Blyth Star Enterprises - Somewhere to Live. Somewhere to Work. Someone to Care.
What does Blyth Star Enterprises do?
Blyth Star Enterprises is a registered charity which provides rehabilitation and recovery services for adults living with complex mental health needs and learning disabilities. Through a comprehensive range of living support services and day services that reflect as closely as possible, real working environments, we help individuals to develop or regain the skills and confidence they need to live fulfilled, independent lives in their local communities.
Why was the charity founded?
Blyth Star Enterprises was established in 1987 by a group of parents, carers and professionals who came together with a shared vision for a service that would provide a better quality of life for people with mental health needs and learning disabilities.
At the time Blyth Star was founded, opportunities for individuals accessing social care services were limited. The provisions in place didn’t support rehabilitation or recovery, which inevitably lead to many people enduring a continuous cycle of rehospitalisation.
By combining support, training, accommodation and rehabilitation together, Blyth Star developed a unique pathway that would support people from hospital to independent living – it’s a model that we’ve continued to develop over the years in line with the ever-changing needs of our service users and to date has helped thousands of people to take back control of their lives.
Which area do you cover?
While we might have ‘Blyth’ in our name, our services cover the whole of Northumberland. In addition to our outreach services, which span as far north as Berwick and as far west as Hexham, we also run two small community enterprises in the region, Stakeford Nurseries in Stakeford and The Woodfuel Centre in West Sleekburn. These Day Services provide simulated working environments for Blyth Star’s service users to receive employment training and engage in the local community in a safe and measured way.
What have been your proudest moments so far?
We’ve always recognised that our staff are our greatest asset at Blyth Star, but the way they stepped up during the Covid-19 lockdown to support not only our service users, but the wider community too is something that we’re particularly proud of.
Over a six month period, we delivered over 3,000 hot meals to residents, we put together food parcels and care packages of hygiene products and pet food, we supported the local authority to try and help those who found themselves homeless to find shelter – staff did anything and everything they could do to support vulnerable people living in our communities at what was an incredibly difficult time.
What are you currently working on?
We have a number of exciting projects in the pipeline, including the creation of a new, dedicated training centre at our plant nursery at Stakeford.
In 2023, the in-house programme of horticultural training for our service users received external endorsement from the Awarding Organisation, NOCN. To support the delivery of the programme, we’ve been fundraising to build a classroom-type environment, surrounded by training gardens and raised flower beds to create a fully accessible learning environment for individuals of all ages and abilities to be able to gain their qualifications.
What does the future hold?
We’ve seen huge changes in health and social care and the charity sector as a whole over the past 37 years. We’ve had to remain agile in order to just survive at times, but we’ve weathered the storms and we’ve come out the other side stronger than ever. From this position of strength, we’re committed to not only improving our provision for our service users, but also establishing ourselves as an employer of choice. We’re proud to have recently become a Living Wage Employer, committed to paying our staff in accordance with the cost of living. This is something we feel really passionately about as without our staff, we simply couldn’t do what we do.
How do you get involved?
There are lots of ways that people can support Blyth Star, through a donation of their time, money or both, it all makes a difference. If you would like to make a donation, you can do this securely via JustGiving by scanning our QR code below. Alternatively, we’re always on the lookout for support workers to join our roster of bank staff.
For more information, visit www.blythstar.org.uk