A group project based on the principles of Social and Therapeutic Horticulture. Garden aims to help people with their recovery from mental ill health.
Sydenham Garden currently provides four 2.5 hour Garden sessions for up to 12 co-workers per session (three based at Wynell Rd and one at de Frene Rd). Garden sessions involve horticultural activities, seasonal activities, conservation, cooking and other outdoor crafts.
These are led by our Garden Project Lead together with 4 volunteers, who are all supported by the Outreach & Development Worker. Co-workers are offered 12-month placements on the programme and are able to move on to the Growing Lives project if appropriate.
Co-workers experience full and varied sessions while on their placement. Improvements in mental wellbeing, confidence and social interaction are measured. It is clear from recent evaluations that the sessions almost always lead to a positive change in co-workers quality of life and health.
The majority of co-workers report positive outcomes including improvements on objective scoring using the Warwick Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Score (WEMWBS),
The Garden Project is directly funded by Lewisham’s Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), and indirectly by the Henry Smith Charity and London Borough Lewisham Main Grant programme.
