Why are we here?
Didcot is a rapidly expanding town and sadly services have not kept pace with growth.
In 2016 the County Council closed most of Oxfordshire’s Children’s Centres including the 3 that were in Didcot.
What are we doing?
In 2019 we ran The Didcot Grub Hub providing food and play for low income families over the summer holidays. In 2020 we provided activity/craft packs and distributed them via the Community Larder and Food Bank.
In the last 18 months we have concentrated on establishing the DCP as a charity which now works under the banner ‘Our Patch’. We hope you like the name and logo 😊
We have a 3 year business plan which has a vision of creating a caring community that supports people of all sorts. We welcome your idea’s and suggestions for our ongoing work and we would love you to be involved.
Our latest success is securing a small fund to pay for a part-time Family Worker. Steve will be with us initially until 31st December and will be concentrating on Dads in Didcot as well as some one-off events for parents and child carers. We are seeking funding for a longer term post and hope to have news on this soon 😊
We will also be creating a network of all the other organisations that work in our community to encourage partnership working and sharing of resources.
Obviously we will be seeking ongoing funding to extend our reach and the activities we offer to different age groups and parts of the area. We are on the lookout for fundraising ideas and possible donors .
Meet The Trustees
Jackie Logan
Trustee
Was an Oxfordshire County Council youth worker, specialising in young people with challenging behaviours and completing a 2-year certificate in counselling at Abingdon and Witney College. During this time, I also worked in the learning support department at St Birinus School. I started at Soha in 2004 as a Scheme Manager working with older people, moving into a community development role two years later. In 2013, I was seconded part time to South Oxfordshire District Council and one of the communities I worked with was Great Western Park, ensuring the Neighbourhood Centre was what the community wanted and setting up the residents’ association. My current role at Soha is Resident Engagement and Communities Manager. I am also a Trustee at the Berin Centre in Berinsfield.
Richard Kennell
Trustee
I came to Didcot in 1995 to take up a senior role with Didcot Sixth Forms, where I worked for 5 years. My subsequent roles included working with the partnership of local schools and developing/running education programmes for disengaged/disadvantaged young people. In 2014 I founded SOFEA, providing education, training and wellbeing support to local people disadvantaged in the labour market through our food redistribution enterprise. We work with over 200 people each year and the staff team has now grown to 60. Recently we have developed our role supporting the local community to include the Community Larder, CAMHS and social prescribing work.