Resting to rise

At Bramber Bakehouse we are guided by our passion to share the light of Jesus, building a long-lasting community for women to feel safe, supported and valued.

For seven years we’ve relied on a team of dedicated volunteers living busy lives full of growing families, church commitments, social activities and the desire to see women restored.

If you’re anything like me, the busyness of live doesn’t always allow time for the one thing which should be at the centre. Jesus.
It all becomes a bit much doesn’t it? The constant feeling of running, running, running. And then suddenly we’re not.

The pandemic arrived and we were given time to stop and say – God, where are you? What’s next for us?

As the pandemic grew, our doors, like many others, shut. But despite the struggles, we knew God was speaking.

It was time for us to reassess our position, refocus our vision and be ready to move when the time was right. As we spent time praying, we knew we needed to do three things;

1. Recruit paid employees
2. Redesign our programme
3. Expand our reach

This year we’ve recruited three new roles enabling us to support as many women as possible providing the care and support they so desperately need.

We’ve taken time to develop our programme, creating a new course designed to meet female survivors exactly where they are. As a result, women now attend an 8-week therapeutic baking course, learn and understand wellbeing techniques to support their own individual needs and receive the skills they need to go into voluntary work, paid employment or further education.

Next year we’ll be expanding to run at least three programmes, with space for 30 females to receive the training and support they need to move forward with their futures. We also have plans to look for our own space, enabling us to further support those who need it most.

Needless to say, the pandemic for us was time well spent.

In July 2021 we reopened our doors to eight strong women ready to receive new skills, grow in confidence and ultimately leave feeling empowered and able to progress with their lives and it was worth the wait.

Here’s just one story of the incredible women we have the pleasure of knowing:

Emily* was trafficked into the UK in 2020. After her rescue, she was referred to Bramber Bakehouse and joined our cohort in July 2021. A keen baker, Emily was quick to learn each bake, taking the recipe home each week to make and share delicious baked products for her household. She even surprised our community with homemade chicken pies during our workshop!

During her time on the Bramber Bakehouse programme, Emily worked alongside our Programme Coordinator Natalie to identify three goals she’d like to work towards:

● Increase her mental wellbeing through sport and exercise
● Improving her English, Maths and computers skills
● Build her experience with hope of volunteering in the community

With the support of her case worker, working alongside Natalie, Emily will undertake a course via a local training provider in September for functional skills and computing and is due to start working with the local premiership football team community project to get adults engaged in sport and fitness.

Emily recently joined us as a volunteer at Bramber Bakehouse for the remainder of the year, an opportunity, we hope, will help her to grow in confidence, increase her English skills and enable other survivors to learn from her experience.

We are so proud of how far Emily has come and can’t wait to see what the future has in store.

We wouldn’t have chosen the pandemic but thank goodness it’s not down to us. So often we try and manoeuvre things to be done in our time, to our taste, in our own way but let’s use the past 18 months as a reminder to stop, pray, reassess and when God says move – move.

*Names have been changed to protect the identities of the women we’re working with

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Written by Lucy Butt (to find out more about the work of Bramber Bakehouse you can visit their website.)