Sow It! Grow It!

Who we are:  

Established in 1998, The Green Team is a registered charity based in Goole in the East Riding of Yorkshire, providing volunteering opportunities to local people. The Green Team is governed by a Board of Trustees; formed by people who live or work in or around Goole: the Trustees give their time voluntarily. The charity has a high profile in the area and is both well regarded and trusted. 

What we do: 

We promote and provide volunteering opportunities for people to play a positive role in society and in helping to build communities. Together we deliver a community garden maintenance service; we have an allotment plot; a community garden centre which opens to the public and we manage a community cafe in West Park Goole.  

Our team of volunteer gardeners, led by our Garden Operations Leader, deliver low-cost gardening services to the elderly and or households where someone has a learning disability or a physical disability and who cannot manage to maintain their gardens themselves. Our garden beneficiaries are all people who want the benefits of having a garden but cannot manage to maintain it themselves and do not have the financial means of paying for a commercial service. We serve 120 households on a 3 week cycle (dependant on weather and volunteer numbers); it is essential that we continue to provide a garden maintenance service to our current beneficiaries who we know are some of the neediest in our community; they tell the team that they are so thankful that we can attend. The service, contact, company and engagement that we can offer is so needed by so many of our customers.   

Who we work with: 

Current volunteers come from many different backgrounds including those with learning disabilities and difficulties, NEETS, with physical disabilities, mental health issues, retired, semi-retired, health issues, dealing with personal issues or challenges, long-term unemployed, with low literacy levels. Some have not had the best start to life; and instead have had troubled, unsecure backgrounds.  

Through our experience as a staff team, we work with individuals; offering support and guidance, meaningful involvement, purpose, structure and routine to those who need it; crucial for moving forward. In a typical year, we engage with approximately 80 volunteers and through our training and up-skilling of volunteers, we supported approximately 15 individuals per year over the past 5 years into employment.   

Our Vision: 

Goole is an area of depravation; many local people are on low incomes, have to visit foodbanks regularly and do not have the knowledge, skills or confidence to grow and cook home-grown produce or how to prepare healthy meals for themselves and their families. Some have limited understanding of how to use the internet for purposes such as living a healthier life to improve their wellbeing or to secure a better future. Using the environments which we have, we are able to offer opportunities to change this for local people. 

How we will use the money raised:  

Our charity was chosen at the end of last year to become a chosen cause as part of the Co-op Local Community Fund for 12 months. Co-op members could nominate which cause to support through their membership and every time they shopped, Co-op would donate a percentage to us. The Green Team 12 month term has just come to an end, and we were thrilled to receive £2922.20 and as a continuation, we have been invited to add our project to Crowdfunder for match funding.  

We will be able to offer local people an opportunity to take part in training to learn new skills and build confidence: teaching them how to plant, tend, harvest, prepare and cook home-grown vegetables and fruit utilising our polytunnels and allotment site, where anyone can join and learn. Participants will learn from each other and intergenerational work will take place.   

In addition to learning how to grow produce, they will learn how to work as part of a team, how to interact positively with their peers; learning transferable skills, with the knowledge that they are contributing to the betterment of the lives of themselves and their families, all within a healthy, outdoor environment. By the provision of this project, we will be empowering people to feel more equipped to live better.    

Numerous people with whom we work or speak to within the community, do not have the financial resources to attend cookery classes or to pay the rent for an allotment. On low incomes, they are in need of fully funded projects such as this to engage with.  

Through our experience as a staff team, this focussed project will give us the opportunity to reach out and work with local people: some of whom are facing challenges in their life, through a more tailored, person-centred approach; offering positive support and guidance to ensure they are moving forward; from their own individual starting points, at their pace. This project will offer them meaningful involvement, purpose, structure and routine; crucial for moving forward. 

Mental health and wellbeing: 

The project will take place on our site within West Park, Goole: a large, beautiful, well maintained park. Throughout our project, we will promote wellbeing;  

• being in sunlight or natural light to boost reserves of vitamin D 

• appreciating the outdoor surroundings, and the park environment, right on the doorstep; a completely free resource, to experience this. 

• our sense of touch can make a garden an exciting place to explore the different textures of plants and flowers and is a great way to practise mindfulness by concentrating your mind on the ‘here and now.’  

A report by the King’s Fund found that ‘the health benefits of gardening were broad and diverse, with research studies showing significant reductions in depression and anxiety and improved social functioning.’