From green shoots… a welcome donation to our allotment

“The allotment is a safe and nurturing space and a special community, it helps manage and ease feelings of loneliness and isolation.” Allotment attendee

Manchester Mind are delighted to be one of a number of charities to receive a kind donation from Beyondly’s Fund for Change initiative. Each year, Beyondly commit to giving 5% of their net profit to charitable projects, who are making a positive and impactful difference across a variety of environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues.

We applied for this opportunity for our allotment project, which provides therapeutic gardening groups where people volunteer and support others to take part. Bringing people together in this way encourages peer support to take place, which is a powerful aid to mental health recovery and inspires people to find solutions and hope. The time spent at the allotment helps people improve their health, whilst building confidence, connections, skills and a commitment to the environment.

“The last year has seen the expansion of our allotment community, as a good percentage of people who have attended our therapeutic sessions choose to stay and become volunteers. To me that next step is an important part of the therapeutic process and it’s this supportive community that can contribute to people feeling an increased sense of resilience and empowerment.” Carolyn, Allotment Support Worker

This donation will support environmental improvements to the site, which are already underway with the recent planting of spring flowering bulbs to support pollinators. In the coming months we will add a guttering system and water butts to improve water collection, create a natural laying area (chamomile bed) as space to enhance wellbeing and connect with nature, add a solitary bee box to promote and observe wildlife, build a pond to improve biodiversity, and expand our outdoor kitchen to enhance our ‘soil to fork’ cooking activities.

So, we will not only be able to do all of those environmental improvements, support better mental health and build community connections, it will also help us increase access to healthy food, through our wider Food For All services, and help us to increase knowledge and understanding of environmentally conscious food growing and climate issues. And, if that wasn’t enough, it will also allow us to increase the number of sessions and workshops we can deliver, allowing us to reach more people.

We will share further updates on our allotment Instagram account @manchestermind_allotment
You can find out more about our allotment project here

“…we felt that the charities on our shortlist, and the projects we will be supporting were best placed to help us deliver against our purpose of leading, inspiring and educating to positively impact society and the environment and realise our vision of a better, fairer, sustainable world for all.  We are really looking forward to seeing the projects be delivered, and the positive impact they will bring.” Jessica Aldersley, Managing Director at Beyondly

Beyondly’s vision is to create a better, fairer, sustainable world for all, and it can’t be done alone. Beyondly’s expertise in environmental consultancy lends itself well to creating a sustainable world, but it is Beyondly’s Fund for Change that allows them to encourage a world that is better, fairer, and more sustainable. Manchester Mind are proud to be part of it.