Beannachar is a community where young adults who need support can live, learn, work and enjoy life together.

Our community is just outside Aberdeen, in the countryside.

We encourage people to learn new skills, to take responsibility for their life and to become a more mature adult. Each person gets the help and support they need to be able to make this important step in their life.

Because we live together in a community everybody has to try their best to get on with everybody else. We do lots of things together and we all try to help each other as much as we can.

There are different sorts of people in Beannachar.

There are young people who need support – we call these people students.

There are also young people who come to live here for a year as a volunteer – usually from a European country – who help the students when they need help. These young people are called co-workers.

There are some older people with more experience who look after everybody in each of the houses. Some of these people are called House Co-ordinators. Some House Co-ordinators live here all the time with their families, other House Co-ordinators live outside of the community and come to work in Beannachar each day.

The House Co-ordinators don’t just look after the houses. They make sure everything is working well in the whole community.

There are also other people who work in Beannachar, an Administrator – who does all the work in the office; a maintenance man – who does all the repairs in the buildings; people who organise the work in the workshops and a driver.

Beannachar is a busy place with lots to do. Everybody helps out to make it work.

The students live in one of the three houses: Silver Birch, Sycamore or Rose. Most of the students share a bedroom with somebody else.

Some students have their own bedroom.

Most of the students live in Beannachar all the time but some students who live nearby come in just for the daytime and go home again each evening.

There is a co-worker who will help you with all the things you need. This co-worker will also be encouraging you to do new things and will help you if you are going through a difficult time.

Your House Co-ordinator looks after everybody in the house and they will also help you with anything you need. You can always talk to your House Co-ordinator about anything at all.

What will I do during the day?

You will work in the training workshops that we have here.

There are lots of different workshops.

There are three kitchens, one in each house, where people work together to make the meals.

There is a laundry workshop that does all our washing.

We have a small farm and a garden where people work looking after the animals and growing vegetables. Another team looks after the estate, cutting the grass and making the grounds look nice.

There is a weaving workshop and a wood workshop. There is also a Herb workshop where we make herbal ointments and medicines.

In the wintertime we also run a workshop that makes

candles.

You will work in one workshop in the morning and a different one in the afternoon. Twice a year you can change your workshops so that you have a chance to do different things.

In the workshops we do things that are needed as well as learning new skills.

When you first come to Beannachar you will work in as many different workshops as possible, just to try them out. After you have been here for a while you will be able to have more choice about where you would like to work.

On Wednesday afternoons we usually go swimming to a local swimming pool. On Friday afternoons everybody helps to do house-cleaning ready for the weekend.

One or two students have jobs in Aberdeen or go to Aberdeen College one day a week but these are students who are more independent and can get to town and back by themselves.

What can I do in my free time?

After supper there are different activities to join in or some evenings you can spend your time doing what you want, maybe with your friends.

We have folk dancing, sports, hobby groups, talks, and social evenings. We also do plays or artistic groups. One evening a week is a students’ evening where we talk about things that you choose.

You can also spend your free time listening to your music in your room. We don’t have TVs in Beannachar as there is so much to do but you will sometimes be able to watch videos in the evenings or during the weekends.

Saturday is the free day for the students. Your co-worker will help you to go to town or do other

things that you want to do.

On Sunday we all join in the Christian Service or you can go to your own church. After the Service is free time. Once a fortnight there will be an outing in the minibus for your house.

Every year you will be able to go away for a week on a student’s holiday with a group of other students and co-workers.

When you decide to come and live in Beannachar it means that you feel ready to make a new step in your life. You can begin to become more independent, make new friendships and try out new things.

But it is also important to keep in touch with your family and friends at home. So you will be able to write letters and phone home and your family can come to see you in Beannachar.

You will also be able to go home for the weekend but it will need to be arranged with your House Co-ordinators.

You will have four weeks of holidays every year to spend with your family, two of them in the summertime.

If you do not have a family or you cannot go home for any reason we can help to find a different sort of holiday for you.

Beannachar is called a Training Centre. This means that students usually come here when they have finished at school and stay for some years before moving on to a place for adults somewhere else.

So most students come to Beannachar when they are about 19 years old and stay for seven or eight years but it is different for each person. How long you stay will depend on you and on the people who are involved in helping you to make these decisions.

If you like the idea of living in Beannachar you could ask your social worker or care manager to arrange a day when you can come and visit and talk to people here. Somebody would show you and your family around and let you see what goes on here. You can ask questions and talk to the students who already live here.

If you want to do this you will have to ask your social worker to get in touch with Elisabeth Phethean in Rose House.

After your visit, if you are still interested, you may be asked to come for an interview to talk seriously about if you would fit in here and what help you would need.

After that you may be able to come to stay in Beannachar for some weeks. If you are going to be staying at home you could just come in each day to work for some weeks.

This is called a Trial Visit and gives you a chance to try things out and for us to get to know you a bit better.

If you still feel that you would like to join Beannachar, and everybody feels that Beannachar is the right place for you, then we will arrange a date for you to move in when there is a free place.

After some weeks there will then be a meeting with you, your family, your social worker and people from Beannachar to start to make plans for your time here. This is called your Review.

We hope that this booklet has answered some of your questions.

Once you have moved in, you will also receive a Students’ Handbook which will tell you lots more about living in Beannachar.

There are some other things that you and your social worker could read.

They are Beannachar’s Statement of Intent and the Beannachar Terms and Conditions. You can ask Elisabeth Phethean for these.

You can contact Elisabeth if you are interested in coming to see Beannachar.

Jackie Nelson – Administrator – Tel and fax 01224 869250

You can speak to Jackie about money and accounts.

Silver Birch - 01224 861825

Sycamore - 01224 868605

Web - www.beannachar.co.uk