Homeless and Newly Housed Volunteer at Holton Lee
In June 2013, The Rotary Club of Poole Bay donated £150 towards Routes to Roots’ outdoor programme for the homeless and newly housed at Holton Lee.
Don Nutt (far right), Rotary Club of Poole Bay, presents a cheque and looks through photographs of the work being done at Holton Lee.
As a result of R2R’s initial work with Holton Lee in 2012, 6-8 of Routes to Roots’s clients have been included in Project Flourish, established in January 2013 by Holton Lee to engage with disadvantaged people. The guys start the day with a talk on wellbeing and discussion on what they will do during the day, which may include ground clearance, creating raised beds, craft woodworking, outdoor furniture building, designs and layouts for garden features. Each day ends with a feedback session where the participants discuss how they are getting on and how they feel about the work.
The actual work undertaken by R2R clients benefits other users of Holton Lee and is also a lasting testament to the effort they have put in.
“The guys really benefit from the experience, finding it a time to relax (despite the hard work) and put aside the day-to-day greyness and sameness of their lives”, says Gabi Sanger-Stevens, Management Services for Routes to Roots. “Joining with other disadvantaged people in undertaking these activities has helped our clients to build on their team working and social skills as well as developing land-craft and horticultural skills, all of which improves their CVs. Our Outreach and Support Coordinator has received training for the supervision of AQAs (accredited training modules) for clients and we are working to include AQAs as part of this activity to add to the guys’ paid employment prospects.”
Recognising that more activities which promote a positive use of time are extremely beneficial, particularly for those completing the Flourish project, Holton Lee has agreed to grant Routes to Roots a piece of land for its own use. Clients on the Routes to Roots plot will be able to create, plant, grow and harvest, with horticultural assistance from the Holton Lee staff as well as R2R volunteers. This will be a long-term project, which will provide opportunities for engagement for many years to come.
Don Nutt, Rotary Club of Poole Bay, comments: “I first came across Routes to Roots when facilitating the Poole Town Faith Trail with Churches Together, Dorset in 2011. Then earlier this year we got a call from another Rotarian to say there was a sore need for trousers and shoes for men and we provided some to the Salvation Army. In 2012 we did our own review of what we saw as the particular needs of people here in Poole in light of the difficult financial times and decided to provide more support locally than for some years to help evident needs. Routes to Roots is one charity project clearly helping people in practical ways and we particularly liked the fact that they are introducing people to work experiences through Holton Lee and felt we wanted to support that.”