Northamptonshire Community Foundation Community Hero of the Week
According to the Office of National Statistics, there are over 24,500 veterans living in Northamptonshire (2021). The Veterans Community Network connects local veterans with the help and support they need.
The network uses peer mentors who have lived experience of military life and service to motivate veterans to engage in support. One of their service offerings is therapeutic gardening sessions, which they host at three different community garden sites, so beneficiaries can spend time together outdoors, becoming part of a community, being physically active and potentially learning new skills.
Therapeutic gardening connects to the analogy that if you want to grow a healthy plant, you need to nurture it, with the same being true for individual personal growth. In the context of the Veterans Community Network, this is referred to as post traumatic growth.
The Croughton-based therapeutic gardening project has recently been awarded a grant from the Northamptonshire Queen’s Institute Relief Fund, which is managed by Northamptonshire Community Foundation.
Northamptonshire Community Foundation is the county’s leading independent grant-making charity, providing much-needed and often life-changing grants to some of Northamptonshire’s most in-need residents. Since its inception in 2001, the foundation has awarded more than £24 million in grants.