Dunoon Community Development Trust (DCDT) is delighted to announce that it will be leading a new shared food growing and therapeutic garden project at Struan Lodge Residential and Day Care Service.
Following months of positive discussion with Argyll & Bute Council and Health & Social Care Partnership, DCDT has now signed a licence with Argyll & Bute Council to allow it to develop a new Grow Food Grow Dunoon food growing site in the grounds of Struan Lodge at Bencorrum Brae.
Back in 2022, DCDT’s Grow Food Grow Dunoon initiative brought together a group of volunteers with varied skills who wanted to grow food as a team, rather than individually in gardens or on private allotments. Working in partnership with Kirn Primary School, Grow Food Grow Dunoon established a thriving growing space within the school grounds. Due to understandable limitations in access to the school-based site during term-time, the Grow Food Grow Dunoon team has been actively looking for a new growing site that can allow more volunteers to become involved in the project throughout the week and across the year. The grounds of Struan Lodge will now provide the perfect location.
Alongside the food growing site, DCDT will also be working in partnership with Struan Lodge Residential and Day Care Services to help design and fundraise for a dementia-friendly therapeutic garden.
The overall aim of the project is to develop an improved garden for the benefit of Struan Lodge residents and users, their families and other local organisations providing support to people living with dementia alongside an attractive and interesting community-run food growing space. The project will also create a range of accessible volunteer opportunities for people wanting to develop their own food growing and gardening skills.
DCDT is particularly excited to have engaged the support of the Dementia Services Development Centre (DSDC) from the University of Stirling. Lesley Palmer, Professor of Ageing & Dementia Design, delivered a design workshop with our partners at Struan Lodge. This workshop will help inform the design of the therapeutic garden spaces.
Funding applications have already been submitted to support the food growing site and DCDT is pleased to have been awarded £1500 from the Argyll & Bute Climate Action Network (ABCAN) Seed Fund via Argyll & Bute third Sector Interface (TSI) to get things started.
Ann Campbell, Partnership & Development Manager at DCDT said:
‘We are delighted to have received such a positive response to this project proposal from the excellent staff teams at Struan Lodge Residential and Day Care Centre and from the local council and HSCP officers. It has taken time to negotiate the use of the land and we are now looking forward to getting spades in the ground. There will be a wide range of volunteering opportunities connected with this project and a lot of fundraising to be done. We will be inviting local people to come and have a look at the site and a chat about how they might get involved very soon.’
To find out more about this project and see the site attend the Creating a Theraputic Garden event, Saturday 11th May, 2024 2pm-4pm.
Can't attend but want to know more? Email Marij here> vanhelmondmarij@gmail.com
To find out more about volunteering opportunities contact Barbara Henderson, our Volunteering for wellbeing coordinator here> barbara@dunooncdt.org