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In 1880, members of a religious order arrived in Scorton, a small village near Richmond in North Yorkshire, and took possession of a collection of buildings.
The language used to describe their purpose belongs unmistakably to another age. They intended to create a foundation for “unwanted people”, including disabled people, alongside a new hospital for those who were old or infirm.
It's a deeply uncomfortable phrase now. It also tells us something important about the society into which the organisation arrived: some people weren't simply poorly supported or excluded from everyday life. They could be regarded as unwanted.
More than 140 years later, the charity which began its British work in that North Yorkshire village is adopting a new identity. Saint John of God Hospitaller Services - latterly known by the rather less cumbersome SJOG - has become The Do Good Charity.
The name might sound strikingly contemporary, but its origins are centuries old.
The charity traces its history to John of God, who began caring for people living in poverty and sickness in 16th-century Granada. The religious order that developed from his work became known in Italy as the Fatebenefratelli: the “Do Good Brothers”.
Founded in 1572, the Hospitaller Order of Saint John of God is now active in more than 50 countries across five continents, supporting the lives of more than seven million people each year.
In Britain, though, the story began in Scorton.
The organisation still works in the county today, providing supported-living services in Scorton, Catterick and Leyburn. Nationally, it now supports more than 1,800 people each month across 60 communities, employing 562 people and providing housing, care and specialist assistance for disabled and autistic people, older people and those with complex needs.
Its work also includes support for people recovering from modern slavery. During 2025, more than 97,000 people were reached through its digital platforms.
It is, by its own description, one of the largest social care charities most people have never heard of.
That comparative anonymity wasn't entirely accidental. The organisation says it followed the quiet example of its founder, concentrating on the work rather than promoting the name behind it.
But quiet service has its limitations, particularly within a social-care system under sustained pressure. Charities must find partners, recruit staff, attract support and make their experience heard by those shaping policy. The new name is therefore intended to do more than make the organisation easier to recognise.
“SJOG was familiar to the people who already knew us, but it did not necessarily tell someone encountering us for the first time who we were or what we stood for,” says Paul Bott, chief executive of The Do Good Charity.
“The Do Good Charity puts our purpose into plain English and, importantly, it is also an invitation.
“We’ve been quietly doing good since 1880. Now we need people to know who we are because we want to do more of it, and share the things we have learnt. We want more people, communities, charities, supporters and partners to work with us so that together we can do more.”
Names matter in social care because language often reveals who holds power.
The words used in Scorton in 1880 described people through the judgement society had made about them. Today, The Do Good Charity says its supported-living services are constructed around personal choice, participation in the community and helping people develop the confidence and skills to shape their own lives.
That represents a profound shift: from providing somewhere for those deemed unwanted to live, towards recognising a person’s right to decide how that life should be lived.
The charity says its work begins with an understanding that its staff are guests in the lives of the people they support. Rather than arriving with a standard answer, they begin with a question: “How can we help?”
Hospitality, compassion and respect remain its three core values. For the fifth consecutive year, all of its services regulated by the Care Quality Commission have been rated Good or Outstanding across every area assessed.
The public identity may be changing, but the charity insists that the principles beneath it are not.
“It’s a new name, but the same heart since 1880,” Bott says. “The 500-year-old philosophy of hospitality is still the bedrock of our work.”
There's an appealing plainness to the new name, although “doing good” is rarely as simple as the phrase might suggest. Good social care depends upon skilled and properly supported workers, sufficient funding, continuity, trust and a willingness to listen to the person receiving it. Compassion matters, but it must be accompanied by rights, resources and respect.
The distance between the language of 1880 and the values expressed today tells its own story. Yet the charity’s continuing presence in North Yorkshire also provides a thread of continuity: an organisation established in response to exclusion, still working in the communities where its British life began.
After nearly a century and a half of relative quiet, The Do Good Charity is ready to introduce itself.
The name is new. The invitation contained within it is much older.
Header image: Charity staff l-r - James Lindley, Malcolm Thompson, Charlotte Waistell, Amy Griffiths, Jodie Brodie-Myers. People the charity supports, l-r - Neville Fill, Damian Rodgers, Emma Catterson.
