Who we are: Together We Grow is a not for profit Community Interest Company (CIC) 1) Re-establish an important community / therapeutic resource i.e. the ‘Community Garden’, which was planned for closure in 2017 2) Embed educational and well-being programmes within the 2-acre growing site, 3) Develop outreach project work in the community and with schools Aims & Outcomes: The CIC has succeeded in safeguarding the garden for future generations by re-establishing proven successful projects, and establishing new projects based on what service users want; this includes:- Physical and mental well-being programmes; Across assist individuals and groups with the following Managing and coping with change – keeping busy; building a routine at home Separation and loss – bereavement; social isolation Managing and coping with Anxiety – feeling low; depressed; emotional; financial worries Maintaining healthy relationships – parenting; arguing: child/ family members’ behaviour Providing pathways into new employment opportunities; Investment in improving existing facilities; Strengthening and enhance community spirit; Encouraging neighbourliness; Contributing to the reduction of 'food miles'; Improved level of nutrition through better understanding of food preparation and having a healthy balanced diet with access to shared harvests. Mission Statement: Through the medium of growing produce and by developing a programme of engaging activities within a collaborative and localised approach, TWG empowers local people to lead in their own activity programmes which improve the social engagement, mental and physical health of all sections of the community. The year in numbers. The Team and Social and Therapeutic Horticulture sessions. Over 200 full sessions delivered at the High Woods Country Park, Together we Grow HQ, from across projects further details below (adults) Weekly average Attendees: 50 15 volunteers (during period) 3 staff (Managing director, wellbeing/ projects manager, therapist) Contract staff ; 1 (Employment specialist April 2024) 1 Therapist (Employed directly by Together We Grow across multiple projects during this period) Referral agencies (Including RAMA, EPUT/NHS, acute mental health and community settings, GPs) Self referrals later converted to Referrals Staff from “Emotionally Wel Communities CIC” commenced delivery on site. Schools Total 950 School age children seen across year and schools (On site and off site schools projects) 60 school children accompanied by 10 parents/adults (MAIN SITE, school away days) 830 School children across year and schools (On school site projects) The models at our schools onsite projects vary but are based around edible gardens with curriculum based learning, pastoral sessions and after school clubs and school day, but extracurricular activity. HFP whole school across year: 480 children, curriculum sessions across all classes Half term per year group), EYFS session weekly, afterschool garden clubs weekly September/ October then again February half term through to end of academic year. UPA 10 classes across year: (report available) NP pastoral/ learning groups: 50 until July 2024 development of forest schools area and friendship area during year with TWG volunteers and staffing until August 2024 Community sessions beyond pupil facing lessons. North Primary Staff and volunteer days to prepare gardens after each term. Several over year Unity Garden set up and development. Several over year. Home Farm education garden volunteer days and student OT sessions. At all schools food grown was used to supplement learning, used in the school kitchen, eaten during sessions or prepared for classroom based activity, or taken home to supplement and encourage consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables at home particularly during after school garden clubs. Facilities Our own minibus community transport maintained and used across projects over this period. Continued garden redevelopments and restoration of pond area and wildlife planting at our HQ (Big Garden High Woods Country Park) Pathway renewal and outdoor games area, continued as originally completed as a community project by Eurovia contracts. Greenstead Growers (Community garden) development and extension. Continued relationship with Occupational therapy students BSC and MSC. (University of Essex) during this year with ongoing positive results, placements varied between full time with TWG over 8/10 weeks or shared placements as set by Uof E during colder periods. Half time spent developing Wellbeing hub (Internal University of Esses Placement / or half time placement with Community 360. 20 Volunteers registered supporting all of the above booked sessions at our HQ (The Big Garden; High Woods Country Park) . Approx 1000 hours of volunteer hours across the year. Summer Volunteer celebration event (volunteer lead) End of summer 2024. RAMA interpreters for Migrant communities project , C360 community transport. 3 x School gardens maintained and developed by our staff, volunteers and of course children and teachers 2 Acres of diverse orchard and growing spaces has provided for weekly cooked meals on site for project participants and volunteers. All service users are encouraged to join the “table” as an important part of language, social and skills development. Excess food is taken away by participants acting as a GREEN FOOD BANK. We have provided approx. 1500 hot meals during this period. With an equal number of veg and fruit portions which vary according to need and season. Development of ‘Cycle Kitchen’ Tools and tuition made available to service users during this period. Short term pilot employment project documented in previous report via European Social Fund/ London Learning Consortium grant proved successful therefore, Employment focussed community support officer engaged from April 2024 to support legacy from previous work and continue to develop local links in readiness for further structured funded support being developed during this period with DWP. Ongoing discussions and planning during this period. Ongoing Projects during this period. Weekly sessions* Direct Commissioning form NHS for Serious Mental Illness. Nature based interventions, working with Mental health services and local inpatient services (*) Weekly sessions with high level of NHS staff on site input, directed by TWG staff and TWG placed occupational therapy students. Up to 8 NHS staff (Nursing staff, Occupational therapists Activity co ordinators, OTAs supporting these weekly sessions. 45 sessions per year. (Regular Tuesdays sessions weekly have enabled the service to be fully embedded with expectation from NHS and clients’ groups. An essential part of the focus of providing regularity and consistency to sessions. Patients are assessed by the clinical team at the hospital and attend the Garden space with high level of staff input, walking from the hospital site to the garden. An essential part of that process is the quiet walk through the woodland park to the TWG setting (Approx 10 minute walk). For other groups transport is provided weekly for the Tuesday sessions to enable the staff and patients to attend from an alternative setting. This has continued to work well with consistent numbers of patients and staff facilitated to attend. Depending on need there is an encouragements for staff and service users to walk to and from garden space if it is considered safe to do so by health professionals (Approx 25 minute walk) though the community transport sessions are provided weekly and this is clearly a benefit and required by many patents who would not be able to access the service. Weekly GP / community referrals, Nature based intervention. (Mondays) Weekly Learning disability group, Nature based intervention. (Mondays PM) Weekly Educational sessions. Contracted sessions across 2 schools weekly sessions on schools site continually developed by TWG staff during this reporting period. In addition a Legacy from previously reported GO Green Project. Joint project between University of Essex, Colchester borough Council , Together we Grow CIC: Unity Primary Academy, Greenstead, Colchester. Social and Therapeutic Horticulture, Educational sessions, across year groups working with SENCO across the year (3 terms). Further garden improvements and development funded from Locality funds. Kindly funded from Levelling Up funding from ECC in response to local division councillor nomination, funding ended May 2024, further funding being sort for new academic year. Support from TWG staff beyond end of funding to enable further education sessions and maintenance of spaces until new academic year and over the Summer Holiday period. This is an essential part of any Social, Therapeutic and Educational horticulture project. Nature based LGBTQI+ Men’s Refugee. Asylum seeker group * Weekly session plus events. Social and Therapeutic Horticulture, Cooking and weekly talking therapy. Wednesdays. Nature based Refugee/Asylum seeker group * Weekly session plus events. Social and Therapeutic Horticulture, Cooking and weekly talking therapy for those new to Colchester and at high risk of poor mental health, supported by NHS staff and our TWG therapist and staff, plus community volunteers, strong peer to peer and language support. Together We Grow CIC provides the BIG Garden Home and Beyond 2 Programme for those seeking asylum and recently arrived to Colchester. This entails a rolling programme of a 10-week therapeutic sessions held in the BIG Garden at the High Woods Country Park. Funding is provided through a relationship with Colchester City Council and Officers from Resettlement & Diverse Ethnic Communities, Wellbeing, Prevention and Partnerships, Communities and NHS colleagues. Thursdays: Nature based Refugee. Asylum seeker group * Weekly session plus events. Social and Therapeutic Horticulture, Cooking and weekly talking therapy for those established clients who have been resident in UK/ Colchester and at lower risk, support staff and our TWG therapist plus community volunteers, peer to peer support workers and peer based language support. Development of proposal to support previous years specialised employment project working with clients from our STH projects, with Right to Work in the UK. Previous short term and pilot over a four month period with planned legacy project going forward proved successful and we have reached out during this period to DWP, forming relationships to enable a from of this project to go forward, we await the result of these applications at time of developing this report but anticipate a further development of this project in 2025.Porposal has been to work with client groups in need from our existing NHS funded work with clients on our SMI programmes. A new community support role was established to provide interim support to clients requiring work advice and support through existing surplus funds, reinvesting in the local community. This will remain in place for a 1 year period to enable the further development of a funded employment based programme on a greater scale. Community gardening. Greenstead Growers. (*) Supported by Together we Grow CIC, this group has gone from strength to strength welcoming new members to grow and be healthy where they live. We have supported with site insurance, funding, equipment and liaising with local authority as well as funding proposals, the group has taken on new small development sites around Greenstead to enable hyper local growing of food. Continued development of a strong relationship with RHS, providing support and received school days sessions and outreach benefits in return, joint TWG/ RHS volunteers assisted with the development and provided community tools to help develop the Colchester Hospitals Wellbeing Garden.

Stakeholders remain our volunteers, service users and partner organizations who continue to push the direction of and shape the project delivery of the organization Together we Grow CIC University of Essex Wellbeing and Education Education: Dr Jane Hindley: Worked alongside provided support and development and advice free of charge, particularly in relation to our continued work at Unity Primary Academy, provides unique support to TWG and schools both practically and theory based Occupational therapy: Continued the development of the Occupation Therapy role at Together we Grow as well as developing the educator role here to assist student development. Bi Weekly meeting has resulted in a greatly developed role here, that flow of advice and professionalism from the University of Essex has resulted in changes to procedure and company development. Partners and Funders. COLCHESTER CITY COUNCIL: Continued consultation and discussion and strong working relationships have enabled development of service and site (in the case where they are the landlord) Community enablers have been able to consult with us to develop new areas of work (New asylum seeker strategy for new entrants housed in poor initial accommodation with enhanced therapeutic support, has proved very successful. ) A list of further partners and funders is below. CCG/EPUT/NHS: We consult with NHS partners across our range of therapeutic projects. Consultations have happened across senior level with regards to referral processes and in particular processes around engaging with new vulnerable clients from migrant communities, which was supported by NHS staff and our own therapist lead. Serious Mental illness. Ongoing communication (Tuesday sessions) Our weekly sessions supporting clients from EPUT (The Lakes) therapeutic setting (Ipswich Road) have continued for the third year and discussions and direct input with hospital staff who accompany service users and patients, Occupational therapists on site during and after led sessions has been invaluable and we thanks those staff who have consistently engaged with us and provided such high levels of support. Feedback and enthusiasm for the work jointly carried out. RAMA: A strong collaboration, referring into multiple projects, including LGBT+, New entrants, Existing entrants. Consistent staff consultations has resulted in development of ways of working and staff practices to ensure safety and availability of referral places. This has emerged over a long period with funding from various sources. ECC /CCC Locality funding: Through strong collaboration with political leads we have been able to identify perceived needs within communities and match those or create projects to serve those needs. We have been well supported to provide social projects because of the this collaborative and needs based approach with local councillors. Local projects supported include the previously documented extra curricular programmes at Unity Primary Academy, Greenstead, Colchester and The Greenstead Growers , Hyper local food growing project. Supported and run by key volunteers and community champions. Cycling UK/ Essex CC travel grant. Consulting with our service users and volunteers resulting in a strong need for an active travel plan to support clients. Enform cycling projects were engaged to provide a cycle workshop (kitchen) to encourage service users to maintain and repair surplus bikes. This results of this consultation were hugely popular with cycle kitchens sessions run alongside and within our STH garden based sessions. This maintenance work continued during the early part of this reporting period. Wider development of outdoor Therapeutic community work. Colchester Based charity ‘Catalyst Colchester’ funding, working jointly with new organisation ‘Emotionally Well Communities CIC’ : Project developed with grant agreed. This is a result of extensive assistance and communication between the 2 delivery organisations. Created a referral pathway for Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCo). Provide up to 30 children with counselling they couldn’t easily access or afford. (Total of 120 hours) Create a new and innovative approach to counselling using an outdoor space, where digital is usually offered due to demand. “Emotionally well communities CIC’ were engaged and commenced delivery on site (Big Garden, High Woods Country Park. Funding proposal worked up during this period and funding agreed June 2024 with funding allocated for delivery from July 2024 (funding until end of July 2025). Impact report will be available in 2025 reporting. This has enabled the start of a new approach to the work supported by Together we Grow CIC and we have been pleased to support alternative specialist organisations to utilise this valuable garden site. Primary Schools. Weekly consultation with school partners. Teachers and staff are consulted through planning sessions. Regular observation with School SENCO and planning and consultation with senior leadership teams at all school, as well as a strong pupil voice culture, to establish what the children want from their learning and experiences. Over this period this included three local primary schools.

“There were no other transactions or arrangements in connection with the remuneration of directors, or compensation for director’s loss of office, which require to be disclosed” 1 director is employed by the company and is paid in accordance with the role performed as managing director. This payment is covered in accounts under “wages” alongside payments for wages of all staff.

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