Pathway to a better future

"They are not disabled 'enough' to qualify for therapeutic earnings, but they are not able to work in the big, bad world either they fall in a kind of grey area.

"But here, they learn skills, work as a team and are paid. Plus they produce some gorgeous products too Pathway is unique."

The Pathway Workshop began in its earliest form 25 years ago, when Eric Johnson, the then owner of RJ Johnson & Co, Cowley builders merchants, provided employment for disabled people in his bagging and packing department.

Work evolved to include the production of wooden garden products, made from waste wood and pallets, and charitable status was gained.

And when Mr Johnson sold the company in 1996, he turned his full attention to the workshop, helping to find its current site in Blackbird Leys.

Today, the Pathway workshop is a hive of activity and filled with the glorious smell of sawdust.

Covering 500sq metres, it is fully equipped with working machinery and also has a comfortable office and admin area.

A showroom displays the fruits of the 22-strong workforce's labour everything from benches, bird tables and swinging seats, down to garden troughs and even hedgehog hibernation homes.

"We offer a fair day's wage for a fair day's work," says Mr Johnson, who is 79, founder/trustee/director, and still an active part of the business.

"We operate as a proper, commercial business, with structured breaks and weekly pay.

"We're not soft, although we do appreciate that our workers do have their own special needs and we accommodate that.

"We help them out with any troubles they might have even ringing the bank if needs be. They know we are there if they need us. And as a result, they work damned hard for us."

Whereas a 'normal' business employs people to carry out its current workload, Pathway seeks to find more work, just so it can employ more people.

The project has costs of around £200,000 a year, all workers get above the minimum wage and sales bring in about half of the funds this means £100,000 has to be found.

While profits are almost negligible, the emotional rewards are obvious and plentiful at Pathway.

Frank Moxham, 45, lives in Hollow Way, Cowley, and has worked here for a year.

He has worked in factories and other businesses in the past, but was ridiculed by other workers, because of his disabilities a 37 per cent reduction in both ears that requires two hearing aids.

"When I arrived I didn't have a lot of confidence because people in the past had played jokes on me and said unfair things," he said.

"Here it is different. I get on well with the people and have learned new skills and am now even in charge of the firewood team.

"I have responsibility here and because of that I just want to make sure I do a great job.

"I also want to learn as many skills as possible.

"This place has been great to me and I want to be as good as I can be, back."

Jonathan Franklin, 18, from Kidlington, is the youngest member of staff and suffers from dyspraxia, a difficulty with thinking out, planning and carrying out sensory or motor tasks.

After leaving school he worked for a medical supply company, but found his constantly changing role too demanding. "Because I have trouble with my memory and have to be told things several times, changing what I was doing all the time was very frustrating for me," he said.

"But here I have felt so much more comfortable because you can learn a skill, and then stay doing that until you feel ready to learn another one at your own speed."

Eric Johnson and Jenny O'Loughlin beam with pride as they listen to the staff sing Pathway's praises.

"Some of these lads come here so unsure of themselves and with such low self- esteem, you think they'll never cope, but their progress is often amazing," says Mr Johnson.

"Their progress often has a knock-on effect for their whole family," agreed Ms O'Loughlin.

"Them coming here means respite time for families and some parents and carers can have jobs for the first time in years."

Mr Johnson adds: "This is what still gets me out of bed each morning at 79 years of age seeing that this really works."

Out in the yard, Pathway's own flatbed lorry and trailer arrives back carrying huge drums of off-cuts of wood.

Sawmills donate spare timber in all shapes and sizes, while wrongly cut roof trusses from building companies make up 50 per cent of Pathway's materials.

But they will take almost anything and recycle it into something functional or even beautiful.

"Sometimes the lorry will come back loaded up with off-cuts and it's a case of thinking, what are we going to do with this lot?" jokes Mr Johnson.

"But we always find something.

"We recycle 400 tonnes of timber a year which would probably end up as landfill."

While the machinery hums in the background and Eric and Jenny talk animatedly about the project, it's difficult to imagine the stress and aggravation they have endured in the past few years.

It almost shut down in October 2004, due to a funding crisis, and was thrown into further turmoil in January 2005 when the Government refused a three-year maintenance grant.

An application for help was then refused by Tony Blair and the Government.

"Thanks to Blackbird Leys Parish Council we are managing to keep on an even keel, and there are so many kind people out there who help, even if it means just sponsoring our toilet roll supply each month.

"But we still have to grow in the future to survive," Ms O'Loughlin said.

She added: "By the time I turn my toes up I want this to have inspired other projects like this, elsewhere.

"Our aim is to provide a pathway to a brighter future, and that's exactly what we're doing."

The Pathway Workshop is open five days a week Monday to Thursday, 8.30am-5pm and Friday, 8.30am-4pm. The project can be contacted by phone: 01865 714111, by email: enquiries@pathway- workshop.org.uk or via its website www.pathway- workshop.co.uk