In 1984, Thrive took over the Disabled Living Foundation garden in Battersea Park. This was the first demonstration garden in the UK created specifically for people with a disability. Since then, like the park, Thrive and therapeutic horticultural practice have evolved, changed and improved.
Today, our horticultural therapists offer planned gardening programmes to over 200 disabled Londoners in different garden contexts in our three gardens in Battersea Park and through community based outreach projects. The garden project is open to people of all ages across south and west London.
We work to enable disabled people to make positive life changes and achieve their ambitions. They may want to:
- 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.
We have embarked on an ambitious redevelopment of the project which will enable us to support hundreds more disabled Londoners. Our facilities - a modest portakabin and series of huts and sheds are no longer sufficient. With so many people using the project, we're bursting at the seams and will soon have to start turning people away. We plan to start building this winter but we still need to raise another £170,000 to complete the project. Find out more about the Battersea Redevelopment and the ways you can help us realise our vision.
The Thrive Battersea Garden Project is approved to offer City and Guilds vocational qualifications to Level 2 and we are always delighted when Thrive gardeners move on to further study, to use their skills as a volunteer or to get a job in horticulture.
Thrive is delighted to report that 100 per cent of people enrolling on three projects at Battersea – Working it Out, Pathways and Forensic which help people living with mental ill health - have been motivated to move on. Find out more about how Thrive has helped...
For more information on the support we provide for disabled people, click on the links below or contact Susan Stuart or Isla Ferns on 020 7720 2212
- Working it Out - vocational training and support to enable unemployed disabled Londoners to overcome their barriers to employment and access job opportunities in London's parks, gardening or horticulture
- Growing Options - individual development and vocational training for 14-16 year olds with special needs
- Pathways - supported volunteering helping people with mental health problems to become integrated with the community and take up independent volunteering roles
- Bespoke person centred individual development and training programmes.