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centaurea

Joined: 22 Apr 2012
Posts: 15
Location: Norfolk

Posted: Sun Apr 22, 12 6:25 am Post subject: Good Morning!

Hello, I've just joined this forum and am unashamedly going to pick everyone's brains! I hope that's OK with you all.
I am an obsessive gardener, middle aged and getting decrepid but who cares? I run a very small gardening charity in Norfolk UK working with adults with learning difficulties and those with other barriers to employment and education. I passionately believe that everyone should be given the opportunity to garden, for pleasure and health, and that gardening should be part of the National Curriculum in schools. My mission in life seems to have become to give everyone the chance to grow stuff, whether at home, as part of the community or in an institution and whether they're young, old, healthy or infirm and all points in between at whatever level is appropriate.
And I tend to get carried away too!

Went

Joined: 19 Mar 2006
Posts: 6968

Posted: Sun Apr 22, 12 6:37 am Post subject:
Good morning and Welcome from Asturias - I would like to know more about your charity when you settle in...

Cathryn

Joined: 16 Jul 2005
Posts: 19856
Location: Ceredigion

Posted: Sun Apr 22, 12 6:57 am Post subject:
Hello! Thank goodness for passionate people.

centaurea

Joined: 22 Apr 2012
Posts: 15
Location: Norfolk

Posted: Sun Apr 22, 12 7:15 am Post subject:

Ooh, how lovely - two responses already! Hiya! I haven't posted on a forum for ages after a fairly rocky experience on one or two but this one seems to be full of particularly interesting and sincere people.

Well, my charity is called Garden Science Trust. We are based at the Ecotech Centre in West Norfolk. I absolutely love what we do and care very much about our 'service users' (hideous name!). We (only three regular staff atm) run weekly sessions in the garden for adults with learning difficulties and other disabilites and our aim is to help them learn practical skills and to build self confidence and communication skills. We also run a supported volunteer programme and are partners (with MIND and Family Action) in a community allotment project called ESCAPE which is going really well. We work closely with CSV - a wonderful charity and although we're quite small we have huge aims and big plans!

Chickem

Joined: 27 Mar 2009
Posts: 3958
Location: Sunny Devon

Posted: Sun Apr 22, 12 7:22 am Post subject:
Hello from Devon

catbaffler

Joined: 31 Mar 2009
Posts: 937
Location: Barry

Posted: Sun Apr 22, 12 7:25 am Post subject:
Hello and welcome. Your charity sounds so positive - gardening can be such a theraputic activity for anyone but for the sector that you mention, I believe, it's particularly valuable and for the reasons that you mention. I hate the term "service users" too! The allotment project sounds brilliant - may it all go from strength to strength!

Green Rosie

Joined: 13 May 2007
Posts: 10498
Location: Calvados, France

Posted: Sun Apr 22, 12 7:26 am Post subject:
Bonjour from France Centaurea I fully agree with your sentiments about everyone have the opportunity to garden (except my Mum who hates it with a passion ) and when in the UK I worked as a school grounds advisor helping schools set up and use their outdoor areas for gardening, wildlife and education. Have you been in touch withthe organisation Learning Through Landscapes? https://www.ltl.org.uk/

gz

Joined: 23 Jan 2009
Posts: 8970
Location: Ayrshire, Scotland

Posted: Sun Apr 22, 12 7:31 am Post subject:
Bore Da from South East Wales

alison
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 12918
Location: North Devon

Posted: Sun Apr 22, 12 7:38 am Post subject:
Welcome to Downsizer!

Tavascarow

Joined: 06 Aug 2006
Posts: 8407
Location: South Cornwall

Posted: Sun Apr 22, 12 7:52 am Post subject:

Cathryn wrote:

Hello!

Thank goodness for passionate people.

Seconded.
Welcome from Cornwall.

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28243
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Sun Apr 22, 12 8:22 am Post subject:
Welcome from Swindon

Rusticwood

Joined: 01 Dec 2009
Posts: 2154
Location: All over the South West

Posted: Sun Apr 22, 12 8:23 am Post subject:
Hello from sunny Devon

earthmamma

Joined: 01 Jan 2012
Posts: 411
Location: West Wiltshire

Posted: Sun Apr 22, 12 9:08 am Post subject:
Hello and welcome from Wiltshire

mochyn

Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 24585
Location: mid-Wales

Posted: Sun Apr 22, 12 9:12 am Post subject:
Bore da and Croeso from the middle of Wales.

Sally Too

Joined: 14 Sep 2006
Posts: 2511
Location: N.Ireland

Posted: Sun Apr 22, 12 9:26 am Post subject:

Hello and welcome,

You might like to look up Growing Connections which are a similar type organisation here in N.Ireland.... I chatted a few years ago with the two lovely ladies involved in setting it up, but haven't had much contact lately. You might be able to swap some ideas perhaps.... or maybe you know them already?

And of course all the Camphill movement has the same sort of ethos regarding the benefits of gardening/farming etc.

I'll go and see if I can find a link for you...

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