The Boaz Project

The Boaz Project is a friendly, farm-based charity for adults with learning disabilities. Members can attend for either a morning or afternoon session or the whole day if they stay for lunch. Healthy, hot meals are dished up daily at Boaz  or people can bring their own packed lunch. Today more than 30 adults with learning difficulties attend Boaz on different days of the week.

The project was set up by the retired Reverend James Mitchell-Innes and his wife Caroline who fostered three youngsters with learning difficulties. Their eldest son attended a residential college to learn farming skills. However, at the end of the course there were no jobs for him. So in the knowledge that only six percent of people with learning difficulties are in paid employment they decided to set up a charity to enable adults with learning difficulties to participate in a range of work tasks related to horticulture and agriculture.

A local retired doctor provides a barn with a 4.5 acre smallholding on a peppercorn rent which is run on organic principles, producing high quality fruit, vegetables and flowers. Members work alongside volunteers and staff growing plants and taking care of the animals, including sheep, donkeys, guinea pigs and a flock of 120 free range egg-laying hens. Members also take part in other activities including arts and crafts, cooking, woodworking, socialising and walking together.

Boaz can be found at Hill Farm in Sutton Scotney along the A272, three miles north of Three Maids Hill roundabout in Winchester.

admin@boazproject.co.uk

01962 761749

The Boaz Project, Hill Farm, Sutton Scotney, Winchester, SO21 3NT