by Charlotte Gray, Frontline Manager
Our staff team at Ampthill in Bedfordshire have been inspired by Everyone Everywhere and discussing as a team how we can make some meaningful connections locally and build on some of the great things we do. We thought about what we do and how we can link it more to our community, use our skills as a team to help others locally and develop ourselves.
Green fingers
There are some people we support and our staff team who are green fingered. We have a small outside planting space and a small pop up greenhouse. We wondered if this was something we could “grow”.
Growing space
Sharon, one of our support workers, reached out to Ampthill community allotments via Facebook. They got back in touch and the person overseeing it had already heard of MacIntyre and invited us down to meet them. We went to the allotments and spoke to her. She explained the expectations around having a plot and how we would need to look after it.
Heart of the community
The allotment is in the centre of Ampthill and feels like a really great place to get to know people. There’s a communal fruit and veg table and a lot of local people have an allotment there. We decided as a group that we would give it a go (or grow!).
Making it happen
Now the work begins! Rebecca, one of our team, has been on Facebook and asked for tools and things we will need to get us started. Another support worker, Barry, has helped tremendously with getting the ground ready, pulling together the materials list and has drawn up a 3d diagram of what the plot will look like so that we can plan what is going to be planted.
As part of this planning session with people supported we thought about how we can grow things to help people and share. We talked about growing flowers and giving them to people locally. Or growing fruit such as rhubarb and sharing it! And some people just wanted a nice place to sit and watch the work happening.
Sharon said:
We want the allotment to enrich the lives of the people we support – that’s what it’s all about
Lee, a person we support told us:
I can’t wait to grow my potatoes!
