STORY: Green Community Hubs – Chris
Chris is a regular participant at the Lady Pit Lane Allotments Green Community Hub in Leeds.
He has been attending Groundwork projects for several years and loves to help out.
Working alongside his fellow volunteers, he has undertaken a huge variety of other tasks on the site from weeding, cutting back, planting seeds and plants, propagation, and harvesting their impressive range of fruit and vegetables.
As well as the polytunnel, they have also installed a water saving butt which is not only saving gallons of water but has taught the group a whole new set of skills. They had the opportunity to take these new skills to another Green Community Hub project in Sheffield, teaching them how to make their own.
Chris is proud of the group’s achievements and even became their ‘marketing ideas person’, creating a colourful banner to advertise the group to local residents.
Not only has his efforts here made a huge difference to the development of the outdoor space, his involvement has given Chris a strong sense of purpose.
Being at the allotments offers Chris a meaningful escape from being indoors. The Hub has provided him with a sense of belonging and a valued role within his community.
Speaking of his involvement, Chris said:
Lou [Groundwork’s Community Officer] asked if I wanted to come and do gardening and I said, ‘I’ll come!’ I love gardening and I came down and we did some jobs. I like helping out with the allotments and helping Lou out. Sometimes I open up for her too.
I like it here, it’s good. Really good. It’s much better than being indoors all day.