4 December 2024
In the summer, a partnership was formed between our mental health and learning disability teams based at Roseberry Park and the Brickyard Bakery, a community interest company (CIC) based in Guisborough to help the people we care for gain skills that might help them access employment.
The six-month project takes place in a supportive environment with guidance from master baker Ed Hamilton-Trewhitt, who provides first-hand and practical baking expertise to equip our patients with skills.
Each week, hands are washed and aprons at the ready as everyone involved gets to work creating bread, focaccia and scones that are sold in the bakery shop. Time is also set aside to share new ideas and to develop and create new produce.
The project needed a name and the participants settled on ‘Care & Share Bakery’. A patient working with a community learning disability service set to work on designing and creating a fantastic logo to match the creative name that is proudly displayed in the bakery’s retail outlet in Dundas Arcade, Middlesbrough.
Not satisfied with selling produce in the shop, the group also wanted to help those in the community, and they arrange for surplus food to be donated to support local causes Connections Community Café and Doorways Middlesbrough.
“It’s quite good. It’s opened my eyes up to new horizons,” said one of our patients taking part in the project. “I think my scones have turned out alright and my bread has turned out good as well. It’s opened my eyes to other things that I can do.”
Baking is known to be a great therapeutic activity. It helps stimulate all of our senses and can help to relieve stress from kneading the dough, experimenting with flavours and thinking creatively about the finished product!
Moods can be boosted as the activity requires focus and concentration and following recipes brings calmness that creates happiness, especially when tasting the finished product.
“I’m learning to bake all these different types of breads and tarts and being able to try to make new things, including eating them!” said another patient. “I have enjoyed gaining new skills that have helped me a lot because I am now baking at home too.”
Alongside the project, some of our patients have gone on to complete Food Safety level 2 qualifications with Debbie Fixter from Sprouts Community Food Charity in Thornaby.
The baking project creates and builds relationships with others as well as boosting self-confidence. Everyone feels a sense of achievement once the produce has been made and best of all, enjoyed by others.
Project lead and occupational therapist, Simon Honeysett, said: “The project is still at an early stage, but it has been great to be able to offer a new opportunity to the people we care for and allow them to experience vocational roles.
“The aim is to develop long-term roles in volunteering, supported employment or supported enterprise and we are looking at building further community partnerships for this.
“We are grateful to Ed at the Brickyard Bakery for offering the space at the bakery and his own time and expertise to invest in the potential of people who can otherwise be overlooked or excluded from vocational environments.
“We see their confidence and skills growing week by week.”
The Brickyard Bakery provides commercial training for bread-making and baking including internships for young people, alternative education provision in partnership with local schools, courses for the general public and activities addressing food and fuel poverty in the wider community. Awards have also been won for its community work and the quality of its products.
