The Balsam Centre, Wincanton
Well Bean Project

The Balsam Centre was founded in 2000 by an active group of local people, with the aim of establishing a range of localised health and social services for the rural area of South East Somerset.  Having raised funds to purchase and refurbish the former memorial hospital, close to the town centre, the community venture began by employing a community mental health worker and a volunteer co-ordinator to work in partnership with other agencies becoming based at the Centre, to start to meet the needs of local people.

Securing in 2002 an earlier lottery application for a Healthy Living Centre our first five year programme, including a significant capital project was to enable our HLC to ‘hit the ground running’ with a further range of healthy living projects.  In September 2007 the Centre development included a Children’s Centre, supporting child and family health and bringing a new vitality to the building with a full day care nursery and a steady stream of parents and children accessing services and activities.

The Balsam project has gone from strength to strength, involving new partners, developing innovative work and continuously building on its strengths. Recurring and cross cutting themes are: mental health, volunteering, healthy eating and physical activity, all targeted to reduce health inequalities across our large rural area. Our on site sister project, the Growing Space providing therapeutic and social horticulture has added enormous substance to the opportunities and services provided at the Centre and the Well Bean project is the synergetic and happy offspring of the two organisations’ experience.