Community Payback teams have been helping maintain two sites at Green Synergy, Ellie’s Garden and the Hillside Garden close to the County Hospital.
Working on both sites has been highly beneficial to the People on Probation attending to their Unpaid Work requirements. Working in green spaces has had a calming effect, evidenced via feedback given at the end of sessions to the regular supervisor for the project – David Royle.
The groups, ably assisted by Green Synergy’s Garden Manager Ana, learn essential gardening and horticultural skills whilst developing their knowledge and understanding of ecology and the natural environment. The groups have worked on a variety of gardening and horticultural tasks which has allowed them to learn how the composting process works, how to prune trees and bushes, how to identify various plants and flowers and have also learnt about pollinating insects and their role in successful gardening.
The partnership has gone from strength to strength since its inception in January 2023 and we have also developed an Individual Placement where an appropriately risk assessed person on probation undertakes office based tasks under the supervision of Green Synergy staff.
We also make frequent donations to Green Synergy of wooden items made at the Community Payback woodwork shop. These include planters and bird boxes. Green Synergy sell these items reinvest all of the profits back into their charity.
