Founded by Bill Russell, an ex-headteacher and brewer, the Brewkery was designed to show people that a learning disability or mental health problem was not a blocker to being part of society. Bill established the organisation after suffering a stroke himself as he wanted to help people who have suffered brain injury or live with mental health problems or learning disabilities a brighter future.

Equal Brewkery is a unique not-for-profit social enterprise, which is run by volunteers, and helps to transform the lives of people with learning disabilities through the power of beer and bread. Since 2017 it has supported local people with learning disabilities and mental health problems by teaching them to brew beer and bake bread.

 It was operating out of Independence Matters, a day centre in Norwich, but unfortunately in September 2023 was forced to close when a sinkhole appeared and made the site unsafe. 

The Brewkery has been offered a new home in Whitlingham Country Park but needs help from local businesses and tradespeople to make part of the site safe for brewing.

A team of volunteers from Aviva has been supporting the project, sharing their skills and expertise to help the local community. Using volunteering hours, they designed what the microbrewery could look like, created a project plan including costings for the materials that will be required. Aviva and its volunteers will continue to support Equal Brewkery as it moves ahead with the project.

To make all this happen we are now looking to raise funding to help with the costs for setting up and converting.