Outdoor pursuits
Our outdoor pursuits started some years ago when we partnered with housing provider Thirteen, MVDA and You’ve Got This, MIND, Home Ed, MEC and Middlesbrough Borough Council, to launch Galloway Gardens. It was all about transforming the communal area of Rainham Close into a tranquil outdoor space, as part of a wellbeing project aimed at offering the community the opportunity to learn new skills in gardening and growing fresh vegetables, with specialist horticultural training also available to anyone interested.
You can read more about this project in our other blog:
Through this journey we realised the need for outdoor activities in our community so in 2023 we began the process of accessing an allotment space at Town Farm and started on a journey to create a community space that was safe and accessible to everyone. The benefits of being outdoors, moving around, growing your own plants and food and meeting new people in the process have been highlighted by everyone we have worked with so far, so it felt very important we value that and build on what had been created.
It was a lot of hard work, clearing out the debris, cleaning up the new plot, getting the materials to create vegetable patches, flowerbeds, sheds and fences, but the team and our loyal volunteers persevered through the rain and shine.
Since then, we’ve accessed funding from CPCC to create a Summer youth programme, which was designed to encourage children to express creativity while learning about nature and reducing anti-social behaviour. Participants were able to build a wellbeing corner together, design bird boxes, and create wildlife hotels. At the end of the program, we hosted a celebratory picnic for families to come and see the children's hard work.
YGT and Everyone Active also supported us to build a tool shed and communal greenhouse space with their funding. It took time and many hours but here’s the results!
Through all of this we’ve been talking to everyone involved and it’s been very community led. We’ve actually been lucky enough to have some volunteers who used to do this professionally, so we’ve taken all their advice on how to manage an outdoor space. We’ve learnt so much on the way about horticulture and even started taking it back to our community centre in Thorntree to make recipes from the food we were growing. We could finally feel it going full circle, so we decided to document it and use it to take the project to the next level.
Earlier this year, we were awarded funding from the Postcode Gardener which is a project from Friends of the Earth and The Co-operative Bank who have joined forces to launch a multi-year partnership, aimed at bringing back nature and bringing people together by transforming neglected public spaces into thriving green spaces, for nature and our community. This project is very close to our hearts as we now have a much better understanding of the benefits that nature can have on wellbeing and health. Thanks to this funding, we’ve been able to recruit a dedicated Postcode Gardener who manages the entire allotment (and the three new ones we are yet to get stuck into). Ian Pemberton, our new Postcode Gardner, has a great amount of skill in horticulture as well as biodiversity, which is about all the different kinds of life you'll find in one area. With his skills we have big plans to bring nature back to Thorntree and North Ormesby, increase the number of outdoor areas which increase and preserve wildlife, whilst creating a programme that not only helps people grow their own fruit and veg but also enhance healthy lifestyles by being more active and developing an understanding of nutritious foods and cooking.
In the Summer holidays alone, youth club have been using vegetables donated from our allotment and those of the other community users around the area to create some new healthy recipes; volunteers have created a dedicated compost heap to help add nutrients to the soil and make use of old food, taking it full circle. We’ve also seen the very special grape vines take shape which we’ve been looking forward to since we found them amongst the debris, and the youth also got to meet some new chicks from another local allotment holder. We feel very proud of the journey this project has been on, remembering where it has come from and feel inspired about where it will go.
If you would like to join in, take part in the activities or offer your ideas or resources, we’d love to hear from you! You can join our weekly session over at the allotment every Tuesday at 10am to 12pm or contact us on 01642 989254 or hello@cvl.org.uk. We’re also open every week Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm at our Thorntree centre if you want to just pop by.