Did you know that only 6% of adults with Special Needs are paid for the work they perform? We think that's wrong.

 

In July 2018, we decided that what we needed was an enterprise that gave us flexibility to offer a range of work opportunities, would be fun and would allow us to pay the young adults for their efforts. To us, the solution was a catering trailer with the chance to immerse the young adults in the wider community with a variety of fun events to maintain interest. And to this end, Bo and Stuart Firth setup a non-profit charity and Hjälpande Händer was born; building on the experience and knowledge gained from co-founding and running another local charity, SCWAD (Swindon Children Without A Diagnosis), in 2009.

 

We fundraised and applied for grants but were still short of £4,500 for the special coffee machine we needed to operate and how we got this is quite a story! The founders' son Henry  asked James Corden to repost the Just Giving link on his feed.  Not only did James do that but he also generously contributed £4,000 to the coffee machine fund and for this we made a "James Corden is a legend" commemorative mug. Very soon after in May 2019 we had our first event and haven't looked back.

 

We started off with a 20-year old trailer and in 2025, took delivery of our brand new trailer on which we offer speciality coffee, tea, hot chocolate, cold drinks, cakes, candy floss, hot dogs and crepes. In winter our mulled wine, Irish Coffee and Baileys hot chocolate are very popular.

 

In 2023 Every Cloud gave us the opportunity to operate the kiosk at Stanton Country Park. We sell ice creams, drinks and snacks every weekend and in the school holidays. This gives our young adults a fixed location with regular shifts to run alongside the events operated from the trailer.

 

If you would be interested in having Hjälpande Händer cater at your next outdoor event (fete, festival, sports event, company event, party or wedding), we'd be very interested. We’d like to be flexible so if there is anything particular you need or a theme you’d like, just ask! And if you think you might like to help or get involved, please get in touch. We're always looking for more volunteers.

Whilst we are largely self-sustaining in terms of running costs, we do need to raise funds to purchase larger capital items.  We are hugely grateful to the following organisations and individuals who have helped us with funds:

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• The National Lottery Reaching Communities Fund - £25,906

• The National Lottery Community Fund - £19,950

• The National Lottery Community Fund - £9,750

• UnLtd - £,5,000

• James Corden - £4,000

• Wiltshire Community Foundation - £2,454

• Swindon  Old Town Rotary Club - £1,700

• Tesco Bags of Help - £1,000

• Wiltshire Community Foundation - £1,000

• Swindon Lions - £600

• Old Town Beer Festival - £500

• Robert & Mary Firth - £500

• Nationwide Building Society Cake Sale and Tombola - £325

• Swindon Community Lottery - £400

• Daytrippers Foundation - £ 240

• Paddy Power Swindon - £200

• Shalbourne Car Show - £200

• Eldene Winter Market - £100

• Wroughton Carnival - £36

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If you would like to help out financially, we'd love to hear from you.  Please use the contact form to get in touch.