Futures and Lovell swap the office for the outdoors to help a local community garden

Futures Housing Group and Lovell Partnerships’ colleagues have helped transform a community garden close to one of their new affordable housing developments on Bennett Street, Long Eaton.

Twenty-five employees stepped away from their day jobs to pick up paintbrushes and wheel wood chippings at Long Eaton Community Garden on nearby Norfolk Road.

Investing in local communities is an essential part of any new build development and Futures and Lovell wanted to support the volunteer-run project after a visit showed them how the incredible space was benefitting the community.

As well as volunteer gardening sessions, the group provides activities for home-schooled children and young people with special educational needs, art therapy groups, grief support and people struggling with mental health.

Lynn Hodgkins, volunteer at the group said: “The whole day was so well organised and co-ordinated and the results are just stunning. We won the Green Flag community award earlier this year and the work Futures and Lovell have done is so important towards helping us maintain that status. It’s been fantastic to see people here enjoying the garden as much as we do and it’s made such a difference. It looks amazing and we are immensely grateful.”

Improvements delivered as part of the day included a fresh lick of paint to a Portakabin and laying 15 tonnes of wood chippings for paths and seating areas, including a space used as a forest school. Futures brought along its grounds maintenance team and joiners to create chainsaw wood carvings for the children who use the forest school to enjoy. Materials were donated by a Ripley based merchant.

Mark Roe, Partnerships Director for Lovell Partnerships in the East Midlands said: “It was a great day and the amount of people who turned up is amazing. It was really good fun getting to know the group and more people from Futures.

“Social value is core to what we do. We look at every scheme to see how we can do social value, and Lana, our Engagement and Social Value Co-ordinator, has worked really hard trying to pull this day together with the community group and it's been a huge success. We just want to continue doing this and keep trying to make a difference where we work.”

Janene Haywood, Community Engagement Project Delivery Officer at Futures said: “Bringing new affordable homes to an area is so much more than just ‘building homes.’ It’s also about ensuring we have a positive impact for the wider community too, so seeing the difference made in just one day knowing all the garden team do for the community, is amazing.”

To find out more about Long Eaton Community Garden, visit their website.