The essential ingredient of what we do is the wide range of people that get to work together. There are not many places where you get such a mix.
A while back a rip off consultancy firm got paid a shed load of money in Moulsecoomb to come to the conclusion that a lot of the kids on the estate do not have a wide range of networks to rely on. They could have given us a tenner to find this out rather than wasting nearly ½ million quid.
But what this means is without that wide network it’s a lot harder to find jobs, go to college etc. With government cut backs eliminating much of the essential support networks like Connexions, this will become even harder.
So take this example. Amelia is an ex University student, garden volunteer and management committee member who has moved back to London. She popped down the other day to take some photos and visit Jack’s exhibition at the Brighton Museum. Jack, star of ‘The Secret Millionaire’ and one of our ex pupil placements had got on a week long Princes Trust photography course. Amelia took Reece, another of our long term volunteers whose currently leading the way in renovating the compost loo, to see the exhibition. Jack and Amelia are now going to run a photographic course for interested pupils at the garden in May.
Working at the garden is not just about learning new skills, but opening new doors and meeting different people which we hope turns pupils who are failing at school into adults with a bright future ahead of them.
