Volunteers help spruce up trust’s homeless project

Volunteers from a flagship housing training hub have been helping participants of a homeless project run by Derventio Housing Trust put down roots through gardening.

A team from PfP’s Thrive training centre in Derby donned overalls and picked up gardening tools for the day to help out at the trust’s Growing Lives project in Cotmanhay, Ilkeston.

The project, which has been described as an “oasis” of tranquillity based in an old factory, helps homeless residents and others referred through drug and alcohol services to rebuild their lives through gardening, bike maintenance, cooking, crafts and art – all supported by Derventio Housing Trust staff.

The team from PfP Thrive helped out by weeding, cleaning, hedge trimming and building raised beds.

The team said they were keen to lend a hand to help Derventio Housing Trust continue its work providing homes and support for people who would otherwise be homeless.

The trust is a social landlord which helps around 1,200 people a year in five UK counties by providing them with accommodation.

In Derbyshire, hundreds of people are living in Derventio Housing Trust homes, along with neighbouring counties in Nottinghamshire and Staffordshire.

Thrive is a training centre teaching vital skills in construction and housing run by Places for People, the UK’s largest social enterprise which provides affordable housing, rents properties, runs leisure centres and handles large scale urban regeneration.

Sarah Hernandez, managing director of Derventio Housing Trust, said: “Thank you so much to the PfP Thrive team for helping out at Growing Lives.

“It’s great that partnership extends to more than just the demands of work but that organisations like this are prepared to give up their time to help out too.

“Growing Lives is a brilliant project that participants and staff work so hard to maintain.

“It’s proved to be invaluable in helping people on to a more positive pathway after going through hard times in their lives.

“So many former residents tell us how it helped them on to independent living and being economically active again.”