Dulverton and NCS support community garden project
Dulverton and NCS support community garden project
The Dulverton Trust, an independent grant-making charity has supported MindSpace Stamford’s community garden project. A total of £2,500 was donated to the local charity in order to purchase practical tools such as wheelbarrows, gloves, spades, forks, weed membrane and much more. The grant, administered by the Community Foundation is overseen by Sue Fortune. The Community Foundation has awarded a total of £11.6 million pounds since 2002 and their strapline is about ‘change’ not charity.
Sue said “We are delighted to be able to support MindSpace with this garden project as it will allow both volunteers and members and the general public to come together in a community setting and all benefit their wellbeing in the process of its development”
A public consultation event was held on 6th March 2019 and was attended by over 40 interested individuals and organisations including Chris Young, Landscape Architect and Editor of Royal Horticultural Society Magazine. From this meeting, a steering group was formed and continues to take the work forward with a team of volunteers. A group of NCS (National Citizen Service) students from Stamford schools spent a day and a half at the community garden clearing weeds and cutting back bushes so the plot now has a great foundation for work to begin. The NCS programme has 4 phases over 4 weeks, phase 1 and 2 are all about adventure and discovery, phase 3 is all about ‘social action’ and this is where Stamford NCS decided to support MindSpace. Phase 4 is all about celebrating how much they have achieved. Many of the NCS students have offered to support the work of MindSpace after they have finished their NCS.
Helen Howe, Chair of Trustees said “We are very grateful to Sue Fortune and Dulverton Trust for this amazing donation which will really kick start the community garden project, providing the basic tools needed for our volunteers to make progress with this project. The support from the NCS students was commendable and they all worked very hard and had great fun too which is important for wellbeing too. The Dulverton donation and volunteer support from so many students has really boosted this project and on behalf of MindSpace we wish to express our sincere thanks for all their support”