Founder and Director Trevor Lynn will this year be a speaker at Voice 08

He has been selected among the country’s top social entrepreneurs / innovators to speak on the subject of community engagement and CSR (corporate social responsibility). The conference will host nearly 2000 delegates from across the UK and is the highlight of the social enterprise calendar. Trevor Lynn said, “2008 is going to be a tremendous year for Mow & Grow with new branches starting across the UK. Voice 08 will be the perfect launch pad for us and I really look forward to meeting the best of the best in the social enterprise world.”

Norwich Evening News - Thursday 4th October 2007

Four Norfolk projects have scooped accolades at a prestigious awards ceremony celebrating the best in burgeoning businesses from across the region.

Norwich City Mow and Grow and the Little Acorn Network were named joint winners in the Enterprise category of the annual East of England Celebrate Awards presented by Anglia TV's Clare Weller at The Cut in Halesworth today.

Marie Cockman from Norwich was also recognised in the Love to Learn Awards after she refused to let physical disability get in the way of taking up a career in catering supported by European Social Funding.

She then went on to gain valuable skills and qualifications and has found paid employment in a café. She now looks forward to a positive future, with increasing activity, confidence and independence.

The fourth winner from the county was the pioneering GEESE Project at Cley in North Norfolk which triumphed in the Tourism award.

Led by the Norfolk Wildlife Trust, European Objective 2 Funding enabled this pioneering project to provide better visitor facilities, environmental management and greater information on climate change whilst promoting sustainable rural tourism throughout the year in North Norfolk.

All four projects were chosen from a shortlist of about 60 nominations from across the region.

David Morrall, Director Europe and International at the East of England Development Agency, was extremely impressed with each project's achievements.

He said: “We were overwhelmed by the high quality of the nominations received and delighted that so many projects in Norfolk are achieving such success.

“These awards recognise the incredible efforts and commitment of the people and organisations which bring so many benefits to individuals, communities and the environment around us.”

The Little Acorn Network was set up by a home-worker, Alice Bason who identified a need for a support group for small rural creative businesses and workers.

With support from Screen East and European Structural Funds, her vision of a website with a community area and membership directory have been achieved with over 100 members now registered and regular meetings organised for training and discussion of relevant issues. These isolated businesses now have support, inspiration and the opportunity to share information and experience.

Mow & Grow founder, Trevor Lynn, benefited from European Structural Funds to expand his free gardening service for elderly and vulnerable people from his Lowestoft base, setting up an operation in Norwich.

The Norwich branch has been resoundingly successful, becoming fully sustainable after its first year. With the motto 'Cutting Grass, Cutting Crime, Cultivating Futures', Mow & Grow not only benefits clients of the service but also aims to improve communities in which it operates to help reduce crime.

The service has benefited over 1000 clients and provided skills, experience and over 130 qualifications to those who would otherwise find it difficult to get work. Trevor also received the prestigious Pride of Region award after being chosen by the judges as a person that best illustrates what European funding has enabled the East of England to achieve in the last seven years.

Kenya Bound

7th September 2007

A GREEN fingered Lowestoft man's neighbourhood watch scheme could be turned into the world's first Fair Trade gardening service.

Trevor Lynn will visit Kenya this week with the aim of piloting the Waveney Mow and Grow project, so that disadvantaged producers can set up their own satellites of his business.

If the idea works, it will be a far cry from the enterprise's humble beginnings, which started after Mr Lynn decided to rid his front garden in Carlton Colville of unwanted litter.

He explained: “I work for Sainsbury's in Norwich full time and Mow and Grow started out as a voluntary organisation. It grew very rapidly across the east of England and we won the council contract for Norwich City Council. As a result of that we won several awards and I won a local heroes award run by Sainsbury's which invited the prize winners to visit Kenya.”

As part of the trip, Mr Lynn and the other winners will be taken to see the workings of Café Direct, a leading Fair Trade company and he hopes to build up the contacts to start branches in Kenya, and later India in November.

“It's my aspiration to work on a worldwide basis and Fair Trade are looking to extend from food and clothing into services and I'm hoping we can provide the world's first Fair Trade gardening service.”

Mr Lynn, who was one of The Journal's Pride in the Community Awards nominee, said if the project takes off he will build a template for the Fair Trade Foundation to use as a model for other countries and services and depending on funding he hopes to bring the people chosen to work for Mow and Grow back to the UK for training and send out his volunteers from Waveney to help set up the businesses.

He has also received interest from Spain and Australia and is hoping to expand all over the UK, with Mow and Grow about to launch in Grimsby.

Mow and Grow started as a neighbourhood watch scheme with around six families in his road deciding to put a stop to litter and petty crime.

Mr Lynn's determination led to entries into the Anglia in Bloom competition and snowballed into a hugely successful enterprise with the main beneficiaries being elderly and vulnerable people.

Services range from gardening to training, supporting people back into work and accepting referrals from the Homeshield Scheme, run by Suffolk Police.

He said: “So much of this is due to Sainsbury's giving me the time off in which to provide this project. They gave me the first £200 to start the idea and supported me the last two years. I've never done anything like this before and I have no experience, but I'm not afraid to try. I can't rush it as the world wasn't built in a day, but I'm thrilled to bits that we are helping people right across the spectrum.

“I'm going to share the fact that I'm from Lowestoft and that I'm really proud of the town as that is where I started the business.

“There is a real entrepreneurial spirit here and I'm going to take that ethos with me to Kenya to show that what once was quite a deprived area is now a quite exciting place to live. I want to thank all the people who have supported us to date, it's been tremendous.”

Norwich Evening News

SARAH HALL
29 August 2007 08:48

An innovative project which aims to improve people's quality of life, cut crime and provide new skills and opportunities for people is celebrating success.

Gardening social enterprise Mow & Grow was set up in the city just four months ago with the slogan “cutting grass, cutting crime, cultivating futures” and has been helping council tenants who have not been able to look after their gardens because of ill health or disability.

This week it celebrated its 100th garden for Norwich City Council tenants and 94pc reported feeling safer and less likely to be a target of crime now their gardens are tidy. Also 84pc reported an increase in the use of their gardens as a result of the service.

The project was the brainchild of Trevor Lynn who is the Sainsbury's produce manager at the Queens Road store, Norwich. He started the project in 2006 and now involves store volunteers to help in the community, forming the Sainsbury's V-Team. The group recently helped Arminghall village maintain the church grounds free of charge.

Mr Lynn said: “The main aim of the project is to help people who are disadvantaged. We have volunteers who look after gardens for the elderly, unemployed, single parents, people with mental health problems and low-income families.

“These people have felt disadvantaged and felt as though they could be a target for crime or cold calling because their garden was in a state.

“In Norwich the perception of crime is a lot worse than actual crime. The project has become so popular it will now be extended into other parts of the county.

“The volunteers who work for us develop skills and confidence and we help them get back into full time employment.

Mow and Grow started out in Waveney with three set beneficiary groups including elderly and vulnerable people, those disadvantaged in the labour market and the community in general.

Its aim is to lead the way to help civil renewal in the surrounding areas through promoting independent living, cutting the risk of becoming a victim of crime and providing an extra safety net for social services through regular visits to vulnerable people. This includes people with no formal qualification, unemployed, people with hidden disabilities, young people including those from social care and those with previous mental health or substance abuse problems.

Katherine Quint, project officer at Norwich City Council, said: “The Mow and Grow team have thrown themselves into the challenge and reached the 100-visit mark in just four months, despite the poor weather. Their hard work is very much appreciated and has been recognised by the regular positive feedback received from tenants following clearance and maintenance visits.”

The scheme has proved so popular that its website now includes a monthly free gardening magazine

Evening News 24

11th June 2007

A ground-breaking project aimed at helping the elderly and vulnerable maintain their gardens and giving others the chance to get qualifications is going global.

Just a year after it started with only a few volunteers in Waveney, Trevor Lynn's Mow and Grow scheme is now being adopted across the country.

The scheme currently helps out at 240 homes in Norwich, and has the support of the city council, and a year after they started two of its volunteers have gained qualifications and started up their own gardening business.

And in September Mr Lynn will fly out to Kenya to investigate the possibility of starting the project there as well as having received expressions of interest from Australia and Spain.

Mr Lynn, 36, said: “I was complaining about our untidy neighbourhood when it suddenly occurred to me that I should do something about it.

“I decided to use horticulture to solve the problem as in my day job I am produce and floral manager at Sainsbury's at Queens Road in Norwich. We started in the Waveney area and it has just gone from there. I have done it all in my spare time.”

Mr Lynn has already won the voluntary contribution award in the Sainsbury's Local Heroes Awards and Mow and Grow was winner of the Social Enterprise awards in 2006. It has been nominated again in 2007.

He continued: “It has turned into a full time operation and we can now do up to 10 gardens a day.

“It is a not for profit business but we now employ three people full- time as well as having 15 volunteers.

“We give free or highly reduced rates for the elderly and vulnerable and training and employment for the socially disadvantaged. “Two of our first volunteers have gained four qualifications and have just got a grant of £5,000 from the lottery to start up their own gardening business.”

The pilot scheme proved so successful that the police have also given Mow and Grow their blessing.

When Mr Lynn and his team started up in Waveney they saw a 91pc drop in the crime rate in the area that the scheme covered.

And the scheme is so popular it is always looking for more volunteers to help out.

Mr Lynn said: “We hold an open day every eight weeks to try and get more people involved. The next day will be on July 1 and everyone is welcome to come and see what we do.”