Poole-based Routes to Roots has offered motivational outdoor activities to the homeless since 2009. This provides one day a week of interesting and worthwhile work in the conservation area over a number of weeks. Its current project is at Holton Lee, a Site of Special Scientific Interest, whichcovers 350 acres of heathland, saltmarsh, reedbed and woodland.
This project started in mid July 2012 and straightaway the guys who went loved it and showed a real willingness and commitment to be involved. As a group Routes to Roots was given ‘ownership’ of the Maze, which had been neglected for some time, and so the first task was to do some major tidying up before the guys could sit down together to think creatively about how to develop it. They were also given the cottage gardens to maintain. These had become massively overgrown and some hard work was needed to clear large areas that had become covered in a thick forest of ferns and bracken. R2R received Community Development Funding for this project, which covered summer, autumn and early winter (20 weeks +).
The outdoor activity at Holton Lee re-started in January this year with Project Flourish, which is being managed by Holton Lee staff, with a lottery grant, and includes people in need from other areas as well as 6-8 R2R clients. The guys go every Tuesday and start the day at 10am with a talk on wellbeing and discussion on what they will do during the day. They have two plots of land to work on – one of which they are thinking of turning into a relaxation area and one which has fruit trees and may become a vegetable garden with a greenhouse. Each day ends with a feedback session where the participants discuss how they are getting on and how they feel about the work. Because there are people from other areas this project involves lots of teamwork. The R2R guys really seem to be enjoying this experience and one commented on his drive home: “What a great day we’ve had.”
