Award-winning community allotment project benefits thanks to the PCaRT North fundraising activities.
[caption id="attachment_2693" align="aligncenter" width="720"] Members of PCaRT North taking part in their static cycling challenge[/caption] Since its beginning in Autumn 2016, the community mental health allotment project has continued to grow, taking on a life of its very own.
The project is volunteer-led, having started alongside the therapist-led groups run by the occupational therapy team within the Planned Care and Recovery Team (PCaRT North).
Teamwork is key and the wonderful members of PCaRT are all over this!
Right from the start when the project was still in its infancy, they set up a fundraising team in order to purchase items to sustain it throughout its first year and beyond.
Operational Manager, Katy Tidy came up with some ideas to kick-start their fundraising, encouraging all the OTs to get involved.
A brilliant and very appropriately-named team called The Runner Beans signed up for the 5K inflatable obstacle run in Peterborough, completing this in April 2017.
Hit with that fundraising bug and following the continued growth and success of the allotment, with its huge positive impact on improving the wellbeing of service users, Katy got in touch with the charity last year to share the idea for the latest PCaRT fundraiser.
A tougher challenge was set and Katy roped in the entire team again for a London to Paris bike ride.
With a difference.
Each day for one week between 10am and 5pm in the waiting rooms at Isebrook Hospital and Stuart Road Clinic in Corby, members of Team Pedals took their turns in the hot seat, cycling the 300 long miles without even leaving the county.
“The ride was like a military operation,” commented Lead Specialist OT, Madeline Warwick.
“All of the staff were heavily involved, showing the patients how much they are really invested in what the patients do, along with their determination to make it work!” Cycling in the waiting rooms promoted the supportive and inclusive nature of the whole ethos of the OT programme.
“Sometimes, it was nice to get on the bike to ride and just have a chat with whoever was in the room”.
Patients themselves also got involved, becoming part of this fantastic team and contributing towards those cycling miles, helping Team Pedals reach their fundraising target.
In fact, there was a wonderful demonstration of the power of physical exercise on mental health wellbeing during the ride.
“One new patient who was waiting for an appointment and feeling so anxious to the point of feeling sick, was invited to jump on and have a go,” explained Katy.
“She was unsure at first but she did it and felt so much better by the time had come to go to the appointment…no longer feeling sick!” The solidarity of Team Pedals was further demonstrated when the bike actually broke down mid-ride.
One of the OT volunteers acted as roadie technician soldering away at the bike to fix the problem so the ride could continue.
At the end of the week team members crossed the finishing line after cycling those many long miles, having raised a fantastic £1,508!!
There are also quarterly bake sales that help raise money towards the project and these are raising more and more money each time.
£400 was collected from the last one, maybe helped due to the upgrade from just cake snacks to tasty bacon rolls too.
[caption id="attachment_2704" align="alignleft" width="450"] Rob Powell from the charity team presented a cheque for the PCaRT North fundraising to Katy Tidy and Madeline Warwick[/caption] The allotment has already benefited from this latest batch of fundraising by the team as it has allowed the purchase of raised bed planters, as well as the winter vegetable crop.
Madeline explained, “Patients and volunteers get to take home what they grow.
Some will often bring in soups and curries they’ve made from the produce, and there are regular barbeques too”.
In addition to the benefits of physical exercise, the social aspect is also really important, for some even more so.
“Some people volunteer and might just make the tea, enjoying the opportunity for a good chat”.
Madeline believes that as the allotment is not on the hospital site, this gives the patients and volunteers even more of an ownership of the whole project.
“They feel they belong to a project…it’s a true community project for real community gain…” “The OT team are here to set up the ideas, emphasising how “doing stuff” really makes a difference, it breaks down barriers…but the allotment project thrives because of where the patients and volunteers have been able to take it to themselves”.
PCaRT North were thrilled and proud to win the Anne McWatt Award for Innovation and Involvement for the project at 2018’s NHFT Quality awards.
This award recognises the huge impact it has and how it has changed the lives of so many people.
The whole team are invested in maintaining the programme and developing other projects to aid mental health recovery.
So far, their fundraising efforts have raised an incredible £3,600 thanks to the phenomenal way that the team works together to ensure these services are available for their patients, continuing even after they are discharged.
Many do continue to volunteer with former service user and fellow project founder, Lee still heavily involved.
This week, Lee has planted three Japanese cherry trees at the site.
Lee takes lots of pictures of the developments at the allotment site and last year, these piqued the interest of none other than the BBC programme Gardener's World!
Researchers got in contact with Madeline so it would be fantastic if a feature on the programme might be forthcoming on this year's series.
This award-winning project may already be thriving but it is truly exciting to see how it cannot but grow even further this year.
Ideas are already underway for PCaRT North’s 2019 fundraising, so watch this space!
We’d like to say a huge thank you to all members of PCaRT North, all the patients and volunteers who helped raise this fantastic amount to keep this important project running!