Coffee
Clothing
Community
Proud winners of The Voluntary Action Leicestershire
VALL Award for 'Leicestershire Small Charity of the Year' 2019
A CENTRE FOR THE COMMUNITY
The Vision of The Well is of local people seeking to create Christian community through welcome, hospitality, care and prayer.
Mission Statement
In the pursuit of this vision we currently aim to run projects such as a café, a charity shop and groups for older people, young people, and those with particular need or interests, a Food Bank and associated services – and offer our premises to support any project and organisations where people can find companionship, assistance, care and encouragement.
The Well is a place where people of any faith or none may find a real and heartfelt welcome.
There are opportunities for anyone who wishes to talk about Christian faith, whether out of mild interest or because they want to know more in order to make up their own minds about Christianity.
The Trustees and Managers who run the Well will work with teams of leads and volunteers to communicate and develop an understanding of The Well’s Vision.
Our Community
Our community is special because of the involvement of more than eighty volunteers from a range of backgrounds, ages and walks of life. Our offering to the community is shaped around the skills and needs of our volunteers and visitors and we are always open to more volunteers joining in! Please come in and talk about volunteering with us.
The Well generates income through its charity clothes shop and cafe. These aspire to work along ethical lines. Our cafe serves delicious food and drink; homemade and locally sourced as far as possible and great value for money. The charity shop is stocked with second hand clothes and accessories, and recycles everything it cannot sell.
In the first lock-down in Spring 2020 we identified a need in Kibworth for a Foodbank. As the café was closed we were able to use it to store and sort food and, working with Jubilee Foodbank in Harborough, the Co-op, local referral agencies and schools, we have developed a Foodbank serving families in Kibworth and surrounding villages. When the ground floor lease of the adjacent property, 47 High Street, became available we made this into the base for our community services.
Please feel free to come and discuss with us how we might be able to help you.
HISTORY OF THE WELL
The touch paper was lit back in January 2006 when one of our founders stood up at a local praise service and shared what she thought God was asking us, as churches, to do for the community – to pray! Not just there and then at that Service but for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for the whole of Lent – 40 days and 40 nights. What a crazy thought!
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But the seeds were planted and slowly (when it started only 15 of the 960 hours were covered) the thought caught on. The presence of God was tangible, in that small room in our village grammar school hall, it became a holy place and people’s lives were changed as they encountered God either in a new way or for the very first time. For us it was humbling that all we needed to be was obedient and leave God to do the rest.
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Towards the end of the 40 days it was apparent that it couldn’t just end there. As 13 of us came together to pray and discern we realised 5 out of those 13 had been given the same vision - a permanent place in Kibworth; a place of prayer and a coffee shop, a safe place, for young and old alike. There was a real sense of excitement yet also a knowledge that nothing would happen without listening to God and waiting on His timing. Properties became available but which was the right one? Confirmation came through a revelation that there would be a well in the garden – hence the name ‘The Well’.
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Eventually we arrived at 45 High Street, Kibworth Beauchamp and set up our Prayer Room, Clothes Shop and Cafe. In 2016 the Cafe was greatly extended and improved and the garden relaid.
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In 2020 GEMS gave up their lease of 47 High Street, next door to The Well and we were able to lease the ground floor to use for the Foodbank which had been started during the first Corona lockdown in response to local need, and for additional meeting space.
