Speedy Support

Aim

To help the project to meet some immediate-need costs : surveys for our planning application, refurbishment & groundworks.

The Snapdragons team has grown over the last year to include members of our various subcommittees. As a team, we’re passionate about bringing communities together through nature, with various groups running under the Snapdragons umbrella. 

We love the fact that we are creating a green haven in such an urban setting, helping to make city spaces where people of all ages and backgrounds love to frequent. 

Our venue was empty for over 10 years and became a site for anti-social behaviour.  This has been much improved since we took on the lease for the site. We have cleared many, many needles and spoons, cleared bags of dog poo and litter and brought in over 1000 tonnes of clean top soil! Over the last 4 years we have transformed the space (an ongoing mission!), remediated a soil contamination problem and started refurbishing the buildings to make them fit for purpose.  Through our work on the outside space, aiming to work positively with the more-than-human element as well as the people frequenting the site, we are improving the biodiversity of the local environment.  

So far we have managed to refurbish one of the two buildings, and made a start on the second. The pandemic has delayed this work and we have noticed the cost of living increase has negatively impacted our project, with the cost of materials massively rising and it being hard to get contractors on site.   However, having the one room finished to a high quality standard has meant we can start running several of our groups (Plymouth Red Tent and associated spin-off groups, Plymouth Green Man circle, Plymouth Woodcraft Folk and volunteer sessions) and hire out the venue for other projects to use (a local Permaculture Design Course, food growing workshops, Green Minds community gatherings and more). It really is becoming the wonderful community space that we always envisioned, a nourishing space where local groups can come to connect.  

Our groups (now starting to run from the site, with more starting up this year) enable community action : people gather here to learn new skills, forge connections, tackle social isolation, improve both mental and physical health and wellbeing and to offer/gain peer support.  We are working hard to support our communities, encouraging them to make links with each other to become resilient and thrive, creating safe spaces in which they can connect on a deeper level. 

Through our women’s and men’s groups, we create held spaces where there is an element of peer support but also signposting to external services is available and actively encouraged.  We encourage attendees to think of the wider picture, how we as individuals contribute to the greater community and can create a more positive place to live in. 

Through groups such as our Plymouth Woodcraft Folk branch, we also work positively with children to educate about issues such as climate change/environmental issues but also about how to become active citizens in our city and in the wider world. 

We use local materials and contractors wherever possible, with a sustainable ethos running through the entire project.  Working together with other local groups and businesses, we have offered volunteering opportunities for many plus a venue for workshops (e.g. Growing resilience with Tess Wilmot, volunteer sessions with Eat That Frog and more). 

We are an inclusive space, where everyone who visits/frequents the project is treated fairly and with respect.  As well as being accessed by the local community, Snapdragons has a strong community of interest, with people coming from all across the city and beyond to come and visit us.  Through our activities we are increasing community capacity – most of this work centres around growing and preserving of food, gardening skills, social skills, support with men’s/women’s health and learning new skills (traditional crafts etc). 

Many of our groups involve spending time outside, learning how to live in as sustainable a manner as possible – educating about climate change, how to limit our carbon footprint and how to live with the effects of it on our lives and the world we inhabit.  

Our funds are running low and we have some really important payments to make in the next month or so, which are vital to the project progressing to the next stages. We have to have some surveys done for our next planning application, complete the refurbishment of the main building  and create some wonderful outside spaces in the grounds of the site.  We desperately need your help to raise some interim funding to help cover these costs.  As always, we're so grateful to your support - without you, this project would not be happening! 

This project successfully funded on 6th April 2023