FUNDING from the Energia Get Ireland Growing Fund will help give a therapeutic space for children who experience domestic abuse at Limerick’s Adapt House.
Four Limerick projects have received funding of between €500 and €2,000 from GIY (Grow It Yourself) to support food growing projects by community groups, schools and not-for-profit organisations all across the country.
€70,000 has been awarded to 85 community projects, including projects planned for Castleconnell National School, Headway, Murroe Scouts through their Monday Night Beavers and at Adapt Domestic Abuse Service.
The team at Adapt says that “We want to create a sensory garden for child and young people who experience domestic abuse. We want to get them involved in gardening and increase their knowledge of plants and vegetables. This will increase their self esteem and knowledge of the beautiful area that is selected for this project and give a therapeutic space for children who experience domestic abuse.”
Project leaders at Castleconnell National School say the school had four to five raised beds on the school grounds “but there looking very sorry for themselves. They also have cleaned back an area for fruit bushes and a herb garden but without funding and plants, there’s not much happening in this space. All classes help out with the composting and regularly check out the homemade bug hotel.”
The team at Headway say that their plan “would be to create an area outside of our new building to grow our own vegetables and herbs. This would highlight awareness of healthy eating and how easy and cost effective it is to grow your own produce. This funding would allow us to promote growing your own food and give clients the information and skills needed to do this in their own homes or communities. It would give the clients the confidence to do this themselves or within the community. To give clients with an ABI the opportunity to learn more about growing their own food in their own homes and communities. The products we would grow would be directly linked to our Nutrition and healthy options module and once they were fully-grown we would use them in our healthy recipes for our module. Clients would get hands on experience planting and looking after their crops and eventually seeing the end product if their commitment was put in during the course of the project.”
The team associated with Murroe Scouts -Monday Night Beavers say that the “wish to transform a neglected area behind our local community hall into a small garden created, maintained and developed by our Beaver scout section, and created from recycled and locally-sourced materials. Our aim is to create a bright, colourful, sensory space in this neglected area within our community, to give our scouts a fun, hands-on experience of growing vegetables and flowers and to explore ways of promoting and learning about biodiversity and its importance for planting.”
