The Baked Bean Charity

Who we are

During a 6-week Summer project in a Wandsworth day centre in 1997, The Baked Bean Charity was born. Starting out as a drama project for just 16 adults with learning disabilities, the group hit the ground running and overtime has flourished over 25 years into the amazing organisation we have today! From Wandsworth to Wycombe, our long-term training classes are accessed by over 170 students from all over London and beyond. We pride ourselves on our multi-talented and specialised staff team who run 16 different classes, including Drama, Dance, DJing, Zumba, Life Skills... and that is just the tip of the iceberg. We also provide regular community engagement and training programmes to professionals and the local community, creating performances, workshops and films that educate, engage and inspire. We work with Universities, NHS trusts and local councils to deliver performances that shatter misconceptions, challenge stereotypes and push the boundaries that society sets. As well as this, we operate The Baked Bean Agency. This book was launched in 2023 with the aim of representing actors with learning disabilities and creating opportunities across the performing arts industry for mainstream television, film and theatre productions. Being part of The Agency showcases our actors talents and ability to a wider audience.

BUT, WHY BAKED BEANS? That's easy. Because of Heinz 57, of course! We like the idea of the '57 Varieties slogan' emulating how there are so many different versions of learning disabilities and how we should embrace our differences and flaunt them in whatever we do.

Equality, diversity and inclusion policy

We're very serious about equality, diversity and inclusion. It is included in our mandatory training and we constantly seek to make improvements.