A community garden in Corby has secured more than £18,000 of National Lottery funding to keep its gardening and peer-support sessions running through every season for the next two years.
Willowbrook Wellbeing Garden was created behind the Willowbrook Health Centre by Groundwork Northamptonshire with NHS Property Services and Lakeside Healthcare Group’s social-prescribing team.
The new funding will support Green Minds, a programme using gardening, nature and regular social contact to help people experiencing isolation or low wellbeing. Sessions will be able to support up to 20 people a week, with extra online and in-person activity during the winter months when loneliness can become particularly difficult.
The garden itself is designed to be accessible, with ramps, paths, raised planters and seating. People can join through social-prescribing referrals or simply drop in, making it a health project that looks rather less like a clinic and rather more like somewhere you might actually want to spend an afternoon.