Charities

Our Chosen Charities for 2026

We are delighted to be supporting the following charities this year:

Purbeck Youth and Community Foundation (PYCF) Charity was set up by a small group of local people in 2016 so that the local youth clubs and support for young people could continue.

Support for adults and other ages also grew and PYCF now runs a Family Hub with a wide reach in Purbeck. It is part of the Dorset Family Hub network . Our ethos is to bring services into Purbeck that meets needs in the local community.

We work in partnership to offer a health visitor drop in , stay and play, play therapy , some SEND support, counselling, mentoring , support with families, a variety of youth clubs, work in schools, a D of E Group, Access Wellbeing, Gateway club for adults with a learning disability, Community Fridge, Men’s wellbeing at the rugby club, a Not so Youth group and more.

To find out more come and chat with us on the Wednesday evenings or pop in and see us at the Hub behind Purbeck School.

This year the Friends of Wareham Hospital celebrate 60 years of support to the hospital.

Over those years the Friends have provided equipment when NHS funds are limited ,supported staff welfare and training and helped to improve the hospital environment for patients and staff.

Recently our focus has been on the Hospital and the wider Purbeck area services where we have provided funding to support the Community Mental Health Team's move to the hospital site bringing together services on one site, joining the wide range of over 40 Out-patients clinics provided at the hospital.

At a time of so much change in the NHS the Friends are proud to promote the hospital and its services, within the local community and beyond, always seeking to increase membership to give the hospital a strong voice should further future attempts be made to close this valuable local asset.

Wessex Rescue is a volunteer team based in Poole, Dorset. The team was formed in 2015 to assist with the increase in flooding across the UK. We have deployed over the UK but over the past couple of years the majority of the flooding callouts have been within Dorset, January 2026 being a very busy month.

In more recent Years we have signed agreements with Dorset Police and Dorset and Wiltshire fire to assist them with any incidents near or on water, the majority of our callouts are for missing people.

Our vans also carry thermal drones, as a team we use them to identify safe locations to launch and monitor our teams, but they have been deployed by the Fire service to assist with Wild fires. Firstly, to assist with asset deployment and then identifying hot spots.

As a team we continue to expand in order to continue assisting the communities we live within.

Supporting Local Charities

Since its inception Wareham Wednesdays has been able to donate thousands of pounds from our events to local charities and community projects, thanks to the generosity of our visitors.

Charities & Good Causes We Have Championed

The committee are also very proud to have placed a defibrillator on Wareham Quay (with the help of The British Heart Foundation), help fund cancer treatment units at Poole & Wareham hospitals, contribute towards the relocation of Wareham town centre's CCTV to the Police station and the installation of a private disabled wet room, we have also provided a donation to a Wareham Parish Hall project, given funding towards the repair of Wareham’s Town Hall clock and replaced the Saxon sword on Saxon Roundabout...to name just a few!

If you have a charity in mind for next year please contact us to put them forward for nomination.