The Braethorpe Centre project
The Braethorpe Centre is a day centre in Ashford which provides a
range of services to the local community. People can access
services such as drug and alcohol support, mental health support,
social services and welfare support.
Kent Community Programme has previously run a project at Braethorpe
which was immensely successful for the young people, the centre
users and the staff. We were contacted and asked if we could
return with another project to do some more garden improvements.
The plans for the garden were designed to make it more
attractive, accessible and useable for service users who spend a
lot of time at the centre on a daily basis. The garden is for
them to relax and socialise in, but they also grow their own fruit
and vegetables and tend the flower beds.
One of our jobs was to create an attractive but natural pathway
that would lead through all the different areas of the large rear
garden, i.e. lawns, vegetable garden, pond area, herb garden,
seating area and pergola.
We all worked together on this task at various times, and were
able to create the edging by using logs, chopped down tree trunks
and branches that were already lying around, and completed it with
a weed control membrane and bark chippings.
Three of the group chose to work together on the broken
wall and took all the loose bricks off, cleaned and re-laid
them. Another two young people teamed up and took
responsibility for the paved path by lifting the old
slabs, laying them evenly and cementing them down, making the
path safe and even to walk on. The whole group also worked
together to paint a wooden pergola and garden furniture, and
generally clean and tidy up.
The young people on the project discussed the plans together,
decided on materials, amounts and costing. Individuals were
also given responsibilities and delegated tasks based on their
skill and ability levels and confidence. They were given the
freedom to apply their own creativity and ideas to a lot of the
work, which led to some great individual input.
Along with the practical skills the young people learnt on the
project they also received training to help them improve their
employability skills.
All the young people on the course achieved the following
certificates:
- First Aid
- Manual Handling
- CSCS Card – (Construction site certificate of safety)
To further help the young people seek employment or further
education and training, the young people also had the
opportunity to improve their life skills in areas such as CV
writing, job searching, team working, and planning and problem
solving .