In memoriam: Charlie Back

It is with great sadness we report the death of Charlie Back, former Trustee of The Open Door and the person responsible for finding and converting the building into the Open Door Support Centre. At his funeral held on 7 April, Adrian Prior-Sankey gave a generous eulogy (see extract below) describing a remarkable life of service to his community and beyond.

“It was his compassion for the marginalised that led him to join the trustees of The Open Door, Taunton’s drop-in centre for the homeless and disadvantaged. Sitting in endless meetings with fellow trustees bemoaning the difficulty of having to vacate an old motorbike workshop as a base and with little money to do anything to replace it, Charlie both inspired and enabled the solution.

Former Sunday School rooms next to Vivary Park were converted to upstairs rented accommodation which provided rental income to meet the cost of the Centre’s impressive facilities on the ground floor. Charlie undertook and project-managed the work to keep costs down and, despite falling off the scaffolding at one point, he delivered the goods which still flourish today.”

What you have helped us achieve this year

It has been another busy year at Open Door. We would like to thank all those who have supported us and enabled us to provide help to 259 individual rough sleepers during their time of need. Our amazing volunteers have prepared 5,020 delicious meals and we have also been able to hand out 5,043 items of donated clothing. In addition, 5,610 copies of the Big Issue have been sold. More details of our services can be read in the graph below (year 2024/25).