Our history
2009
JULY
Registered as a Company Limited by Guarantee
FIRST BOARD
Trevor Went; Andrew Sanders; Robert Phillipson; Annie Sanders; Janice Walker; Keith Makin; Sean Soulsby.
WORK BEGINS
Annie and Janice both had full time jobs elsewhere and worked on Natural Ability on a voluntary basis on evenings and weekends.
Natural Ability was founded as a result of a discussion between Annie Evans and Janice Walker on 1st January 2009 whilst they were out riding their horses.
They had had many conversations in the past around the support which Annie’s son J needed and the lack of provision and opportunity for him to return to live near Allenheads in Northumberland where he was born and where most of his family still lived. After this conversation however Annie and Janice decided to do something about the situation and Natural Ability was born.
With tenacity and naivety about the challenge which lay ahead they convinced others to get involved, namely Trevor Went (our first Chair) and Robert Philipson (who despite originally saying he didn’t have the time is now still with us 15 years later!).
2010
In 2010 Natural Ability registered as a charity and received £100 from Allendale Parish Council which although not a huge amount (with tongue in cheek they had asked for a million pounds to buy a farm) it was a huge recognition from the community that they were being taken seriously and that people had confidence in them, it made a lot of difference. Later the same year we were awarded a grant from Northern Rock which provided the seed funding needed to trial working with the Priory SEN School to offer young people opportunities to visit Allenheads and get involved with nature.
FIRST SERVICE
The very first day service opened - operating 1 day per week.
FIRST STAFF
Annie and Janice became Natural Ability's first staff members, both taking on the positions of Business Development Manager. An Activity Supervisor was also employed for the Day Service.
FIRST VOLUNTEER
Kathy Lowe became our first volunteer. Kathy has been invaluable in the development of Natural Ability and has been with the organisation since those very early days, becoming an employee and now works in the pivotal role of finance manager.
2011
In 2011 we received £70,000 from Social Enterprise Investment Fund and a further £20,000 from Northern Rock. These grants were vital, it allowed Annie and Janice to believe that their idea would become a reality. It also enabled them to reduce the hours they worked in their full time roles in order that they could dedicate the time needed to develop Natural Ability. The funding supported the first office costs which was a room within the Allenheads Trust office, we also employed our first Support Worker and an Admin/Finance role. The first Specialist Education Programme began in which we supported one individual.
2012
In April 2012 Natural Ability made a successful bid to the National Lottery and were awarded funding of £65000 per year for 5 years, this enabled Natural Ability to expand our Day Farming Services and gave us the sustainability we needed.
In October 2012 supported by Natural Ability J moved into a cottage in Allenheads. He had achieved his ambition to return to the village he had grown up in and live as independently as possible. This was a massive step forward for J and a huge step forward for Natural Ability, our first Independent Living Service.
2013
In 2013 we were able to purchase our first minibus funbded by the North Penines Leaders Programme.
Natural Ability staff and the people we supported took on a huge challenge in the summer of that year. The took on and conquered the Hadrian's Trail. They spent ** days walking the 87 mile route whilst raising funds to extend and enhance the services of Natural Ability.
2014
2015
ENABLING SUPPORT
We launched our first Enabling service operating 5 days per week.
NEW CHAIR
We welcomed a new trustee, Bruce Howorth who took over as Chair.
ISL Growth
Our Supported Living Service grew as we supported another individual to live independently in their own home.
We saw a large period of growth and development in 2016.Our ISL service grew to 3 individuals supported and saw the introduction of a Manager for both the ISL service and Day Service
2016
© 2017 Natural Ability
Company Number: 6959710 Registered Charity Number: 1136665