Revitalising people and places through garden therapy & design
Garden Clubs
Experiencing nature and growing plants brings many benefits to health and wellbeing. We have designed and built age and dementia friendly gardens at two community centres in Worthing. We run evidence-based programmes of therapeutic gardening there, which we call Garden Clubs, for people with support needs, including people living with dementia.
These spaces are designed to support good health in the users but we take account of their limitations. We have tailored the gardens so that older people, people with dementia, those with disabilities, in recovery, with mental health or behavioural challenges can feel the restorative power of nature, start or carry on gardening. Access to a well-designed garden increases wellbeing and provides both stimulation and relaxation in a reassuring environment. Our programmes are designed to achieve specific theraputic goals according to need. These can be physical, like promoting activity or fine motor movements, and we focus on stimulating mind, memory, emotional wellbeing and social interaction.
We believe that places and people should sustain each other and so our gardens are also earth and wildlife friendly.
What makes us different?
What we do is not 'just gardening with people'. We understand and practice assisted gardening, design and access to nature as therapy, with intended beneficial outcomes. Our gardens are the only ones in the community in Worthing that have been designed with therapeutic goals in mind that are accessible to all ages and abilities. We work with people as individuals who have different interests, history, abilities and needs. We assess their needs and adjust our programmes accordingly.
We are a Community Interest Company, which means that we are a non-profit with a social purpose. To find out more, follow these links:
What else do we do?
As well as running assisted gardening programmes in the community, we provide social and therapeutic horticulture activities in some local care homes. We design and build therapeutic gardens, which we are happy to tackle in stages as funds allow. We run courses, for example, on mindful gardening, as well as corporate volunteering and team away days. We also work with pre-school children as Garden Educators, growing food with early years children.
Try it first
We invite you to attend your first Garden Club session with no obligation. If you like it and want more, you can then sign up and pay for a programme that includes the trial session.
Tel: 07508 178590 Claire
Tel: 07827 924151 Lisa
info@breathingspaces.co
You can also use our contact form.
All Year
We have a cosy yurt with wood-burning stove at the Welcome Woodland Garden and we go into the shed at the Mind and Memory Garden or the main hall of the Sidney Walter Centre when it's really cold.
News
We are delighted to be
participating in the Accelerator Programme of the Spark Social Enterprise project, supported by the Interreg 2 Seas Programme. Visit sparksocialenterprise.eu
for more information on the Spark project
We are also delighted to have been awarded funds from Tesco Bags of Help to start a Garden Club at New Tyne Resource Centre for people with dementia - see here
We add latest things of interest to our Facebook page. For older news items and our blog, see here
Location
We are based in Worthing, West Sussex. We run two Garden Clubs in the community and a Community Allotment - addresses are on the home page.
Breathing Spaces Garden Therapy
Community Interest Company
(limited by guarantee)
Company Number 8825167
Registered office:
c/o Andrew M Wells Accountancy
99 Western Road
Lewes BN7 1RS
Print 
Recommend this page 