Doris Field Charitable Trust

The Doris Field Charitable Trust, established from a wartime nurse's legacy of community care, pursues general charitable purposes for public benefit, prioritizing Oxfordshire's local needs through flexible, responsive grantmaking. Core values emphasize enduring philanthropy, grassroots empowerment, impartial support for voluntary sector resilience, and balancing immediate relief with long-term sustainability, believing change arises from nurturing local organizations addressing everyday social challenges via authentic partnerships, community stewardship, and adaptive funding for both core operations and innovative projects.

It funds diverse interventions tackling poverty relief and financial hardship through food banks, baby banks, and essential goods distribution for families facing food insecurity and crisis, community development via festivals, events, and cohesion-building activities combating social isolation, arts programming including creative arts, music, and cultural activities fostering wellbeing and inclusion for all ages, housing support addressing homelessness prevention and secure accommodation for vulnerable households, social welfare services encompassing befriending, outreach, drop-in centres, and advocacy for isolated elderly, families in crisis, children and young people at risk, carers navigating hardship, and disadvantaged residents seeking holistic support. Backed activities include running costs for day services, therapeutic community-led programs, peer support groups, training for employability, preventative early intervention, and capital enhancements enabling person-centred service delivery in local settings.

With no formal thematic exclusions, it distinctly favors Oxfordshire-rooted charities, especially grassroots groups in Headington and surrounding neighborhoods serving urban families, low-income carers, isolated elderly, children with complex family needs, and communities building resilience against poverty and disconnection. Unique as an endowment-sustained local benefactor, it prioritizes organizations demonstrating measurable community impact, lived experience leadership, inclusive approaches over top-down models, and alignment with evolving priorities like family carer support, youth engagement, and social cohesion without mandating evidence-based or faith-specific criteria.