As we launch our new website complete with a new logo, it seems a fitting time to reflect on how far the charity has come since its inception.

The easiest part was recognising that the site needed clearing at least a little before we could open! This has happened piecemeal as the project has recruited more volunteers and we have had more ideas to include on the site. It was as recently as this spring that we dug up the very last of the brambles to create our new orchard area which we will plant up this Autumn. 

The project itself has also grown in a piecemeal fashion, and as numbers have continued to expand, our structure has become more formalised. This ensures that the continuity in session creates a sense of security for all and that offering a two-year term at the project allows for change and progress to be reflected upon, benefitting our supported volunteers as they move onto other things. Throughout our development, our starting tenet of offering a non-judgemental space where everyone feels equally valued has always been upheld

The creation of the Academy which offers a progression for those supported volunteers who are ultimately seeking employment in horticulture has been a development we could never have envisaged at the start, its second assessment by the City and Guilds assessors again recording an exemplary practice of teaching.

We are so pleased that now the garden is a safe site we have made it available to Learning Space who deliver solution focused support for children and young people aged 5-18 years who need help with mental health and emotional well-being issues. In addition to having the use of the garden each Friday, it is also theirs to use for events the weeks that we are closed. 

Away from site, the support of administration assistants, ‘tech team’, marketing and social media volunteers ensures that as an organisation we run more effectively and tasks that were beyond those of us working at the garden are now completed in a timely and accurate fashion! Our trustee board has grown and the awareness of our work within the local community continues to expand.

So, a new website and logo to further that exposure is simply part of our ongoing progression, we hope you enjoy it.
 

Carmel

Before

After