Christmas News 2021

Merry Christmas Everyone! Here’s a message from our Managing Director, Steven:

I thought I’d send a quick final note to sign off 2021. It’s been a pretty wonderful year (albeit with a few twists, turns and surprises!)

At the start of the year we had little idea what shape the next 12 months would take. The year kicked off in lockdown and whilst we had hopes and plans, our experience of the previous year had taught us to hold things lightly! Thankfully most of our plans have materialised this year and I’ve been blown away by all the team and trainees have managed to achieve.

Here’s a few highlights

Team & Office
Lots of new team members – staff team grown from 3 to 18 in the summer (including trainees)
We have a new office!! After a long period of working from home we moved into our new office in September
Systems – Role out of HR Toolkit, Salesforce, new payroll system and new finance system
Lucy (one of our first trainees) joining the Board of Trustees

Walk & Talk
Walk & Talk trainees report a 20% increase in wellbeing
213 walks completed
160 volunteer hours
Quote from a mentee: “I feel I am starting to become more confident in leaving the house by myself. This is something I would not have considered before. I also believe I have become a bit more comfortable in interacting with people I don’t know”.
Walk & Talk films – Click here to view a sneak peak of a new video where a mentee called Helen shares her positive experience of the programme

Grow Gardeners
89 Grow Gardeners clients
8 Grow Gardeners Trainees employed
Grow Gardeners Trainee impact reporting is showing a 16.6% increase in feeling more useful in life and 13.3% increase in feeling connected to other people in the world
Louis, a Trainee has been promoted to Deputy Team Leader

Funding
RHS funding – The Royal Horticultural Society chose to support Grow as part of their desire to broaden access to horticulture to a wider range of young people
163k raised (168k spent… still a few weeks left. ha!)
Three successful fundraising events

Potting Shed
Just had our 1000th online plant order
The Potting Shed has generated an income of over £7k for Grow

All of the above achievements are only made possible by the hard work of our staff team, the support of our donors, the dedication of our volunteers AND most importantly the bravery of our trainees. I’m so grateful to work as part of such a dynamic and talented team.

There have certainly been some challenges in 2021- we’ve had more safeguarding reports than ever, we’ve had to manage post covid funding twists and turns, more tools have been broken than I care to imagine and we’ve had a fair few growth pains… but… as a team we’ve responded to each of these challenges and we’re ending the year in a really strong position.

–  We celebrate Grow’s 4th birthday in February!  –

Next year is going to be an exciting one for Grow. We celebrate Grow’s 4th birthday in February and so kicking off our fifth year my hope is that we can really start to consolidate the work we’ve been doing. This includes tightening up our systems and processes, increasing our financial sustainability, building our quality and investing more in our staff team.

I look forward to sharing lots of stories and working with you all in 2022 but for now… have a brilliant Christmas!!

Steven

Ways to get involved:

There are lots of ways you can get involved with Grow in 2022. Here are a few ideas:

Volunteer
Give financially
Attend an event
Become a Grow Gardeners client