Member Article

​Green-fingered residents of supported housing service awarded Lottery funding boost

Green-fingered residents of a supported housing service for women and their children have been awarded nearly £10,000 to revamp a community garden in Middlesbrough.

Endeavour Housing Association’s Rainham House temporary accommodation service, based in the heart of the Thorntree estate, has successfully secured the funding from the Big Lottery Fund Awards for All grant scheme, for their Roots and Shoots garden project. Working in partnership with community allotment organisation Dig It, the service will use the money to create a garden area and deliver gardening workshops for residents and their children.

The project will provide opportunities for tenants and people from the local area to learn how to grow vegetables, fruit and flowers in a garden space and to gain skills that it is hoped will have a lasting impact on their health and well-being.

Pauline Byrnes, Team Manager at Rainham House, said: “We’re very excited about the new allotment garden. This project will show how easy it is to grow your own veg and eat healthy, nutritious meals on a low budget, even in the smallest of growing spaces.

“We know that mothers in particular, have a great role to play in influencing the current and future health of their children. If good eating habits are established in the early years, children are more likely to eat healthily in the long-term. We want to encourage children to get involved with growing food and learn about where it really comes from – it can be a fantastic, fun, outdoor family activity.”

As well as inviting residents of other temporary accommodation services in the area to take part, staff at Rainham House will be looking for volunteers from the local community with gardening experience to share.

Rainham House is an innovative development, officially opened by Cherie Blair in June 2012, that provides specialist housing support for 11 women and their children.

To find out more about the Roots and Shoots garden project, contact Pauline Byrnes, team manager at Rainham House, on 01642 266 283.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by North Star Housing Group .