Exciting News about our Community Garden
Building Self-Belief are delighted to be a new member of the the Social Farms and Gardens. We are in the final stages of securing our 25 year lease in Benfieldside Community Garden. Once this has been confirmed, we are ready to get going on what will be a fabulous transformation.
We Need Your Help
As a project we will need as much support as possible from the community. As a community garden we want to create a fabulous space that people of all ages can contribute to and enjoy. There will be planters for growing food, and wildflower areas, some mature trees are already there. What we want to d is involve the community on how we redesign the space.
What underpins our purpose is that it is well known that gardening is so good for our physical and our mental health. In our area, many people only have back yards, therefore to have access to a garden is a brilliant new addition to their lives.
Here are some of the benefits to being involved in community gardening:
- Outdoor gardening can help your body fight disease
- Regular gardening builds strength, promotes sleep and helps maintain a healthy body weight
- Gardening can help protect your memory as you get older
- Gardening is a mood booster
- Gardening calms you after a stressful event
- Community gardens foster a feelings of connectivity
- Gardening can five you a feeling of empowerment
We are open to suggestions about how the space is used, we are also happy for people to give up as much time as they can afford to help us get this project off the ground. If you would like to volunteer in the garden for us, please get in touch.
Self-Belief and Emotional Wellbeing / May 30th, 2025
Youth Social Action / May 30th, 2025
Aspirations and Future Planning / May 30th, 2025
A Visit from the Centre for Social Justice
On Tuesday 13th May, our Harton Academy boys’ wellbeing and aspirations group had a wonderful visit from Dan Lilley, senior researcher at The Centre for Social Justice.
Benfieldside Community Garden / June 19th, 2025
Mayors Opportunity Fund - Green Hands Together
With help from the Mayor's Opportunity Fund, they have helped us transform Benfieldside Community Garden from derelict land. Their support has made a huge difference and we have enlisted young people to the Green Hands Together project to work on the garden, creating a flourishing community space. It has brought everybody together.
Self-Belief and Emotional Wellbeing / December 10th, 2024
Youth Social Action / December 10th, 2024
Aspirations and Future Planning / December 10th, 2024
The Importance of Vocational Visits to Aid Employability in Young People
At Building Self-Belief, one of the many programmes is the ‘Bridging the Gap’ Youth Employability Programme. Recently, this programme was conducted with year 10 boys from Boldon School. The first few workshops centred around improving wellbeing, and then the boys prepared for their vocational visit by working on goal setting, CV making and considering what makes a good employee.