It is staffed by a large number of volunteers who cook the meals, serve and clear away as well as a minibus driver who picks up regular attendees.

Without even asking, people came forward to tell me how beneficial the lunch club and other activities were to them.

“I started coming to chair aerobics when I had a bad shoulder, it has really helped, the physiotherapist I was referred to gave me exercises to do at home and it is the same things we do here”

Another lady told me how she has her hair done, then moves through for chair aerobics before joining the larger group for lunch.  The day really meets a range of needs. People are asked to pay a contribution of £1 or £2 to cover costs however the well being room has been totally grant funded so the hairdressing, massage and manicures are free.     

Howard Astin, the senior vicar, is the visionary for much of the work. When the local supermarket announced it was closing Howard realised that soon elderly people on the estate would have to pay an expensive taxi ride for their weekly shop. He decided that the church could put on a minibus run each Tuesday. Nowadays due to the demand they do 3 trips.

For just a small fee the passengers get door to door service, someone to carry their bags as well as a lightbulb changer, mattress flipper and general odd job person. As Chris (co-pastor) said, the reason for doing this work is because "we love them, we’re there, we’re Jesus in those moments.”

But Gems is just one part of the Olive Branch Trust.

Meeting a Range of Community Needs
The charity also runs a large youth program called Youth Base which includes schools work, street work, a drop in centre and much more.

BD4 Family is the family work run from the church providing a range of parental support and toddler groups run weekly.

And then on a separate site they operate the Caleb Project.

The Caleb Project
The Caleb Project is a centre offering a structured day program to help people battling with an addiction to drugs or alcohol. They are one of just 2 centres offering such a service in Bradford and they are recognised by statutory agencies for the high professional standards they work to.

Staff and volunteers are well trained, there is good collaboration and sharing of experience with other agencies dealing with drug and alcohol dependencies.   They have excellent links with outside agencies as they help clients with housing issues, social services, court procedures and much more. 

Clients are there voluntarily and stay on the program for up to a year. They attend daily sessions including life skills training, ICT, and relapse prevention as well as ‘Exodus’, a combined alcoholics and narcotics anonymous group.
The centre employs 12 people, many of these are keyworkers to the clients. Some of these workers have come through Caleb themselves (now free and committed Christians), living proof to current clients that freedom for their dependencies can be achieved.

As well as paid staff there is a good number of volunteers from St Johns Church. Former clients of the project also give their time to the project out of a desire to want to give something back.
      
From small beginnings
Although there is now space for 20 clients, the work began in a very small way.

Youth Bases’ street work led them to having regular contact with a small group of teenage addicts. A relationship was built up. Helen Astin (now the manager of the Caleb Project) and a couple of other women from another local church had it on their heart to do something for this group.

A weekly café drop-in began at the church as a source of support for addicts.  However in time the attendees wanted more than just friendship and advice, some made it clear that they wanted to get clean of drink, drugs or both. This led to the development of the centre, a miraculous provision of a building 12 years ago. A hopeful letter to the owners of a former car showroom that had been empty for a number years, led them to being given the premises for free! The continual development of relationships with other bodies and their commitment to professionalism led others to take them seriously as service providers.

The weekly café drop in still runs each Friday afternoon and most weeks several new faces come along to chat, socialise and get advice. This work continues to be invaluable as a first point of contact. From these meetings some will choose to join the structured program.

One former addict told me how they had been through the program once, got clean but in time fell back into the same habits – a common story. However second time round they just wanted it totally out of their life, got clean again and still are to this day. The difference for them this time has been that their life now belongs to Christ. 

Lessons Learnt
In recent times the project has been funded from a variety of trusts, grants and major pots of money from a number of European sources.  Unfortunately much of this is soon to dry up. From many years of experience in looking for funding for Olive Branch they have learnt two important lessons:-
• It is easy to become sidetracked by the hunt for money, taking your eyes off the reason for the work.
• Since the church’s money is no longer the major contributor to the work, it has been important to keep the church involved in other ways so they still have ownership of what is going on since this is still part of the churches expression of their faith.    

However the vision for the work continues to grow as more needs are realised. The project is investigating the possibility of having a detox centre on their site. Currently there is no provision of this type in the whole of the Bradford/Leeds area. For their own future and as advice to others Helen said

“Go for it but make sure you find out what is already going on. You want your work to compliment and be able link up with those already operating rather than being independent.”

Faith Working in Action?
From my visit the sentiment that kept coming through was “we love them, we just love them”. Even outside agencies that visit have said “there is something different about this place” the staff truly believe the difference is the genuine love for people that comes from their faith.  

If you would like to find out more about the Olive Branch Trust visit their website www.olivebranchtrust.com or the Caleb Projects website www.thecalebproject.org