Care home residents from Kew win £1,000 for gardening award

Cecil Court care home in Kew has won an award for a project run by residents with keen interests in gardening.

The 'growing together gardening group' was named the winner of the Nature-themed arts and crafts category at the City of London’s Growing Localities awards.

As well as giving residents a creative output, the project provided a regular social activity for service users to discuss ideas, complement each others work, and to communally talk about their shared interests.

The care home is part of the C&C, a not-for-profit organisation which aims to provide people in the community with good quality care, homes and support.

Central and Cecil’s arts and education coordinator Alison Teader said: “We are all so happy to have won the award. Everyone involved in ‘Growing Together’ has a real sense of pride and achievement in the work they created during the project, and to be recognized in this way only enhances this wonderful feeling.”

The awards offer funding to London-based projects that help the lives of vulnerable people in local communities. The project helped to bring out the creativity of residents, and gave them the opportunity to use skills they had learnt from their professions before they became residents at the care home.

The award recognises the activities that the group has been working on, which included flower arranging, garden related story telling and poems, and making homes for insects and birds.

As part of their award the gardening group has received £1,000 which they plan to spend developing gardening-related activities for their residents.

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