The year in review & what's next

Chair's report

Thank you to all our staff, facilitators, volunteers and teachers whose quiet supportive work continually inspires me.

Sharpham continues to steadily evolve, maintaining a careful balance between the pursuit of the Trust's compassionate vision and the need to remain financially resilient.

We are in the process of refining our strategic plan for the next five years to ensure the continued development and deepening of our mindfulness work.

Our work of helping people to re-connect with themselves, their communities and the natural world is particularly relevant at this present time. 

Sharpham is a place of extraordinary natural beauty and a place of kindness, for many years it has been devoted to peace and stillness, it is a place of contemplation and reconciliation.

You don't have to conform to any stereotype here, whoever you are, whatever you feel or think, you are welcome here.

Daniel Stokes

Chairman, The Sharpham Trust

Director's report

An Annual Report is an opportunity to reflect on what the charity has achieved over the previous 12 months and what the positive impacts of these efforts have been.

The Sharpham Trust aims to create a more mindful, compassionate and environmentally-sustainable world and to try and achieve this we have three objectives:

• Helping people feel connected to nature so that they take actions to care for it

• Helping people have an increased sense of wellbeing in their everyday lives

• Protecting and enhancing Sharpham’s natural environment and wildlife

Reading our retreat-participants' feedback, I’m pleased to say that it overwhelmingly suggests that we are succeeding in achieving these objectives. We have had an increased focus on joining things up so that our mindfulness and nature connection approaches are integrated across all of the work we do. Our programme is increasingly large and varied as we endeavour to reach out to different audiences, but there is always a common theme: our relationship with the natural world and through this, each other.

Our rewilding efforts have been richly rewarded with new species and greater abundance of wildlife - including in our newly created wildflower meadow in front of Sharpham House. 

Highlights during the last year include our tree-planting delivered by Ambios at Lower Sharpham Barton Farm as part of the South West Community Forest. We also erected three artificial osprey nests as part of a project to encourage these magnificent birds to start breeding along the River Dart. The Trust has started to champion work to protect and enhance the river, helping to create a new Catchment Partnership which launched a new Action Plan for the river. We are working hard to try to secure funding to translate this plan into work on the ground.

Just as - in some ways - we have been decolonising the land, we have also been reviewing the history of the Sharpham Estate, with a view to acknowledging the past and making the experience for our visitors more inclusive. We are consciously working to find ways to widen participation by by reviewing our communication strategies and offering experiences such as our young people’s retreats (where the costs are subsidised). A browse of our Google Reviews illustrates how much people appreciate and value having Sharpham in their lives.

Our charity relies on the amazing efforts of our staff and our volunteers, without whom Sharpham could not continue to be the transformative place that it has become. We have seen other charities struggling and some have been forced to restrict, or even stop, their work, so it is vitally important that our Trustees continue their careful and thoughtful stewardship of the Trust.  

Julian Carnell

Director