A Darlington community project is opening up new opportunities for its young ‘Champions’ with the help of a second four-figure grant from a County Durham employer.
Five Acres Community Garden CIC has used a £2,000 Banks Group grant to help refurbish and equip a new social enterprise hub in a portakabin at its Brafferton headquarters that is now being for a range of new activities, including digital design, product creation and enterprise activities.
The project aims to increase digital inclusion, confidence, aspirations and practical skills among more than 30 young adults with learning difficulties, or Champions as they are known at Five Acres, and it will also enable them to design and make more branded products such as T-shirts and mugs that can be sold in the organisation’s shop to help fund its work.
The grant covered the cost of flooring, painting and insulating the portakabin, as well as buying tables and chairs that are suitable for the Champions’ specific needs and bringing in two new laptops that will be available for everyone to use.
It’s the second time that Banks has supported Five Acres’ work, with a further £2,000 grant given last year enabling it to buy range of new woodworking equipment and accessories that was used to build a workshop at Brafferton, where the organisation moved last spring.
Five Acres was set up in Newton Aycliffe in 2019 by directors Debbie and Gavin Iceton after they noticed, while running their transport business, a fall in the range of services available for young people with additional needs.
Their long-term vision was to create an agricultural and horticultural centre on a field they owned at Brafferton through which they could offer a unique service where young adults could develop their social, independent living and employability skills in their own ways.
Activities at Brafferton currently include cookery, gardening, farm animal care and arts & crafts sessions, with some of the products made by the Champions, such as keyrings, coasters and chopping boards, already being sold to raise funds to support Five Acres’ work.
Charlotte Iceton, centre manager at Five Acres Community Garden, says: “Our Champions come from right across the North East, with the experiences we provide designed to help them develop practical social, independent living and employability skills, as well as greater confidence in themselves and their ability to succeed.
“There aren’t many places where they can learn new skills at their own pace with the information and environment tailored specifically to their needs, so we’ve designed our new social enterprise hub with meeting these needs specifically in mind.
“We’re providing our Champions with new opportunities to use technology to make things we can sell, which will help to raise vital funds for Five Acres and help them see what sorts of activities they enjoy and excel at.
“Having this new space will make a massive difference to the learning opportunities that our Champions can access and we’re grateful to Banks for helping us bring in the equipment that we needed to start to fully realise its potential.”
Banks is the business behind the proposed Beaumont Hill residential development to the north of Darlington, which would see up to 600 homes on a 35-hectare site to the south of the River Skerne that identified for residential development in the 2022 Darlington Borough Local Plan.
Substantial areas of public open space, a small retail convenience store unit and a range of biodiversity enhancements also feature in the project design.
Kate Culverhouse, community relations manager at the Banks Group, adds: “The Five Acres team has turned a long-term vision into a brilliant facility for its young Champions and is giving them even more chances to enjoy developing new life and technical skills. “
The Banks Group’s community funds are independently managed by Point North (formerly the County Durham Community Foundation).