Empowering people to improve their green spaces, enhance their environment, and boost wellbeing.
Turning The Old Changing Rooms Green! joined: idverde Community Investment Fund 9 months ago
Impact data and claims within this report are provided by the project creator and have not been independently verified by Spacehive.
Help us transform the derelict former Changing Rooms next to Growing Sudley walled garden project into a zero carbon community-owned asset for health, wellbeing and connection to nature
Growing Sudley community garden project have already raised capital funds to refurbish the derelict changing rooms building in their local park. The walled garden is being developed into a therapeutic garden for healing and fun, and the adjacent disused building will become a Therapy and Wellbeing Centre, housing affordable space for therapists and a base for the CIC operations and community activities. After many years hard work, we’ve secured funds for the building works, but we need your help to buy the energy saving and renewable technology to make the building zero carbon to benefit the environment as well as our community. We’re working in partnership with Ullet Road Therapy and Wellbeing Centre, one of Liverpool's first major eco-refurbishments, and the Low Carbon Eco-Innovatory at Liverpool John Moores University, to make the building eco-friendly. Any contribution, no matter how big or small, will really help to make this community asset green for future generations.
What we'll deliver:
Why it's a great idea:
The building creates sought-after affordable space to therapists for community health & wellbeing, and crucial income to staff & fund community activities within the garden. It creates a financially sustainable project with great social impacts. We use Therapeutic Horticulture, Forest School & Nature Therapy to connect a wide range of people with nature, inc adults & children with disabilities, SEN, health conditions & marginalised groups. Growing Sudley has a strong social & inclusive ethos. We are a permaculture project, concerned with climate justice, social justice, and person-centred practice. We work with nature, not against it, and are building a regenerative organisation working in local and circular ways. We garden organically, without chemicals or pesticides and consider ourselves stewards & protectors, as well as beneficiaries, of the natural environment. Making the building as environmentally friendly as possible is part of this, and we'd love you to be part of the journey!
Steps to get it done:
Renewable technology is super expensive up front, and our capital budget doesn’t stretch far enough to include what’s required to achieve a zero carbon refurbishment. We’re asking for your help to pay for the air source heat pumps, solar technology and other tech that will make the building a future-loving model of best green practice. The changing rooms project is a partnership with Ullet Road Therapy & Wellbeing Centre, subject of a ground-breaking 3yr retrofit to turn a 1950s disused medical centre into an environmentally sustainable zero carbon building. Having built up a successful business model providing affordable space to therapists, they are excited to support Growing Sudley in developing an ecologically regenerative resource for community health & wellbeing. We’re also working with The Low Carbon Eco-Innovatory (LCEI) at Liverpool John Moores University. LCEI is an ERDF funded project that connects small-to-medium-sized businesses to low carbon development support.
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Empowering people to improve their green spaces, enhance their environment, and boost wellbeing.
So finally, after months of hard work, and so much support and amazing connections and stories, our crowdfunder hit it's target! A huge thank you to Liverpool Mayoral Fund for their £10k contribution, which made it feasible - but also a huge thank you to every single one of you. Without community support, LCC wouldn't have funded us, and we're so happy and thankful for the incredible momentum this campaign achieved during what must be one of the hardest times to fundraise. We have a long journey ahead now, to refurbish the building, and of course instal renewable systems to make it low carbon. It's a lot less daunting knowing you're all behind us. It may take some time, judging by the constant delays and obstacles faced so far, but we're channelling Taoist philosopher Lao Tzu, when he says 'Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished'. With love and thanks from all the team at Growing Sudley! PS: If you're not already on our mailing list, please contact us at growingsudley@gmail.com if you'd like to receive updates and news of events and activities.
Whoop, 230 people have pledged since fundraising began!
Brilliant news, thanks everyone!
Whoop, 230 people have pledged since fundraising began!
How will the money be spent?Total £25,965
Costs Breakdown
This shows how money raised for the project will be spent. These costs have been confirmed by the project's Delivery Manager and verified.
Overfunding
This project is enabled for overfunding. If the project hits its funding goal before the end of the campaign period, any extra funds raised will be spent (in order of priority) on:
Total £25,965
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VolunteerGrowing Sudley is a community garden in Liverpool, located in an old, dilapidated walled garden within the local park. Like the proverbial Secret Garden, ivy covered walls provide a home to birds and bats and bramble armies make their wild eternal march on empty ground.
The community surrounding the garden consists of a very high proportion of elders, people with disabilities and long-term health conditions, and families with young children. We decided to start doing some project work with those communities to inform and test out ideas for how the garden could best function and serve people’s needs.
The resulting vision is a sustainable community business that revives the hidden gem of a walled garden and uses growing, nature and the outdoors to benefit the health and wellbeing of the community. The idea of making the project into a community business rather than a charity was driven by a desire to be sustainable for the future and not be a drain on precious local resources. Funding is required to develop the project, but we aim in the long term for it to be largely independent.
Over the last 4 years, driven by volunteers, the Growing Sudley team have built up a mix of free and paid for activities serving the needs of local people from wards within a few miles of the garden. Forest School holiday clubs for children, Therapeutic Gardening sessions for adults with learning disabilities, brain conditions and stroke survivors, weekly Tai Chi and sessions such as meditation, forest bathing and herb walks have been popular and well attended. Each year we’ve increased our practice in the garden, in response to people’s interests, passions, skills. We now run a wide variety of events and activities for all ages based around the healing power of nature and plants.
Our next project is to refurbish and develop the changing rooms building as a Therapy and Wellbeing Centre for people to come for holistic services in this nourishing and beautiful natural setting. The building provides an income stream for long-term sustainability and supports the development of the garden into an accessible and inspirational outdoor healing space, using therapeutic gardening, nature therapy, community herbalism and play to improve physical and mental wellbeing and encourage urban connections with nature.
Project Owner: Growing Sudley CIC The Project Owner takes legal responsibility for receiving and spending the funds raised and ensuring the project is delivered.
Contractors: Harrison Stringfellow Architects,Through and Around Project Management The team responsible for building or installing the project.
