The Gardening Project: 'Roots to Work'

Location: Lidget Green, Bradford

The Gardening Project – Roots to Work is a unique community user-led project engaging unemployed residents in learning about gardening and meeting people.

The project has brought together people who have been unemployed for a long time and who needed support to get back into work. Participants have learned new gardening skills, and about the importance of the environment at a local level and how it can improve the quality of life for the community at large.

Alan Smith, The Gardening Project participant, said:

“This project has helped me to meet new people and has improved by confidence to ask questions about training and job information.”

Working as a group to make decisions and organise tasks, so far the project has cleared an area previously used for fly tipping, learned simple gardening skills, such soil planting, and have created a collage of fruit and vegetable plants to help participants familiarise themselves with them. The group are also talking about what has stopped them getting into work or education, and looking at ways to tackle these issues.

Warris Ali, The Gardening Project lead, said:

“The grant money has enabled us to deliver a project that will create change, inspire imagination and inspire confidence.”