Location

Stourbridge

Get to know us

What Do We Offer Adults with Learning Disabilities? 

• Supported living opportunities 
• Work opportunities, enterprises, workshops and day placement activities  
• To be a part of a vibrant and diverse community 

Stourbridge Location 

Based in the busy town of Stourbridge fifteen miles west of Birmingham we provide an approach designed to enable those we support to actively involve themselves in the local community. We’ve a fantastic range of facilities on our doorstep such as colleges, shops and leisure facilities as well as access to privately rented or council accommodation.

We own a number of properties. Most are one bedroomed self-contained flats or bedsits. We also have some two-bedroomed flats and some houses where the people we support choose to live together. The support we offer focuses upon the individual living as independently as possible within the community.

Stourbridge is a market town with a population of over 60,000 in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, it’s approximately 12 miles from the City of Birmingham and sits on the south-western edge of the West Midlands conurbation. The town is based on the river Stour and with its network of canals and waterways, is known for being the centre of British glass making during the Industrial Revolution. Much of Stourbridge consists of residential streets interspersed with green spaces and parks and is surrounded by fields and woodland on one side and industry and housing on the other.

The town centre has seen major regeneration in recent years. In 2014, Lion Health medical centre opened on the grounds of the former Foster, Rastrick and Company foundry – where the ‘Stourbridge Lion’ locomotive was manufactured, the first ever steam train operated in the USA.

Support on Offer 

Across Stourbridge community and our Shared Lives service, we support a total of 124 adults with additional/complex needs, mainly learning disability, autistic spectrum disorder and mental ill health. 

We own a number of properties; most are one bedroomed self-contained flats or bedsits. In addition, we also have some two-bedroomed flats and some houses where the people we support choose to live together.

The support we offer focuses upon the individual living as independently as possible within the community. 

We also provide a regulated supported living service and is home to the Trust’s only residential care home, Ashfield House.  

Opportunities and Activities 

While many individuals aspire to full-time employment, most find that today’s job market is very difficult. And so, here at Camphill Village Trust Stourbridge, we’re very fortunate that we have a social enterprise which involves the people we support. 

Just outside the town centre we have a large organic garden called Ashfield Gardens. Here we offer fantastic opportunities for training and work experience in horticulture and animal husbandry.  

Ashfield Gardens is a five-acre site on the edge of Stourbridge. It’s a unique and caring organic garden facility, offering a variety of day placements for people we support in a semi-rural setting. Ashfield Gardens is a mixed site, with farm animals and horticultural areas. The food produced goes to support Camphill Village Trust housing in the area, and surplus is sold to the local community. 

We also have a large kitchen not far from the garden where we provide opportunities to gain cookery skills with many of the ingredients sourced from our own organic garden. 

We offer a variety of activities, such as:  

• Animal welfare. 
• Horticulture. 
• Arts & crafts. 
• Cookery. 
• Pottery. 

On the farm we currently have three donkeys, three pigs, three goats, two guinea pigs, three runner ducks, two peahens! 

Our day opportunities and activities are open to the people we support and to the wider community. Find out more here. If you’re interested in attending one of our day opportunities or activities, please contact us. 

Our History

There has been a Camphill Village Trust Community in Stourbridge town for over 50 years supporting adults with learning and other disabilities. It was originally called Camphill Houses and started in the late 1960’s as a single shared house. In 2012, the Trust merged with another charity called the Berith Foundation, and for a few years we were known as the Berith & Camphill Partnership. However, since 2019, we have been known as Camphill Village Trust Stourbridge Community.

Over the years, the community has grown considerably, and now includes; Ashfield Social Farm & Garden, a five-acre plot on the edge of the town providing day opportunities; Ashfield House, the Trust’s only residential care home for adults with complex needs, and we still provide supported living/floating support to many people who live independently in our properties across the locality. The Stourbridge Community currently supports approximately 60 adults, and has over 60 staff and several volunteers across the three services.

Since 2017, the Stourbridge Community offices have been the base to the Trust’s only Shared Lives Scheme, who work in partnership with households right across Dudley Borough, Wolverhampton, and the surrounding Black Country area. The Shared Lives scheme enables adults to be matched with households and they live/stay in the carers home as part of the family. The scheme currently supports 70 people who in turn are supported by approx 130 Shared Lives carers.

The Stourbridge Community is very different from some other Camphill Village Trust Communities, as we are based in and around the town, so we are quite fragmented. Nonetheless, we make sure we keep the spirit of a community going and invite everyone from all three services and Shared Lives to take part in celebrations and social events. We remain committed to the benefits that a sense of community brings to everyone together and most of the work we do is aimed at providing support within a community whilst also encouraging independence.

Want to Know More?

If you’re interested in finding out more about our communities, get in touch with us.

To make a support referral please click the link below to find out more.