Following Routes to Roots’ successful involvement in the launch of Holton Lee’s Project Flourish, they have been asked to select clients to take up places that become available as the initial volunteers complete their commitment.
In a new move, Holton Lee has granted Routes to Roots a piece of land specifically for its clients to clear and develop as they decide. Clients on the R2R allotment plot are able to create, plant, grow and harvest, with horticultural assistance from the Holton Lee staff as well as R2R volunteers. This will be a long-term project, which will provide opportunities for engagement for many years to come. Crops from the allotment will contribute to the food offered at R2R drop-ins.
In offering R2R this opportunity, Holton Lee’s Volunteer Co-ordinate Emma Browning said: “With the allotment plot you are essentially your own bosses; you can come and go whenever you want (when we’re open) and do whatever you want on it (with a few rules about sheds, trees etc). I hope this will give more scope for a greater sense of autonomy for the guys and the levels of achievement are bound to be greater as they will have to come up with every idea off their own back and make it work through their own hard work.”
“The guys really benefit from the experience, finding it a time to relax (despite the hard work) and put aside the day-to-day greyness and sameness of their lives”, says Gabi Sanger-Stevens, Management Services for Routes to Roots. “Joining with other disadvantaged people in undertaking these activities through Project Flourish has helped our clients to build on their team working and social skills as well as developing land-craft and horticultural skills, all of whichimproves their CVs andadds to their paid employment prospects.”
Three Project Flourish ‘graduates’, John Parsons (new R2R Executive Committee member), Sid and George, are the first to take part in the allotment scheme. They are already hard at work. At the end of September those at R2R’s drop-ins were able to sample the allotment’s first crop of lettuce.
You can follow John’s Holton Lee Allotment Diary on FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/RoutestoRootsHomeless
