Menu
Menu
Menu
Putting Down Roots is a horticultural therapy and training project, using gardening as a tool to help people in their recovery.
Putting Down Roots is a horticultural therapy and training project, using gardening as a tool to help people in their recovery.
For 21 years, Putting Down Roots has helped people recovering from homelessness to grow their confidence and skills, and to rebuild their lives through gardening. Putting Down Roots helps to build people’s self-esteem, confidence and sociability.
Putting Down Roots establishes a routine by asking participants to commit to attending regular sessions, and taking responsibility in caring for plants. Learning to nurture something else helps people to learn to nurture themselves, and there is a parallel between the growth and development of plants and the growth and development of people.
A person we support may be told about Putting Down Roots via their key worker or another client who has been involved. Clients fill out an application form, and the Putting Down Roots team then make an assessment to ensure the client would be suitable and safe to participate, and at the appropriate stage of their recovery journey to do so.
Clients can take part in Putting Down Roots for up to two years, before being encouraged to move on to another activity to make space for someone else. This can be difficult as people enjoy the programme so much.
Putting Down Roots is open to all clients and we can assign tasks depending on physicality, for example a participant can sow seeds or do digging, and we have raised beds for people who can’t bend over.
In addition to our permanent sites in Bristol and London, we are doing in-reach work in hostels to encourage new recruits who may not feel comfortable travelling to a project site. People may feel comfortable participating in the garden of their accommodation project initially, to build up their confidence.
The small things can be the biggest achievement. Simply leaving a room or quitting a substance can be a subtle way in which people have turned their lives around.
Everyone has a unique recovery journey, and therefore will have different outcomes from Putting Down Roots. For some people, employment or retraining may be the ultimate goal. For others, it may be feeling comfortable and confident in joining another community group as a volunteer. For others, it is regaining confidence and managing to work as part of a team.
We build our own community within St Mungo’s and seeing the change in people’s outlook is very powerful.
"The most rewarding part is getting to see a tangible difference in people in a very short period of time. In about six weeks you can really notice a person’s confidence increasing, and the feedback we receive from clients is great – they wouldn’t keep coming back if they didn’t enjoy it.
The transformations are amazing and it feels like a privilege to be part of that."
For 21 years, Putting Down Roots has helped people recovering from homelessness to grow their confidence and skills, and to rebuild their lives through gardening. Putting Down Roots helps to build people’s self-esteem, confidence and sociability.
Putting Down Roots establishes a routine by asking participants to commit to attending regular sessions, and taking responsibility in caring for plants. Learning to nurture something else helps people to learn to nurture themselves, and there is a parallel between the growth and development of plants and the growth and development of people.
A person we support may be told about Putting Down Roots via their key worker or another client who has been involved. Clients fill out an application form, and the Putting Down Roots team then make an assessment to ensure the client would be suitable and safe to participate, and at the appropriate stage of their recovery journey to do so.
Clients can take part in Putting Down Roots for up to two years, before being encouraged to move on to another activity to make space for someone else. This can be difficult as people enjoy the programme so much.
Putting Down Roots is open to all clients and we can assign tasks depending on physicality, for example a participant can sow seeds or do digging, and we have raised beds for people who can’t bend over.
In addition to our permanent sites in Bristol and London, we are doing in-reach work in hostels to encourage new recruits who may not feel comfortable travelling to a project site. People may feel comfortable participating in the garden of their accommodation project initially, to build up their confidence.
The small things can be the biggest achievement. Simply leaving a room or quitting a substance can be a subtle way in which people have turned their lives around.
Everyone has a unique recovery journey, and therefore will have different outcomes from Putting Down Roots. For some people, employment or retraining may be the ultimate goal. For others, it may be feeling comfortable and confident in joining another community group as a volunteer. For others, it is regaining confidence and managing to work as part of a team.
We build our own community within St Mungo’s and seeing the change in people’s outlook is very powerful.
"The most rewarding part is getting to see a tangible difference in people in a very short period of time. In about six weeks you can really notice a person’s confidence increasing, and the feedback we receive from clients is great – they wouldn’t keep coming back if they didn’t enjoy it.
The transformations are amazing and it feels like a privilege to be part of that."
3 Thomas More Square, Tower Hill, London E1W 1YW | 020 3856 6000 | info@mungos.org
© 2024 St Mungo’s Registered Charity No 1149085, Company No 8225808, Housing Association No LH0279, VAT Registration No. 155 134 821
Website by St Mungo’s. Maintained by Core Bid Management.
Appeals Policy
Case Closure and Reopen Guidance
Clearing House FAQs November 2022
Clearing House Nomination Policy & Procedure v1.1
Clearing House Sensitive Lets Policy & Procedure v1.1
Clearing House User Agreement v4
Complaints Policy
Couples Referral Guidance
Data Protection and Information Sharing Policy
Eligibility Policy
High Needs Quota Policy & Procedure
Hostel Decant Policy & Procedure
Nomination Guidance
Nominations Appendix A – Allocations and Prioritisation
NSNO Low Needs Staging Post Offer Policy & Procedure
Policy Addendum Clarification 2019
Referral and Waiting List Policy & Procedure
Referral Coaching Policy & Procedure – Volunteers v1.0
Referral Form Minimum Standards v1.2
Resettlement Policy & Procedure
Tenancy Review Policy & Procedure
Transfers Policy & Procedure