hammersmith community gardens association
London
Hammersmith Community Gardens Association is a local environmental charity set
up in 1984. We manage four community gardens in Hammersmith and Fulham. HCGA has
a range of projects which include conservation training schemes, volunteer
gardening sessions, health and wellbeing projects, environmental playschemes and
environmental education in local schools. We assist local groups in the design,
plan and management of their green spaces. We promote environmental
sustainability within the borough and manage our sites to maximise biodiversity
and encourage wildlife. To reflect the expansion of our working to neighbouring
boroughs in 2016 the charity adopted the working name of Healthy Community
Gardening Activities (HCGA) The gardens are used as an educational resource by
local schools, a site for volunteer gardening groups and in the holidays there
are environmental play activities. As well as creating space for people the
sites have also been designed to encourage wildlife. We run the community food
growing area in Normand Park and work with local ‘Friends of’ groups to manage
and promote their sites. In Westminster we run weekly gardening sessions in
Queens Park Gardens, Westbourne Park and Penfold Street Hub. We support the
Fisherton growing project with regular gardening sessions as well as by
providing plants. In Westminster and The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
we deliver short Adult Education courses around gardening and herbal activities
as well as a programme of walks. HCGA has a team of school gardeners who deliver
environmental education sessions in schools on a weekly basis in three boroughs.
These include formal curriculum-linked activities as well as lunchtime and after
school clubs. We can also guide groups on how to make their premises more
environmentally friendly and give technical growing advice. For more information
about booking an educational visit for your group or for a member of our team to
come to your site please contact us. Through the Grow Well project we work with
local people across the Hammersmith and Fulham borough to provide therapeutic
gardening sessions for people who need a bit of extra support hopefully leading
to participation in our regular volunteering sessions. The Get Out There!
project offers local unemployed or socially isolated people the opportunity to
learn new skills in basic environmental management such as habitat conservation,
tool use and wildlife identification. Participants get the opportunity to visit
and work on a range of different habitats across London as well as local sites
in Hammersmith and Fulham. We also run a Men in Sheds programme at Godolphin
Gardens for socially-isolated men. Our Volunteers maintain our gardens and
contribute hundreds of hours of their time each year. Many of them have physical
or mental health problems which prevent them from working in paid employment. We
also host around 20 companies each year on corporate volunteering work days. As
well as completing several physical tasks the companies make a donation to HCGA
which covers staff time and materials. This is extremely valuable to us as it
then funds the upkeep of the gardens.
