A community Involvement Project
The many faces of Digswell Nurseries:
A horticultural training centre for vulnerable adults
A retail outlet
Contract growers for the local authority
Home of ‘Happy Gardeners’
An accredited City and Guilds/Asdan training centre
A base for young offenders to pay back to the community
A work based trainer for the unemployed
A centre providing training for school children across Hertfordshire
A safe haven for parents, grandparents and child-minders
A place for the elderly to visit for tea and cakes
A partner to local schools for children to learn about social enterprise, and horticulture
An opportunity for all volunteers to contribute to the smooth running of the project
These are many of the parts which make up our community involvement project, Digswell Nurseries.
The project opened in September 1995 providing work based training in horticulture to people moving out of our long stay
Celebrating our fifteenth anniversary in 2010 provoked a regeneration and a new way of thinking. With 14 acres of landscaped gardens and good facilities the project needed to put itself firmly in the community. It was recognised that the project was too valuable, too special to be reserved for just a few.
With social services referrals slowing and traditional funding streams reducing, it became necessary to move the project forward and start looking at other avenues we had not explored before. Community involvement became at the centre of the work we do.
Since a successful re-launch event in 2009 the project has moved into the community at a fast pace.
By creating our ‘Happy Gardeners’ website it has ensured that customers are able to stay in touch with what is happening within the project. Information regarding our service and the opportunities we offer is fully accessible.
We have built and developed a number of strong partnerships which have enabled the project to grow.
Watford Community Garden, a community interest company, began working with us in late 2009 offering training to young people from mainstream or schools for children with special needs in the education and qualification of horticulture. Through this partnership the project is now a City and Guilds registered centre and also recently became an ASDAN accredited centre. This has allowed us to offer all the people that use our service the opportunity to work towards gaining City and Guilds Level 1 and Level 2 Award in horticulture.
Watford Community Garden uses our centre three times a week and has transformed our shrub beds into a fantastic renaissance garden, incorporating, shrubs, bedding plants, herbaceous perennials and vegetable plants. Cultivating all their plants on site and supply the nursery with stock for general sales.
The building of our children’s play area and coffee shop has opened the project up to visitors from the community all year round. People no longer just visit to buy plants but to use us as a community resource.
Identifying within the community that free places to play are very limited and responding to this has increased our footfall to the project and has brought all areas of the community together in one place. Families playing and laughing has now become a familiar sound within the project.
Our neighbours, Saint Andrews Nursing home is located far way from local facilities and places to visit by foot, and are no longer serviced by a bus route. Visitors and staff at the home struggled in the past to know where to go. The opening of the coffee shop provided them with a solution and most days throughout the summer months, visitors from Saint Andrews can be found enjoying a coffee and chat. We have a good relationship with the residents, families and staff from Saint Andrews and play an important part in the provision of those that live there.
We have worked for a number of years in partnership with North Herts College and currently SEETEC providing work based training to those people unemployed and on the New Deal Programme. This is a positive partnership providing the project with skilled workers to assist the staff team and provide sound work based skills to the unemployed.
The project continues to provide work based training for vulnerable adults within our local community. Each individual has the opportunity to develop their own skills and areas of interest, whilst contributing to the retail growing of the nursery.
Our continued partnership with Welwyn Hatfield Council providing bedding plants under contract for the towns of Welwyn and Hatfield, means that our work is always showcased.
Lakeside is a school in Welwyn Garden City for children with special needs. We have a longterm and strong relationship with the school, providing opportunities in social enterprise activities, in horticulture and retail skills. We also attend their community café days, which are held at various local junior schools, bringing together all groups from the local community for café events.
A community partnership currently being developed is with the Target Youth Support Service and the Youth Justice Service, in the provision of reparation of young people. This partnership is working towards going live in September at Digswell and eventually incorporating Woodhall Community Centre.
Digswell Nurseries continues to develop partnerships with a wide range of external agencies and individuals from across the local community. This means that the work of Saint John of God Hospitaller Services reaches as many people as we can, having a positive impact on individuals and the community as a whole.