolly Wellingham to complete the feasibility study, with the aim of providing us with a clear plan for development. The study took place throughout 2020, and with the help of structural and service engineers and a quantity surveyor project managed by Connolly Wellingham, we now have an exciting and ambitious set of plans for the future. Our vision is simple – we want to be a home for the city. We want to be a thriving, bustling and busy community hub, where local people feel safe and at home, and can access a range of services and projects. We want our building to be welcoming, accessible, practical and exciting, and we’re committed to achieving this with as little impact on the environment as possible. 33

Our plans include; •

A new floor to host the counselling practice and offices of Focus Counselling

•

An upgraded and refurbished community space to house all our support groups and meetings

•

Improved accessibility throughout with a new ramp/ entrance and a lift on every floor

•

Modernised and eco-friendly systems and services

•

A new community kitchen to host our food pantry and holiday hunger project

In 2021 we’ll be exploring the next steps needed to turn this dream into a reality, and we’ll be posting regular updates on social media and through our quarterly newsletter ‘Hub News’.

We’d like to offer our heartfelt thanks to St Johns – without whom we simply could not have completed the study. It has put us in the best possible position to secure our building as a resource for the local community, and to give us a strong and secure future in the city. 35

Funding Like many charities, all the activities of Oasis Hub Bath are completely dependent on the generosity of our supporters and grant funders.

Our grant funders in 2020;

In 2020 we have seen an encouraging increase in the amount of people who have committed to supporting us through monthly standing orders, and we’ve also had a 95% success rate with the grant applications we’ve submitted. We’ve held two successful Crowdfunder campaigns and we’ve also enabled online giving through our new Just Giving page. We would like to thank everyone who has supported us financially this year. We hope that reading this report helps to communicate the amazing difference your donations and grants have made.

THANK YOU! 36

With heartfelt thanks also to; The members of Oasis Church Bath Waitrose Sovereign Housing 3SG Wera Hobhouse MP BANES Council Radstock and Midsomer Norton Lions Club Crowdfunder

Partnerships Focus Counselling In November 2020 we were thrilled to welcome Focus Counselling to our ‘hosted delivery’ tier, as they relocated their office and counselling practice into our building at Oasis Church Bath. Focus have been providing affordable, professional counselling to the city for over 20 years, and we’re so excited to be partnering with them in this way. As well as having relocated to Oasis Church Bath in the shortterm, they’ll also be a key part of our building refurbishment project, which will now include a bespoke floor designed just for them to ensure they have everything they need - for now and well into the future. To find out more about Focus you can visit their website at www.focusbath.com

Bath Mind Bath Mind will be launching their ‘Breathing Space’ project from our basement community space in 2021. Breathing Space will aim to reduce emotional and psychological distress and offer an alternative to attending Accident & Emergency (A&E) or the Intensive / Crisis Team when people are experiencing or at risk of escalating to a mental health crisis. It will be open every evening of the year without exception, from 5.30 – 11.30pm. Breathing Space will be staffed with skill-mixed, appropriately trained mental health professionals with capacity to work with people in emotional / mental health distress. It will act as a safe haven, with social care and peer support available, within a safe, comfortable and sociable environment, which encourages informal buddying and peer support, and with an emphasis on social prescribing or signposting. The aim is that through early intervention in people’s pre-crisis conditions and emotional distress, people will be better empowered to regain control and minimise the impact of a crisis on their own functioning, quality of life and impact on their families and friends. We’re so excited to be hosting such a ground-breaking and important service! Visit www.bathmind.org.uk for more information. 37

Join In

Join in by giving financially To enable our projects to run, ongoing financial support is essential. Giving regularly to us means you are helping us provide practically for people in need such as food for our pantry, as well as funding staff roles such as our hub leader to enable projects to be developed and managed. You can support the work of Oasis Hub Bath in the following ways; 1) You can fill in a standing order form to give a regular amount of your choice from your bank account each month. This is the best way to help us as it means we can plan ahead, and claim gift aid on donations given. To download a form visit www.oasisbath.org/donate. You can also sign up to give regularly online through our Just Giving Page: www.justgiving.com/oasishubbath

Oasis Hub Bath projects are only possible because of the

support of individuals and organisations who partner with us in various ways. From volunteering at one of our hub projects, to giving regularly through a standing order, there are loads of ways you can help us do what we do.

The invitation is open to everyone to join in! 38

2) You can give a one-off donation online by visiting www.justgiving.com/oasishubbath 3) You can give a one-off donation of up to £20 by texting ‘OASISHUBBATH’ and the amount you’d like to give to 70450. For example to give £20 you would text ‘OASISHUBBATH 20’ to 70450.

Join in by volunteering Our projects rely on volunteers and we always have roles available for those who want to give some of their time. You could volunteer at our weekly food pantry, help out in the school holidays at our Make Lunch sessions, or offer your own specialist skills such as design or fundraising. One of our volunteers recently described what being involved meant for them… “It’s a privilege to volunteer with Make Lunch and to be part of such a great team. It has helped me throughout the pandemic to be able to do something that helps others in a very practical, direct way.” (Lea, steering group member)

Join in by fundraising If you are looking for a challenge then fundraising for us is a good way to support us, raise awareness of the work we do and motivate yourself. You might want to involve friends or colleagues in doing so too. Contact us for ideas and information, this could include running the Bath Half, nominating us with your employer as ‘charity of the year’, or setting up a business partnership. Email welcome@oasisbath.org to find out more.

Join in by telling others about us Alongside supporting practically or financially we want others to know about the work that we do. Through communicating the work of Oasis Hub Bath to others you can help ensure that those who may benefit from accessing our projects or organisations who work with individuals who need support know about us. It also helps us to develop partnerships and identify those who can support us in the ways outlined above. There are a number of ways that you can help let others know about us. You could follow us on our social media pages and share what we do. Alongside this we produce a quarterly newsletter called Hub News which gives an update of what we have been doing. Why not have a read and share with others?

Find out more about us at

www.oasisbath.org

Fountain Buildings, The Paragon, Bath, BA1 5DU 01225 422604 welcome@oasisbath.org

@oasishubbath @oasisbath @Oasis_Bath