Exciting News about our Community Garden

Exercise, Health and Nutrition / Know Your Neighbourhood Project / Benfieldside Community Garden / October 13th, 2023

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.

Volunteer for us

Consett Heritage Project / May 14th, 2024

Brian Harrison - Consett Heritage Podcast

Brian Harrison is a local historian and many of you may know him as the company director for the Consett Heritage and Arts Centre. We sat down with him and discussed the origins of his love for history, his thoughts on the most significant moments of the steelworks, and more!

Self-Belief and Emotional Wellbeing / May 11th, 2022

Aspirations and Future Planning / May 11th, 2022

Teenage Girls’ Emotional Wellbeing & Aspirations Programme

We successfully delivered a twelve-week programme to support vulnerable teenage girls in Stanley, in an area of high socio-economic deprivation. Our project focused on early interventions to prevent longer term mental health issues, particularly with those who are suffering due to the impact of COVID-19.

Aspirations and Future Planning / January 6th, 2025

Business Roundtable Event - Time to put the North East on the Business Map

As a long-standing member of Do Business Network (DBN), I was delighted to be asked to attend the business roundtable discussion with Liz Twist MP for Blaydon and Consett, and Gareth Thomas MP, Minister in the Department for Business and Trade on Monday 9th December at Derwentside College.