Community Improvement Fund works magic!
‘The Magick Patch’, a community allotment for children in Heacham, is buying a greenhouse with a £515 grant from Broadland’s Community Improvement Fund (CIF).
Broadland tenant Claire Sanders, a former hairdresser, set up the Magick Patch last winter with her daughter Rosie, who is a teaching assistant. Claire used an initial grant from the CIF and then sourced further funding from Tesco and a number of local businesses.
Claire wanted to give local children a chance to experience the mental and physical benefits of gardening. Claire has first-hand experience of the power of gardening therapy. After being diagnosed with depression and anxiety, she was signposted to the King’s Lynn community allotment run by the mental health charity Mind.
“There are so many children who suffer from anxiety or depression, or who have special needs, and this has been made worse by the whole Coronavirus pandemic.
"Gardening is a really effective way of helping them realise that their feelings will eventually pass, and that they will get through it.”
Broadland’s Community Improvement Fund is designed to help tenants set up their own community project, with categories such as health, wellbeing and environment. Previous successful CIF applications include communal garden improvements, garden benches and water butts. Grant applications are judged by a panel of tenants from Broadland’s Tenant Action Group.
Paula Strachan, Corporate Communications Manager, said:
“This is such an innovative and positive project. Claire, Rosie and her team have put such a lot of effort into getting the allotment up and running, and to keep it going during the long weeks of lockdown.
“Their enthusiasm, and the obvious need that the project meets, really struck a chord with the tenants on our Community Improvement Fund panel.”