Thrive has exciting plans for its main garden in Battersea Park.
Winter 2011 will see the start of an exciting project to create a new garden and building which can be used flexibly to accommodate large and small groups. The building will be sustainable and environmentally friendly and will house new training rooms, offer accessible facilities and a modern, stylish and functional orangery.
Once these facilities are built we will create a new garden here which has been designed by Sarah Price.
The building project in the main garden is the second phase of a major fund raising bid which has already enabled us to redevelop the Herb Garden.
Thrive Battersea now has a fabulous Victorian style greenhouse which was purchased and installed with support from Alitex and Werstern Riverside Environment Fund.
We also refurbished an old workshop in the Herb Garden which provides great facilities for gardeners and which was officially opened by Thrive Patron HRH Princess Alexandra.
Thrive still needs to raise around £190,000 in order to complete this exciting and ambitious build at our main garden.
When complete, this redevelopment will allow us to:
- Help 250 disabled people every year – that’s more than five times as many people as we can today.
- Reach a total of 2,500 disabled people though our community outreach work – that’s an incredible 10 times as many people as we reach today.
- Launch new a ground breaking gardening programmes to meet the urgent need in our local community and in surrounding inner city communities.
- Demonstrate to London’s decision makers, health and education professionals, and the general public, the benefits and positive results that our work can bring.
Latest news - July 2011
It is with regret that Thrive has had to delay the start date of the build in the short term. This is because it is taking longer than anticipated to get the lease finalised.
Thrive is dedicated to creating a wonderful space for gardening with superb accessible facilities and hopes all supporters will be patient.
We are also more than two thirds there with our funding to complete this main garden, but still need to raise the rest – around £190k.
Once work has started, hopefully by the end of 2011, Thrive is looking forward to helping even more disabled Londoners make a positive difference to their lives.
The work Thrive does helps in many ways…
• Improve physical health – recovering or rebuilding their lives after an illness, accident or stroke
• Improve psychological health – discovering a sense of purpose and achievement as well as improving self esteem and self worth
• Socialise – many disabled people are socially isolated whilst people who have greater social contact feel healthier
• Gain skills and qualifications – improving their chances for employment, learning volunteering skills and gaining life skills such as initiative, cooperation, decision making, patience and concentration
• Access the natural environment – getting fresh air and seeing things grow are important to us as human beings.