Aviva Community Fund has provided £803 of match funding
Carrot Club WILD - a conservation and eco farm
Derby, Derbyshire, United Kingdom
Aim
We want to fund the creation of a peaceful, healing social farm that allows us to boost our eco focus whilst we lower our carbon footprint.
Helping Hooves has evolved so much since 2020 when we moved to Bottle Brook.
Where we started as a pure equine led learning unit we are now developing our climate protection project along side a supportive social farm.
Our Equine sessions are very popular, and all our horses are very much loved by our members.
Growing our services from that of what we had just 2 years ago has been a bit of a crazy journey. We started lockdown with a field and ended it with a full facility, stable and work area, two growing areas, and a community of like minded partners, volunteers and most importantly service users in serious need of the safe space to re learn about their post pandemic selves.
People in real need of being brought together in a supportive and friendly outdoor environment.
The groups we facilitate have a vision we are building, a dream we are chasing and we are making great gains, but we need your help.
What we want to do next.
That vision is to move us from an animal therapy center to a fully functional socially managed micro farm.
We have our equine unit who are training the horses to drive, once they can drive they can plough and we are looking forward to re creating our green space through a mixture of modern and heritage farming, personally I am very excited about having enough funding to be able to buy a heritage plough and return our paddocks to ‘ancient’ meadow. Researching what historically would have grown in abundance to support our local bio habitats. And then seeding and managing the land in line with historical eco methods of farming. This is in addition to the Skijor, Agility and connection activities we already involve our service users with.
Our goats, sheep, quail and poultry are produce givers, allowing us to stock home grown welfare assured eggs and fiber. Along side their food production they will ensure the land is ‘well managed!’
Our pop up farm shop front is in production and our members are working hard to ensure the animals are in tip top health so we can provide top quality produce to our community.
We have an Apiary being cultivated with wild flowers, and living roofs on the small stock shelters to feed truly local Derbyshire pollinators and to support our honey production.
Honey will be used to gift/ sell in the farm shop, and to enrich the lives of our other animals, many of whom benefit from honey for health.
Pollinators on a wider scale are desperate for good forage and protection / breeding programs as they are vital to all food production and growing we are really keen to make the most of our opportunities
A cut flower project was an ‘absolute must’ from our groups requests, we are gifting these flowers seasonally to our community. To spread joy and allow for a smile to spread, Our gifting program wont be cheap to set up, but what price can you put on a smile?!
Our growing gardens are award winning in display and innovation, with our ‘ living seat’ achieving a national growing award in 2021. We want to expand that success to our new allotment space .
We have a successful herb garden we use to enrich our animals and use to flavor the food we cook in our bushcraft sessions.
The growing garden plan includes a whole host of fruit and vegetables to use in the bush craft kitchen, supportively feed the animals and to gift and sell within our community.
And to finish off our wonderful new project we are looking to invest in LOCAL hand made products using our produce to support our service. Soaps, wax melts, hand made bird houses, all using things from the farmImpact
We hope you have enjoyed learning a bit about our plans, plans are cool after all, but why do we want to do it and how will that effect climate change?
Our community is semi rural, our strip of land sits between two fairly busy roads, one of which is a major highway. With this in mind we are doing everything we can to enrich, improve our land and reduce our waste to lower our carbon footprint, composting and re using what we can, LOCAL growing and growing for ourselves rather than buying in, we have the ability to effectively feed our stock for a proportion of the year if we manage the land properly, but investment is needed.
By using heritage methods we can lower our carbon footprint further, harnessing man and animal power over high deasil usage.
Our local habitats are lost through flooding as we are river side, and we want to protect those areas, encourage more than the river rat, and look forward to seeing our resident kingfisher, buzzards, grass snakes and hedgehogs back in abundance, encourage our woodpeckers and herons. Our little piece of tranquillity is truly amazing in its variety of residents, we want to encourage and support them to live their best lives.
What’s next?
Good flood defenses
A safe working area
Investment in rewilding and seeding in line with heritage breeds of plants that have been lost to invasive weeds on our land.
Investment in heritage equipment.
And lots and lots of good luck and happy working weather! We will take forward the project if we get the funding to start by clearing the land of invasive weed and re greening the paddocks whilst cultivating our vegetable and flower gardens.
We will improve our flood defenses and start the protective environmental work.
Why do we need this funding?
Our center has struggled to recover through the pandemic and economic issues of the past two years, but we have held on and even increased our community in this time.
This project is much needed to ensure our longevity for years to come. And we need your help to reach that stable platform where we can continue to grow and support the groups and services we provide. As a not for profit we really struggle to get over the yard arm, but our community thrive on being able to see the growth our projects provide. Testimonials:
Mother of a 5 year old service user who also uses the service with her friends.
Carrot Club is literally AMAZING - we are so pleased to have stumbled upon you and are loving every minute at Helping Hooves. The space is such a haven and brings so much joy and adventure, development and growth, freedom and friendship…. Thank you for what you bring to the community and our family!
Young Adult Service User
Since the beginning of my time at Helping Hooves, their services have helped me deal with the heavy stresses of being an A-level student and a young person, whilst simultaneously developing my own self-confidence. As someone from the suburbia of Derby who has never made any real contact with animals or horses, Helping Hooves’ services have delivered an insight into a new experience that I will never forget for the rest of my life. However, it would be a truly great benefit to not only myself but also to the other members at Helping Hooves if we could receive funding to further develop new activities and experiences for even more people, in such a time of instability and anxiety.
35 year old service user.
Helping Hooves gang have helped me 10 fold with my anxiety. Don’t think I would know what to do without them around. Thank you all for listening to me and building me up where others have failed.
+50s service user
I have used/attended Helping hooves now for several years ... I have always found the service given to be professional and helpful and safe. Safety is paramount especially around the horses. Mental awareness is also taken into account. Plans for the sessions is led by the client under the guidance of the mentor . Great service .
This project successfully funded on 12th April 2022