Aviva Community Fund has provided £489 of match funding
Outdoor Growing for Wellbeing Project
Glastonbury, England, United Kingdom
Aim
To expand a thriving therapeutic horticulture and wellbeing project to enable more people, of all abilities, to participate.
Rough times, difficult patches, bumps in the road call it what you like we've all been there or know someone who has, particularly in the current climate. The Growing for Wellbeing Group welcomes and supports people to get back on their feet, find their mojo or just have the space to change direction and develop new skills.
In a nutshell we grow food and flowers to sell on our roadside stall and take home to cook with but we are so much more than this.
We are a thriving inter-generational group, we create a positive and supportive space for people to spend time working outdoors in a relaxed, nurturing environment. We garden, we create havens for wildlife, we sell beautiful natural flower posies, we make bird and bee boxes to sell - but above all we provide a sense of community, belonging and purpose.
Our vision is to expand the beneficial work of the Project by opening our doors for a second day each week. We want to proactively respond to the growing problem of social isolation and mental ill health that has been aggravated by the Covid pandemic. Demand for our services is high and we currently only have funding to open one day a week. Being able to open for a second day would revolutionise what we could achieve and who we could reach. We could broaden the scope of our work and appeal to both older people with existing skills and younger people looking for transferable work and small business skills.
We need funding to pay for freelance staff to provide the continuity and skilled support needed to run the project.
We have ambitious plans to set up and run a Repair Workshop to make and repair tools in our traditional Roundhouse structure. We also want to expand our cut flower garden so we can sell more seasonal posies on our roadside stall and thus generate more income for the project.
We have recently started to use our Roundhouse for green woodworking and recycled wood projects; making bird and bee boxes to sell. This expansion of our services to include woodworking appeals to people who enjoy rural craft activities and would like to learn woodworking skills. We are also hoping it will attract those who are fed up with working alone on projects in their garden sheds and would welcome the chance for a chat and a cuppa with other people.
We would also like to offer opportunities to a former group beneficiary to improve his skills by teaching others tool repair, maintenance and construction.
From our experience running the Growing For Wellbeing Group we know that people need our group to build up their resilience, to move forwards with their lives and to give them a sense of purpose, belonging and community.
We help people get stronger and more able to roll with the bumps in the road, rough times and difficult patches – even if sometimes all they want to do is sit on the sofa and spend time with the four and three legged canine friends who come to the Project every week!
This project successfully funded on 7th December 2021