Salford Loaves and Fishes are a local charity who support the homeless, isolated and vulnerable, in Salford and the surrounding area.
Every Friday morning the centre runs a ESOL (English for speakers of other languages) course which sees people from different nationalities come together to develop their English reading, writing and speaking skills in a safe and supportive space.
Earlier this year, Nature for Health delivery partner, START began partnering with Salford Loaves and Fishes running gardening sessions at their centre.
Participants of the ESOL course would be encouraged to take part in the gardening sessions, which ran directly after the ESOL course, as way to practice their English speaking whilst benefitting from the nature for health activities. Many were reluctant at first as they had negative perceptions of gardening, however most quickly changed their minds as they began to experience the improvement in wellbeing. Attending the weekly gardening session is now a regular event for many Salford Loaves and Fishes participants where they participate in activities such as bulb planting, food growing and harvesting.
Jan, Learning Programme Manager at Salford Loaves and Fishes commented:
A project like this is always good because it’s not just developing language skills, its developing practical skills too, it’s opening opportunities that people haven’t had before. Once people feel confident about being in the space and the skills they’ve been building, they might then be open to thinking about this [gardening] as a job and that’s when we’d start looking for volunteering on a regular basis for them.
START’s main studio base Brunswick House is the perfect next step for participants from Salford Loaves and Fishes with arts and green social prescribing sessions running weekly.
