FIVE Okehampton charities are seeing their valuable work continue over the next 12 months thanks to the Okehampton United Charity (OUC).

Charity clerk Karen Percival is pictured presenting cheques to representatives of Living Free, the West Devon Art Workshops, the Work Club and the Mary Budding Trust.

A fifth charity, Relate, also received a share of the grant money totalling £22,231.

The cheques were presented last Wednesday (October 24) in the garden of the Ockment Centre, where work created by participants in Art for All classes run by the West Devon Art Workshops has been on display.

Andy and Gill Cairns run the art classes aimed at unlocking creativity and reducing social isolation. The grant they receive from OUC, for £4,322, has helped them keep the cost of the classes low.

‘So many people say how beneficial the classes are in many ways, that they have helped their confidence and self esteem,’ said Gill. ‘They give us funding which subsidises the cost.’

Okehampton work club received £7,700 from the OUC, which covers running the twice-weekly sessions at the Ockment Centre for a year.

Work club co-ordinator Geoff Mills said he was expecting a busy time in the run up to Christmas, now that summer casual work was drying up in the area.

The club offers free access to computers so people claiming benefits can meet government requirements for the number of hours of job searching they have to put in each week. People attending the club can also have help with CVs.

Also receiving a grant, for £3,400, was the charity Living Free, part of the Gilead Foundations in Jacobstowe.

The support service in the town for people with emotional problems is run by Laura Bird and Ian Samuel, who hold weekly group sessions and one-to-one sessions.

‘We wanted to set something up for people in the town,’ said Laura. ‘We have people come in with depression, relationship issues, eating disorders and people with addiction problems.’

Robin and Edwina Hill from the Mary Budding Trust were also at the presentation and received £714 from the OUC.

It will go towards helping children with additional needs in the Okehampton area, be it assistance with travel costs for intensive hospital appointments or specially adapted equipment such as wheelchairs or mobility scooters.

Edwina said the help they could give was wide-ranging.

‘We helped run a special alarm system for a child that had epilepsy so that the parents could get a good night’s sleep.

‘It is often for things that people need but can’t necessarily get on the NHS,’ she said.

‘It is always worth asking us if we can help.’

Relate, which runs free relationship counselling at the Ockment Centre, has received £6,000 of the money.