Thrive has a number of projects running at any time. Our Working it Out programme in London and our work in communities within Berkshire, Hampshire and South Oxfordshire are going from strength to strength.
Working it Out is an innovative vocational training and personal development programme empowering unemployed Londoners living with mental ill health develop the skills they need to progress towards paid employment in horticulture, a sector where employers have identified a serious skills gap.
Working it Out reaches people who want to enter paid employment but find it difficult to access conventional training and employment opportunities because they need help and support to develop the necessary skills.
Working it Out provides an holistic approach: horticultural therapy enables people to overcome their disability related barriers to employment; whilst work based training and 'in work support’ provides the opportunity to gain a vocational qualification and the skills required to access and sustain paid employment.
Thrive’s project has operated since February 2010 and has proved highly successful.
Seventy per cent of participants have gained or are working towards a City and Guilds qualification.
Current predictions indicate that by April 2012, 28 per cent of people completing the programme will gain paid work and 40 per cent will move on to further formal training programmes. The employment prediction is higher than the government’s targets for its Work Programme (27 per cent).
Other positive outcomes include improved health, life and social skills and coping skills.
Thrive has also been successful in reaching more isolated members of the community with its Sow and Grow and Growing for Life projects.
Sow and Grow is a free course for people aged 55 and over who may be feeling a bit low, isolated or who have a disability, whether that’s temporary or permanent.
The eight week course has been funded by the Big Lottery, lasts for two hours a week and all materials and tools are provided, along with tea and coffee. Often held in libraries or community halls, the course is based around gardening activities on a table using Thrive’s tools and techniques. People who attend do not need to know anything about gardening, but may be curious to find out more.
Growing 4 Life, funded by Ecominds (using Big Lottery grants), is free to attend and offers people the chance to learn new gardening and conservation skills and work as a team.
Running over six months, Thrive will help establish a group, provide all the tools and teaching skills to people in the hope that the group will become permanent.
The kind of people Growing 4 Life helps are those who have experienced any type of mental ill health.
Carl Harney from Thrive said: "We have seen first-hand how gardening and conservation work can help people. The benefits of a sustained and active interest in conservation include better physical health, learning how to strengthen muscles and improve mobility; boost mental health through a sense of purpose and achievement; connection with others, reducing feelings of isolation or exclusion; learning new skills and the sense of feeling better for being outside, in touch with nature and in the great outdoors.
We are running courses in 2012 in Wargrave, Basingstoke, Fleet, Hartley Wintney, Eastleigh, Bracknell, Mortimer (Berkshire), Oakley, Whitchurch, Haversham Park Village (Reading) and Dinton Pastures (Reading).
Give Carl, Isla, Paul or Simon a call to find out more on 0118 988 5688.