On this page: Information about the Mayor's chosen charities.
Traditionally, the Mayor supports a group of charities during his or her year in office. This year's chosen causes are:
The Open Door Centre
The Open Door Centre, based in St Barnabas Church, Ferndale Road, provide a specialist day resource for adults with a learning disability, who may also have physical disabilities and/or mental health issues.
The Open Door Centre provides a valuable resource for people within the borough who have a variety of special needs. The range and depth of services is provides are substantial and unusual. The Centre is highly regarded within the borough and is popular with users of the facilities who have a significant part to play in shaping the services it provides.
The Rowdy Bunch
The Rowdy Bunch provides youth clubs and activities for young people from Swindon and the surrounding area and was set up with the aim of enabling disabled teenagers to realise their full potential. It is staffed entirely by unpaid volunteers and runs on a weekly basis, during school term time.
The club aims to give these teenagers the opportunity to meet on an informal basis within their peer group without the day-to-day pressures sometimes placed upon them in their usual surroundings.
Most importantly, the Rowdy Bunch aims to give them the opportunity to experience activities that they would normally be denied because of their disability. The activities are challenging and designed to build self-confidence, self-reliance, respect for and confidence in other club and team members.
Football in the Community
Football in the Community is an organisation that strives to deliver an opportunity to everyone in the local community to play football, regardless of ethnicity, ability or gender.
Working with their partners, they ensure that our national game is accessible to everyone. In particular they have worked closely with the Wiltshire football association to create opportunities for 100's of disabled footballers from those who wheelchair users to those players who are visually impaired.
Football in the Community also works with the Council to deliver the Twilight football project. This is designed to create positive, divisionary activities for young people and lessen the risk of them becoming involved in anti-social behaviour. It also trains these young people to become coaches so they can become positive role models to other referrals.