Community Programmes
Our role in the community
Stonebridge operates as a shared, open place where people come together through everyday activity. Our community programmes are not time-limited interventions or stand-alone projects. They are extensions of the farm’s daily life, built around participation, routine, and shared responsibility.
We focus on creating the conditions that allow connection to develop naturally: open access, real work, predictable rhythms, and a place people can return to.
What we Mean by Community Programmes
Join Us For Fun
Community programmes at Stonebridge bring people into the life of the farm in ways that are structured, purposeful, and accessible. They sit alongside volunteering and training but are designed for groups and individuals who benefit from a collective, supported environment.
Programmes are shaped by the needs of the community and the capacity of the farm. They evolve over time, rather than being delivered as fixed packages.
Our Community Projects
Stonebridge Re-Engage
We provide alternative provision for children and young people who are not thriving in mainstream education. The farm offers a calm, practical learning environment where young people can re-engage through hands-on work with animals, food growing, and land-based tasks. Learning is structured, relational, and grounded in real responsibility. This is not a holding space. It is a purposeful setting where routines, trust, and achievable work help young people rebuild confidence, regulate behaviour, and take steps back towards education, training, or other positive pathways, in partnership with schools and local services.
Stonebridge Skills Pathways
We provide guided learning opportunities for people who face barriers to education, training, or employment, including people living with learning disabilities, mental ill health, or additional support needs. Learning here is practical and grounded in real work. People build skills through caring for animals, growing food, working in the café and shop, and contributing to the daily running of the farm. Support is relational and consistent, with clear routines, trusted staff, and space to progress at a pace that works for each person.
Stonebridge Family Connections
We run free family activities at Stonebridge throughout the year, giving families time and space to explore, learn, and connect with the natural world. These sessions are open, informal, and rooted in everyday farm life, from meeting animals to getting hands-on in the gardens. You can see what is coming up on our events page here.
Stonebridge Walk and Talk
Walk and Talk offers a simple, low-pressure way for people to connect while spending time outdoors on the farm. Walking side by side reduces the intensity of face-to-face conversation and makes it easier for people to talk, reflect, or simply be alongside others without expectation. These sessions provide gentle structure, fresh air, and steady human contact for people who may feel isolated, anxious, or disconnected, using the everyday rhythms of the site to create a calmer space to engage.
Stonebridge Working Together
Volunteering at Stonebridge is part of how the farm functions as social infrastructure. Each week, around 160 volunteers contribute to the everyday work of caring for animals, growing food, preparing spaces, and welcoming visitors. Many people who volunteer here face barriers linked to disability, mental health, learning needs, or social isolation. Volunteering is not about filling time. It is about being useful, trusted, and part of something that matters. We offer structured roles, clear routines, and consistent support, so people can build skills, confidence, and a sense of belonging through real contribution here.
Stonebridge Community Impact Days
Community Impact Days invite local businesses, public sector teams, and community partners to take part in the everyday work of the farm. These are not one-off charity days. They are structured opportunities for groups to contribute to the upkeep of shared social infrastructure, from maintaining gardens and animal areas to supporting community spaces. The aim is practical. Work gets done, the site is strengthened, and participants leave with a grounded understanding of how community spaces are built and sustained, not just visited. here.
Stonebridge Shared Spaces
Community Enrichment at Stonebridge is about using the farm as shared social infrastructure. The site is used week in, week out by local residents and partner organisations for connection, support, learning, and mutual aid. From open access community sessions to regular group use by organisations such as Mencap, the farm functions as a dependable, everyday place where people can belong, build relationships, and take part in ordinary life together. This is not a programme of events. It is a lived-in space that reduces isolation and creates the conditions for community to form.
Stonebridge Sharing Table
The Sharing Table uses food as social infrastructure. It is a regular, shared meal on the farm where people can eat together in a calm, welcoming space, without referral, stigma, or expectation. The table creates a simple, reliable point of connection for people who may otherwise be isolated, struggling, or disconnected from local services. Sitting, eating, and being welcomed back month after month does quiet, practical work. It builds familiarity, trust, and a sense of belonging to something ordinary and shared, not singled out or “helped”.
Who Our Programmes Support
Our community programmes are used by:
- Local residents seeking connection and routine
- Families and carers spending time together in an open setting
- Community groups needing a safe, welcoming place to meet
- Organisations supporting people facing isolation, disability, or poor mental health
- Schools, colleges, and informal learning groups engaging with nature and food
We prioritise access for those who are often excluded from formal or paid provision.
How programmes work in practice
Community activity at Stonebridge is grounded in our everyday work. This may include:
- Group involvement in animal care and feeding routines
- Shared growing and gardening activity
- Practical sessions linked to food, land, and seasonal change
- Informal learning through observation, conversation, and repetition
- Supported use of the site as a meeting and gathering space
The Stonebridge environment provides structure and boundaries, allowing people to participate safely without the pressure of performance or assessment.
What these programmes achieve
The impact of our community programmes is relational and cumulative.
Participants' experience:
- Increased confidence through regular attendance
- Reduced isolation through shared activity
- Stronger connections across age, background, and circumstance
- A sense of contribution and belonging
For the wider community, the farm remains a visible, trusted place where people are welcome without needing a referral or diagnosis.
Working with partners
We work with local organisations, schools, and community groups to co-design activity that fits the farm and the people using it. Partnerships are built on clarity of purpose, shared responsibility, and realistic expectations.
We are careful not to over-programme. Protecting the farm as an open, working environment is essential to the success of all community activity.
Safeguarding and inclusion
All community programmes operate within Stonebridge’s safeguarding and health and safety frameworks. Staff provide oversight, guidance, and intervention where needed, balancing access with responsibility.
Inclusion is supported through clear expectations, flexible participation, and consistent routines. This allows people to take part meaningfully without compromising safety or animal welfare.
Inclusion without connection = access without belonging.
Many communities have lost informal, shared spaces where people can come together without pressure to consume or perform. Stonebridge provides an alternative: a working environment where connection grows through doing, not through programmes alone.
Keeping this space open and active requires care, coordination, and sustained support.