Helmsley Walled Garden awarded £130,000 of National Lottery funding to set up Learning to Grow programme

Helmsley Walled Garden will use the funds to set up and run Learning to Grow, a new thee-year programme, which sits alongside their mentoring programme, Over the Garden Gate.

This funding will allow the garden to develop its plant propagation activities with volunteers, through a structured project.

As part of the programme, Helmsley Walled Garden will create employment opportunities through two avenues; two part-time coordinator roles to oversee the propagation activities, and developing a number of part-time traineeships.

Increasing their core team of staff will enable Helmsley Walled Garden to support more volunteers to propagate plants, as well as providing more volunteer opportunities where there is currently a waiting list.

June Tainsh, Executive Director, said: “One of the areas I am most excited about, is being able to support volunteers looking for future employment in horticulture and keen to learn more about plant propagation.

“Now, thanks to the funding from the National Community Lottery Fund, we will be able to offer a 12-month part-time traineeship each year, enabling a transition into paid employment.

"This will make a huge impact on those volunteers who are able to work but have found barriers to entering the workplace for a range of reasons.”

The new funding is from The National Lottery Community Fund, which distributes money raised by National Lottery players for good causes.

It is the largest community funder in the UK and funds will be distributed to Helmsley Walled Garden annually, over the course of three years. The programme is set to start in the early Spring 2024.

The National Lottery Community Fund recently launched its new strategy, ‘It starts with community’, which will underpin its efforts to distribute at least £4 billion of National Lottery funding by 2030.

As part of this, the funder has four key missions, which are to support communities to come together, be environmentally sustainable, help children and young people thrive, and enable people to live healthier lives.

National Lottery players raise over £30 million a week for good causes across the UK. Thanks to them, last year The National Lottery Community Fund was able to distribute over half a billion pounds (£615.4 million) of life-changing funding to communities.

Helmsley’s local Councillor George Jabbour commented: “Congratulations to Helmsley Walled Garden on such brilliant news. This successful outcome is a testament to the hard work and dedication that June, the rest of the team and the amazing volunteers have continually demonstrated in looking after an invaluable community asset and a key attraction which has brought many tourists and visitors to our beautiful market town."