North Lincolnshire Mow & Grow

Is run by the Kingsway Lincs Trust. It is a local organisation, established by King’s Church Grimsby & Cleethorpes, that aims to support local people through the development of training, social activities and practical support that meet the needs of socially disadvantaged groups.

The NE Lincs area is ranked quite highly on the Indices of Multiple Deprivation and consistently falls within the 25% of most deprived areas nationally.

The Development of the Project…..

Early in 2006 in consultation with two other local agencies (C.A.R.E in partnership with the Salvation Army) the Trust was asked to consider working in partnership to establish a resettlement/work skills programme for men and women who have been living disadvantaged lives in hostel accommodation. The idea being to aim it at their clients who wish to improve their life and job skills by having an opportunity to access vocational and development training. A further development of the project was to agree a pilot scheme with Age Concern, and also become affiliated with Mow & Grow, a East of England based Social Enterprise organisation who have been awarded Enterprise of the Year 2006 and 2007 in recognition of the impact they have had in the Norfolk and Suffolk region.

The Launch of the Project …..

To work towards meeting this need the Mow & Grow Project was created with the aim to tackle social exclusion and support disadvantaged people by initially delivering a garden/maintenance project which draws on the medium and long term unemployed to deliver a range of gardening/maintenance services to other vulnerable and marginalized groups including those with a disability, and the elderly, but essentially those that are isolated and do not find it easy to access more mainstreams services.

Mow & Grow Project objectives …

• To provide a venue for training and appropriate courses to enable those that are disadvantaged to develop their employment prospects.
• Through consistent quality training to build self-esteem in those attending and build up a sense of mutual respect and understanding across a variety of age groups.
• To build confidence and gain work related skills.
• To provide a service to older people and those with disabilities whereby project participants go out in to the community to offer assistance with the maintenance and upkeep of properties and gardens.