Bethphage are really excited to be celebrating our 30th year in 2024.  To commemorate this special year, we will be holding a series of events to mark our 30th birthday, including a summer party for our staff, people we support and shared lives carers and a stakeholder’s event later in the year. Our trustees and executive management team will also be hitting the road to visit our services to chat with some of the people we support and our dedicated staff. 

Our 30th year gives us the ideal opportunity to reflect on our origins as a charity and be proud of what we have achieved. We were established in 1994 by our American founder, Donna Werner when she came to the UK and visited a long stay hospital for people with learning disabilities and mental health. Donna was shocked by what she witnessed, where people were left to amuse themselves. She wanted to offer them something different, that centred around enriching people’s lives based on the type of support which was provided in the USA.  Donna spoke to Commissioners in Shropshire and soon afterwards, established our first registered care home, Viewmount  in North Shropshire, for 5 people moving out of long-stay hospitals.  

In 2019, Donna Werner welcomed the opportunity to take on the role of honorary president, this role was in recognition of the work that she led on, supporting people with learning disabilities to move from long stay hospitals back to their home county of Shropshire and into homes based in the community. 

Since then, we have gradually grown as an organisation, now supporting over 200 people across Shropshire and the West Midlands in various settings including Supported Living, Day Opportunities (which include managing a farm, providing a local library service and a social enterprise), Shared Lives and Registered Care homes for people with complex needs. We support people to play an active part in their community, to build on their strengths, achieve their outcomes and aspirations through learning, building on life skills, social skills and increasing confidence.  

 We employ over 330 staff, most of whom are Support Workers, passionate about what they do. We proudly offer our own in-house Positive Behaviour Support Team who help us to embed the principles of Positive Behaviour Support throughout the organization, we employ a Qualified Nurse who improves health outcomes and an Assistive Technology Lead.  

On our 30th year, our CEO Stef Kay said:  

“At Bethphage, we are blessed to work with some amazing people and staff, it is a privilege to support people to develop their strengths, learn new skills and grow. Our staff are our most important asset, they regularly go above and beyond to make amazing things happen in people’s everyday lives and we want to bring everyone together to celebrate what the organisation has achieved at our 30th Birthday Party! 

Social care is going through some significant financial challenges, however people with learning disabilities and autism will always need high quality care and support services and at Bethphage that is what we do, supporting people to take as much control as they can over their lives. 

Bethphage intends, through our new strategic plan, to have a greater focus on understanding what young people and families want from social care in the future and we want to work with families to develop support models that support people’s hopes and dreams for their future.” 

We would like to express how grateful we are for the support we have received over the last 30 years, especially in the past 4 years during the pandemic. As a local charity and social care provider, support from our community is never taken for granted.  

If you would like to support us in our 30th year, there are many ways you can do this: