Barnwood Trust

Barnwood Trust is a grant-making foundation evolved from historic mental health care roots, dedicated to enabling disabled people and those with mental health challenges in Gloucestershire to thrive through empowerment and systemic change. Core values of collaboration, inclusion, respect, and dignity drive its philosophy of challenging stigma, amplifying rights, and fostering belonging by centering lived experience of disability, neurodivergence, and mental health in governance, staffing, and decision-making. It pursues durable impact via a theory of change that listens to beneficiaries, then funds, convenes, advocates, and influences policy alongside self-advocacy groups and grassroots organizations for individual independence and community transformation.

It prioritizes initiatives advancing access, participation, independence, and social inclusion for disabled people including those with physical disabilities, autism spectrum disorder, learning disabilities, ADHD, neurodivergence, and complex health needs, alongside individuals facing mental health conditions like anxiety, depression, and trauma. Supported activities encompass community projects enhancing social connections and peer support groups, infrastructure improvements for accessible environments, advocacy and policy consultation amplifying disabled voices, capacity-building and organizational development for inclusion-focused charities, research deepening understanding of barriers, self-advocacy training, therapeutic community activities, inclusive day services and outreach, preventative mental health counselling, and person-centred interventions promoting self-determination, emotional wellbeing, and community-led resilience against isolation and exclusion.

Exclusions limit funding strictly to work benefiting disabled people or those with mental health challenges in Gloucestershire communities, rejecting broader social issues, national efforts, or non-local initiatives. Distinctive priorities favor grassroots organizations and self-advocacy groups led by people with lived experience, rural and urban Gloucestershire communities facing access barriers, family carers supporting disabled children or adults, and innovations in trauma-informed, holistic inclusion over segregated services. Its unique evolution from institutional care to lived-experience-driven advocacy ensures deep-rooted credibility in empowering neurodivergent youth, isolated mental health experiencers, and physically disabled adults toward equitable belonging.