Our purpose

To be a force for good by transforming lives through exceptional home from home care for children with all disabilities and their families.

Our Vision

Our doors will always be open to families in need throughout the South East, by being a much loved and supported charity.

Our Values

Our aim at Cherry Trees is to offer the opportunity to children with learning and physical disabilities, most of which are severe, to enhance their quality of life by providing a safe, home-like environment whilst also providing their parents with a meaningful break.

Herons Wey Campsite is owned by Girlguiding Surrey West and managed by volunteers.  The campsite and residential facilities welcome members of Girlguiding, the Trefoil Guild, Scouting, uniformed organisations, charitable groups, and other youth organisations including Schools/Educational and Duke of Edinburgh groups for overnight/residential stays and day bookings. 

Girlguiding is the largest organisation for girls and young women in the UK.  The aim is to sustain and promote a stimulating and enjoyable programme of activities.  These will help girls and young women develop their potential and enable them to play an active role in their community.

Do you love gardening? Do you like helping those in your community? Then we have the perfect project for you!

We are looking for volunteers to help those in their local community, who are not able to upkeep their gardens. We are aiming to start the project in Merrow during the Springtime. This is a pilot project and in the future, we would love for it to be rolled out across all the wards of Guildford.

Mission, goals and values

 We are a registered charity created by a dedicated team of volunteers whose main purpose is to support and raise funds to assist ex-service personnel immediately when they find themselves in times of difficulty.  This is done by holding various events and the generous donations and goodwill of supporters. We run a memorial woodland which is lovingly tended to by our Founder and Chair, Paul ‘The Hat’ Cooling, and a team of volunteers. It is used by ex-soldiers, sailors and airmen and their families as a place of reflection and by local community groups and organisations like the cubs, scouts and schoolchildren to get closer to nature.

Guildford Repair Cafè runs every third Saturday of the month at The Hive Community Centre in Guildford from 10am to 12 noon. A friendly group of volunteers run the café and help repair small household items, from clothing to electricals and toys to gardening tools. The Repair Café is supported by Guildford Borough Council and the ‘Rotary Club of Guildford Wey’

Over the years our skilled repairers have helped save thousands of products from landfill and have given a new lease of life to some much-loved items, as well as more practical objects. Recently we were able to repair a small wooden stool that its owner had bought on honeymoon many years before, and countless lamps are now shining brightly again, thanks to our electrical specialists.

So don’t be shy, pop in for a free cuppa, and see what its all about, or message us if you have an item for repair. It’s always worth checking before the next session to make sure that we have the right repairer available on the day. Even more importantly, we’d love to hear from you if you have repairing skills that you’d like to share

Shooting Star Children's Hospices is a leading children’s hospice charity caring for babies, children and young people with life-limiting conditions, and their families.

Whether lives are measured in days, weeks, months or years, we are here to make every moment count. We support families from diagnosis to end of life and throughout bereavement with a range of nursing, practical, emotional and medical care.

Our bespoke support is free of charge to families and available 365 days a year. Our care service includes emergency respite care, symptom management and end-of-life care at Christopher's hospice in Guildford and a comprehensive range of therapies and support groups for the whole family at Shooting Star House in Hampton,

It costs £10 million a year just to maintain our current level of care and, with around 30% of our income coming from government funding, we rely on our supporters’ generosity to keep the service running. What’s more, we know there are many more families desperate for our vital support, so it’s crucial we raise more funds to provide more care.

We have volunteer opportunities at our hospices and at our shops.   Volunteers roles are very varied and include helping on reception, in the kitchen, housekeeping, gardening, pool watching, admin, fundraising, shops and at our events.

The Spike Heritage Centre is one of the few buildings remaining from Guildford's Workhouse in the Poor Law era, which housed the forgotten classes of Victorian England.  The Vagrants and Casual Ward, known as The Spike was built in 1906 to house vagrants and low paid workers.  After the Poor Laws ended in 1929, it continued as a night hostel until the mid 1960s. The NHS took over the site becoming St Lukes Hospital, operational until the mid 1990s when the new Royal Surrey hospital was opened.  The majority of the workhouse site was redeveloped, but due to the efforts of local campaigners, the Casual Ward was saved and remains as a historic building with lots of stories to tell. Individual visitors and groups are welcome to explore this unique building with guides providing the insight about how the poor were treated in a bygone age. 

The Therapy Garden is a registered charity based in Normandy Village, consisting of one acre of community garden which is managed by a team of horticulturalists, staff and volunteers to provide gardening and horticulture therapy to the more vulnerable members of society. We provide practical horticulture therapy to adults and young people with learning disabilities, mental health issues and physical disabilities.

Our ‘Green School’, enables young people aged 11-16 with learning difficulties such as autism, Down’s Syndrome and Asperger’s to achieve a City & Guilds qualification “Skills for Working Life: Horticulture” in a safe and structured environment. Students are referred to us and funded by mainstream and specialist schools in Surrey and Hampshire and many have gone on to achieve a college place or ongoing employment.

The Therapy Garden is currently days for other groups in the local community such as brain injury and stroke victims and Dementia sufferers and we are able to plan bespoke activities that are tailored to individual client needs.

Zero Carbon Guildford is a charity set up to enable local community action to tackle the climate and ecological crisis and associated social issues.

Zero Carbon Guildford operates a Community Hub, in the centre of Guildford, to enable the community to come together to tackle these issues.  

The Hub includes a café, houses our many projects  and showcases ways local people can make changes to help Guildford's journey towards a zero-carbon future.