By Miranda Robertson

Three years ago, retired social worker Andy Watson looked around Stour View Day Centre in Sturminster Newton and thought of all the great things he could achieve in the space.

He thought providing a range of services to the people of North Dorset was something he could comfortably fit into two or three days a week – perfect after retiring from his full-on duties as a social worker.

It didn’t quite pan out like that.

It started with just a few meals on wheels. Then there were food parcels to deliver. Then the need for support groups became obvious. The services offered by Stour Connect grew like Topsy, as Andy and his growing team found there were yawning gaps in provision in the area, in everything from dementia support to employment skills, facilities for the elderly and more. There’s even a hydrotherapy pool there.

Today there are eight projects running at the day centre, including community transport. Funders, thankfully, are lining up to help, as a critical level of need has been identified by the team.

Now Andy’s main priority is getting the word out, so they can help as many people as possible and plug the many gaps in support they have highlighted.

He said: “At the moment I reckon we help about 250 people a week. But we know we are just scratching the surface.

“We help people all over North Dorset and we know there are more people out there who need our help.”

Andy was born in Shaftesbury and has spent decades working in social care in one form or another, as a foster carer, a social worker, managing a home for people with additional needs – you name it. So he has had more opportunities than most to see the level of need for support round here.

That is reflected in the rapid layering of services offered by Stour Connect, which has teamed up with a range of organisations such as Dorset Council, the Volunteer Centre and the NHS to join up those gaps. The centre currently provides about 100 meals on wheels, for example. A new arts and drama group is in the offing.

All eight projects support people who are unable to access the right support elsewhere, as services have been reduced or cut over the years.

Andy said: “We are very forward thinking as a charity, and it is critically important we reach the people who need us.”

One of the many crucially important groups is the Stour Connect Memory Group, which meets at the centre on a Wednesday afternoon.

Dementia specialist, registered mental nurse and cognitive stimulation therapist Louise Westbrook runs the group.

Service user Anne cares for her mum Lily, who has advanced dementia. She said: “We have many groups of caring people in the Vale who choose to come together to support you as a family living with dementia but when you start out on this very challenging and emotional journey you will share with your loved one you are unaware of this support around you.

“I feel with a passion that support is in the community but we do not always know it is.”

Andy agrees. He said: “People are diagnosed with dementia then sent off without any information about help available.

“There’s a big issue too, here, with social isolation – people living on their own and little public transport.”

Stour Connect is now a registered charity, so it can accept donations from the public to bolster the grant funding it wins for different projects and the funds from its Twice But Nice charity shop and community café. There’s also a Men in Sheds project, where people recycle wood and make things to sell.

Trustee Tracey Chick says if people would like to make regular donations, or help in some other way, they would be very welcome.

She said: “For us the most important thing at the moment is to let people know we are here. We want everybody in North Dorset to be able to access services.

“We are expanding at quite a rate – originally we were just supporting people in Stur with lunch clubs and started quite small.

“But the centre played a pivotal role in the pandemic and now there’s a huge amount going on.

“We know there are vulnerable people out there and we need to find all of them to offer them the support they need.”

To find out more, go to friendsofstourconnect.org, call 01258 471359 or email admin@friendsofstourconnect.org.