Project receives lottery grant in response to Covid 19

Care in the Garden has announced that the National Lottery Reaching Community Fund, the largest funder of community activity in the UK, have awarded the project an additional grant of £40,388.00 to help with the recovery from the effects of COVID 19.

The plant market, closed on the 23 rd March, carried out adaptations on site to conform to the Government safety guidelines and was able to re-open to the general public on the 14 th May but still remains closed to our supported workers.

John Goodenough, Director, said “as Care in the Garden was founded in 2012 for the sole purpose of offering work placements and training to those with special needs on the island, it is vital that we are able to resume offering this service to them as soon as it is safe for us to do so.

“The National lottery grant will help fund further necessary adaptations to the site and once the work is complete with additional safety measures in place, we will be able to take back some but not all of our 38 supported workers. It is unfortunate that initially we will have to restrict the numbers and hours of the supported workers we can take back because I know from talking to their families that they are all finding lockdown very difficult”.

Care in the Garden would like to thank The National Lottery for their quick response to the emergency and for their continued support. The additional funding will enable the company to meet the challenges that obviously still lie ahead. We are looking forward to the day when we can welcome back all our supported workers together with our dedicated team of volunteers.