Volunteering Opportunity: Gardener with Blessed Earth CIC

If you aren’t already a gardener yourself, you will soon learn some great life skills and will learn to appreciate the calming effect gardening has on your mental wellbeing. Some of the projects that we organise the areas haven’t been touched in years and you’ll get a huge sense of satisfaction seeing it transform from your new learned skills.

You will learn how to take care of plants and trees, and how to properly prune and maintain them. Blessed Earth has two core missions; our primary mission is to provide equal employment opportunities to adults with learning and developmental disabilities, valued members of our team include adults with developmental disabilities. Our secondary mission at Blessed Earth CIC is to supply gardening services to everyone. We aim to do this by; providing a paid for gardening and tree surgery service to domestic and commercial clients and after covering expenses, operational costs and wages, we pool together our profits, as well as donations from the public to fund community projects for people and organisations who wouldn't normally be able to have work carried out due to lack of finances.

Opportunity Type: Long-term Commitment

District: St Albans

Location: Outdoor

Time of day: Weekday Mornings, Weekday Afternoons, Weekday Evenings

Practical Considerations: Our community projects are carried out 5 days a week and are either half a day; 8:00am – 11:30pm or 12:30pm – 4:00pm. Or a full day which is; 8:00am – 4:00pm. Some are one offs and some are recurring, either weekly or monthly. Here at Blessed Earth we are very flexible so we can work around your own schedule.

All work is carried out in or around the St Albans areas.

All training will be provided for free and we have appropriate insurance in place for all staff and volunteers. If a volunteer needs more specialised help and support that will be dealt with by the team. They supports the vulnerable staff and volunteers whilst on jobs and projects. All travel expenses will be reimbursed.

This is totally down to every individual volunteer; we’ll let you do as much or as little as you want to do. If you want to learn a new skill we are more than happy to put you through training and you can become qualified in the range of services we offer. Or you can do the odd bit of weeding and socialise with the group every week or month that is also fine. It’s up to you.

Requirements: Will require a criminal record check (DBS)

Suitable for: 16 – 17 year olds, 18 – 25 year olds, Aged 26 and over, University students, Older People

Suitable for volunteers interested in: Gardening & Horticulture

Full Description:
All of the work will take place outside, therefore appropriate clothing should be worn. Some of the work will involve kneeling on the ground with a mat to carry out weeding, other tasks will involve digging, turning over the soil, pruning and shaping plants and shrubs, and you may be asked to assist some of our vulnerable staff. No power or petrol tools will be allowed to be used unless you have received training. If you have prior gardening experience you may be asked to help teach other volunteers and help assist the core team. Projects last either half a day or a full day. If the project lasts a full day, food and drink will be provided and regular breaks will be taken.

All volunteers will need to enjoy being outside and you don’t necessarily need to have experience or an interest in gardening, just a willingness to learn and enjoy being part of a team.