GROW is recognised by Cheshire East Council as one of the building blocks of community services contributing to good Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing as detailed in their health Joint Strategic Needs Assessment [‘JSNA’] http://www.cheshireeast.gov.uk/social_care_and_health/jsna/jsna.aspx https://www.cvsce.org.uk/joint-strategic-needs-assessment-jsna/mental-health
We offer support for people who are or who have in the past suffered from mental health issues. Knutsford GROW offers support to people so that they can undertake a recognised therapeutic activity and in so doing:
- Gain new skills
- Improve their confidence by learning new things and experiencing new challenges
- Gain interpersonal skills
- Gaining groupwork skills
- Interact with other people –both other volunteers and our beneficiaries
- Get involved in real gardening activities which are recognised and appreciated by older people in the community.
We offer the chance for people to volunteer with others in a safe and supervised environment to improve the gardens of older people who due to age or illness are struggling to maintain their own gardens. We help them maintain and develop their gardens and volunteers are encouraged to participate in a wide range of gardening activities. There is also an opportunity to work at Tatton Park on occasion as well as being involved in other community gardening projects. We attempt to tailor make the activities for our volunteers so that they can gain the most from their experience with us while encouraging people to try new things. We also have a bursary which we can use to help people gain professional qualifications after a period of time with us.