Always on
This project successfully funded on 12th February 2026, you can still support them with a donation.
Help the Farm That Transforms Autistic Lives
Swindon, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
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Aim
Join Pennyhooks Farm Trust’s £15,000 appeal to continue life‑changing work for people with complex autism
This Christmas, Help the Farm which, Every Day, Changes Lives for People with complex Autism
“The farm is the one place where I feel I belong.” – Pennyhooks student, aged 23.
Amid the winter chill, life at Pennyhooks Farm Trust is anything but quiet.
The animals still need feeding. Fences need fixing. The hens are laying, crafts are being made. The workshop is buzzing, with students making planters, reindeer and festive cards, for the Christmas shop.
For the young people and adults with autism who come here, these simple daily rhythms mean everything. They bring purpose, structure, friendship and pride that they don’t often experience elsewhere.
“Every day here offers the chance to feel useful, to learn, and to belong,” says Lydia Otter MBE, founder and CEO of Pennyhooks Farm Trust. “That sense of belonging transforms lives — not just for our students, but for their families too.”
Why your help matters now
The past year has brought rising costs for feed and fuel and materials and maintenance, just as more families than ever are asking for a place at the farm. Without extra support this winter, the Trust faces real pressure to maintain the specialist teaching, therapeutic programmes, animal care and rural craft activities that keep the farm running and the students thriving.
Your gift this Christmas will help Pennyhooks:
- Maintain the animals and facilities that give students real, meaningful work every day.
- Provide materials for woodwork, crafts and horticulture projects that build confidence and skills.
- Fund experienced teaching and support staff who guide each young person’s learning and development.
- Keep the farm’s 100 acres of pasture and conservation land safe and in good heart for the students, cattle and wild creatures that live here.
How your donation helps each week, to make our work possible:
- £10 helps to purchase baking supplies, students are busy baking for our Christmas Fayre.
- £25 feeds the goats — gentle animals that give students purpose and joy.
- £100 provides tools, seeds, and materials for farm, woodwork and garden training.
- £150 keeps the donkeys warm and well, vital for the winter.
- £250 looks after the buildings for the students, making sure they're happy and comfortable at work.
- £500 provides vital one-to-one support for a new student learning to work at the farm.
Every contribution, large or small, helps ensure that Pennyhooks can remain open; that its animals and land are cared for, and that the autistic young adults who attend continue to find stability and self-worth through meaningful daily work.
A gift that gives back every day
With your help, when the Christmas lights come down in January, Pennyhooks Farm Trust will be able to continue to work with its students, enabling them in the new Spring Term to plant trees for new hedges, prepare the donkeys for the Palm Sunday procession and grow all our young plants for our May Plant Sale as well as looking after the animals and much more.
It’s hard work - but it’s meaningful work - and it changes lives.
This Christmas, you can help keep that work alive. Your donation will give young people with complex autism the chance to learn, grow, and belong - not just for a season, but for life.
Aviva Community Fund has provided £5,170 of match funding
Solus Employee Giving has provided £2,160 of match funding
Aviva Employee Giving has provided £200 of match funding
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made