I made an amazing new friend in Wilbury Ward Letchworth, a 7 year old girl living with Autism. Her mum is a fantastic person, disabled herself yet helped out at Wilbury Community Café offering free face painting and creative activities for those that have less. In our area 25% of families live below the poverty line and 30-40% of oldies are coping with disability, ill health and are isolated and sometimes lonely.

She is moving schools in September, she loves her current school but finds change really stressful, so seeing her one day just a few weeks ago so excited in her garden we chatted. In her own unique way she tried to tell me what she likes, she loves her dad and mum of course but also lights, water, plants and playing in her garden so I had A DREAM build a Sensory Garden for her school move as a pilot for an accessible Community Garden for all and get the oldies/the rest of our community in Wilbury, Letchworth and Herts/Beds and beyond involved in this.

What we'll deliver:

• Stage 3 - Young people and the community young and old undertake the build and learn and dev their skills.
• Link this fundraisng to Stage 1 - Build a Sensory Garden - Using Mini Beast Outdoor Chalkboards to play and learn.
• Stage 1 - Build a pilot Sensory Garden with the community creating a magical escape to have fun and play.
• Stage 2 - Young people photograph/film/ & dev poems/songs/Buiness+Project Plans to celebrate A Child's Dream.
• Stage 4 - Oct Young people dev a WCF website where the project successes will be promoted and celebrated.
• Stage5-Show leaning from A Child's Dream-demo community skills/support/Plans to build a Community Garden for all.

Why it's a great idea:

Build a pilot Sensory Garden from this the young people/community learn/dev skills to show how they could build a Community Garden accessible to all.

This small scale fundraising is to purchase Mini Beast Outdoor Chalkboards to draw and create in the Sensory Garden.

Meet the Minibeast team: 'Betty Butterfly', 'Colin Caterpillar','Lilly Ladybird', 'Billy Bee' and 'Spike Spider'.

These inspire children to write and communicate independently. Engages children's imagination and creates exciting opportunities for energetic mark making using an exciting chalk board range. It will transform dull, uninteresting fences into stimulating outdoor vibrant spaces.

BEST OF ALL IT IS FUN!!!!!!!

Areas such as: artistic creativity, creativity during play (McDonald & Hemmes, 2004) and problem solving are areas of particular importance for young children with Autism.

We can test out equipment in our pilot Sensory Garden taking this learning to help dev the Community Garden for all.

Steps to get it done:

• August 14th Build hard landscaping (raised beds) Steve Arch Community Group/Olly Round Table&vols/David BSCU.
• Sep/Oct/Nov Build Sensory Garden - Project Mangement Steve Arch Community Group/WCF & all volunteers.
• Jan 2015 onwards young people and community groups showcase their talents and successes from A Child's Dream.
• July Clear garden - David BSCU & any volunteers. Photographs/filming/planning by our vol group of young people.
• Nov- Jan Upload Da Vinci College photographs/films/poems & NYFW to celebrate A Child's Dream on WCF website.
• Nov-Jan Young people present their Plans to CoE to show how they could build a Community Garden for all.
• Oct-Dec Build a new website with Fearnhill School for Wilbury Community Forum.
• Oct-Dec Complete Sensory Garden - THANKS to Project Manager Steve ARCH + WCF/RT/HM etc. and all the vols.
• Oct-Dec Music workshops to dev a music score with New Youth Foundation Workshop young people 6-16 years old.

A Sensory Garden is a quiet haven, full of sights, sounds and smells, you can just sit and watch the world go by amid the scented flowers, listening to the wind chimes, or play with the interactive tactile wall, this area is just lovely! The area is fantastic for everyone and a perfect place to chill out between adventures.

Thanks Luise for these inspiring words
http://www.meetup.com/HITCHIN-SURROUNDING-AREAS-FUN-SOCIAL-STUFF

There is mounting evidence that creative play is associated with healthy social, language & intellectual functioning (Siller & Sigman, 2002; Mundy, Sigman, & Kasari, 1990; Mundy, 1993; Greenspan, 2004). Children with Autism can struggle with these and a Sensory Garden aims to help them use creative learning to develop and play alongside others .

How inspiring for us young people to build and have the chance to present our work, findings and Plans to look at the possibility of building a local Community Garden accessible for all.