Growing Health offers social therapeutic horticulture
Growing Health, a Durham based organisation, is offering a mobile social therapeutic horticulture service to community-based groups working with issues such as dementia and mental health and with the young and the elderly.
The enterprise is the brainchild of Gary Park, who has a background in working in mental health, and uses gardening as a means of improving both physical and mental wellbeing.
The venture, set up with support from Be Enterprising which provided him with £800 to run taster sessions and a further £1,500 to develop a Growing Health website, offers a mobile service which includes a variety of horticulture activities including seed sowing, plant potting and flower arranging, with Gary tracking each participants involvement and progress.
Gary also has big plans for the business with a view to evolving the service into a social enterprise once established and is looking to extend the programme across the North East.
Read more at the Northern Echo website.