Eccleshare Court Care Home has enjoyed the company of a group of 15 to 17-year-old student volunteers from the National Citizens Service. Led by young mentors Charlotte and Alfie the group of 15 students have been working on garden project at Eccleshare Court Care Home on Ashby Avenue for 2 weeks of their 4-week program.
The students worked closely with staff and residents at the care home to select a project, plan and deliver the results in just 2 weeks. The students chose to give the garden at Eccleshare an overhaul in support of ‘Country Court Care in bloom’, a companywide gardening competition designed to encourage local community involvement. This has included not just tidying and weeding but repainting the garden furniture and creating a Dementia Friendship tree mural. The furniture was painted in ‘forget me not’ blue to signify dementia friendship and awareness and features a beautiful butterfly motif designed and painted by one of the students. The project was funded through donations from local businesses and a cake sale held by the students.
The project culminated in a community day held in the garden at Eccleshare Court where residents, family members and friends were invited to a garden party to see the student’s work. The students thanked Activities Coordinator Sharon Kinsella-Pullen and Jane from Sage Gardener for their help and input into the project. They were presented with a plaque to put in the garden as a permanent reminder of the project’s success.
The project has been a fantastic opportunity to build links with young people from the local community, the students are from schools local to the Birchwood area of Lincoln. They got to know the residents well throughout their two week stay and formed some good friendships. Home Manager Susannah Barker-Milan, who lectures in Specialist Dementia Care at Lincoln University, shared her knowledge and experience with the students giving a Dementia talk and helping them to understand the condition in more depth.
The National Citizen Service Trust is a not-for profit social enterprise established to shape, support, champion and lead a thriving National Citizen Service. NCS exists to help tackle some of the biggest social challenges in our country including social cohesion, social mobility and social cohesion.
