Padley has a tremendous heritage in Derby – founded in 1985, making it Derby’s longest established charities with around 5000 service users. This Probably makes Padley one of the largest local charities.

Padley is a diverse organisation providing abroad range of services to the most vulnerable people in the community. These are the various services we provide;

Padley Head Office & Development Centre: This centre provides a service to people living with a learning disability and people experiencing mental health issues. This service is delivered through the medium of therapeutic arts and crafts and comprises of art, pottery and woodwork. The emphasis is to provide an educational atmosphere that allows students to explore their health, social and spiritual well being. The students are encouraged to enter into individual learning plans that will prepare Them for an active educational experience. The students are able to explore and benefit from open college network courses (OCN) during their time at the development centre. A job search facility is provided for New Deal learners that are experiencing long term unemployment issues.

Padley recycling centre: Padley has established a contract with Derby City council that permits the organisation to collect textiles from a central point for recycling. This provides clothing for the other areas of the organisation, including the day centre. The textiles are graded for our charity shop. The remainder is sold and provides the organisation with a valuable funding resource. As you can imagine, processing 32 tonnes of textiles per month requires the input of quite a few volunteers. Some of the volunteers are referred from the mental health team, people on community service and new deal.

Padley charity shop: The recycling centre provides clothing and bric a brac to the shop. The shop provides vital funding streams that allow all our service users to explore the opportunity to want to improve their quality of life.

Padley hostel: This is a ten bed direct access establishment for men. We are the only facility in Derby that accepts men direct from the street who may be rough sleepers. When they become residents, we support them into taking the next steps into attaining a more permanent residence. However, for some it can be long hard road before they are able to achieve any move on accommodation. If this happens they enter into a key working agreement with members of staff, who offer full and impartial support until the resident ready.

Padley Day Centre: People who are rough sleepers, homeless, vulnerable and socially excluded paid a total of 17,000 visits to the day centre last year. They were able to access a hot nutritious meal, shower facilities, clothing and Companionship. This centre also provides advice, guidance, support and a range of services which Encourages our clients to create a sense of independence.

Some of our funding is based on contracts from Derby City Council and the Local Primary Care Trust. However, our future depends on the generosity of public donations so we can continue to fund our vital work. Current research indicates that as much as one in four people living in or around the city centre are on or below the poverty line.