Students transform garden for care home residents

Students from The Manchester College’s voluntary Prince’s Trust Team Programme have transformed the garden of a local care home in Newton Heath as part of their 12 week personal development programme. The Averill House Nursing Home, which primarily houses people with dementia, now has a tranquil garden for their residents to relax in.

The team of eight students from The Manchester College decided on the project themselves as they thought it would really benefit the residents. They changed an unused patch of grass into a stunning garden by laying a path, building planters and planting sensory flower beds. They also built a pavilion, installed a water feature and created a rockery. DIY store FOCUS in Newton Heath donated materials for the garden and gardeners from the local allotments volunteered to help and donated lots of the plants and materials needed for the project.

Keely Shaw, a student from Newton Heath, joined the programme to get some experience before returning to a full time hairdressing course in September. She says, ’The experience has been really good. We’ve done loads of different things and it has given me the confidence to talk to new people. I have enjoyed this project, especially creating the rockery, I’m really proud of that.’

Luke Dawson-Schofield, a student from Cheadle Hulme, wanted to fill his time before his plastering course started so he joined Prince’s Trust Team Programme. He says, ’I would definitely recommend this course, it has been good. I have liked this project the best so far because I like outdoor physical work and it is my first time volunteering. Some of the care home staff came out and helped us, they seemed really pleased with what we have done.’

Hema Govindji, Prince's Trust assistant team leader from The Manchester College, said, ‘The group has been great, they really pulled together and have been very motivated to complete tasks. They put a lot of research into this garden. They found out what types of gardens suit people with dementia, they have raised some of the flower beds for wheelchair users and used bright colours to paint them.’

The students spent the first couple of weeks on the programme getting to know each other and participating in a team building residential. They then spent eight days volunteering at Averill House Nursing Home. The coming weeks will see the team participating in work experience placements and they will then spend some time focusing on their next steps (future planning, CV writing etc). After this they will complete a final volunteering team challenge and then present their work to friends and family.