Case Study: N-Gage Community Allotment Sensory Garden Project

The creation of a Sensory Garden by N-Gage Community Allotment to provide a safe, holistic environment for people with learning disabilities and complex needs in the Newcastle and North Tyneside area.

With funding received from Junction Point, N-Gage Community Allotment embarked on a DIY Senory Garden Project, with the aim of providing a safe space for people with learning disabilities and complex needs. The benefits of creating the garden include reducing isolation and loneliness, developing community and friendships, improving perceptions of ‘disability’, and increasing skills, independence, and knowledge. ​

Opened by the Lord Mayor of Newcastle in 2018, the garden is an amazing space full of fruit and vegetables, plants, friendship, and community. The space has been specially allocated and designed to address a need for a bespoke and safe space for adults with learning disabilities to develop and take ownership of in the way they wish, or garden in the communal areas.

Junction Point supported the N-Gage team, both in creating a public benefit statement and in effectively articulating the direct benefits for the people using the allotment. With our help, the allotment was able to clearly demonstrate the problem they were addressing – that although they knew the benefits of their social space, as it is those with the most complex needs who often feel most isolated and lonely, these people were not accessing the allotment site. This is largely due to the allotment not currently meeting the complexity of people’s needs, and the lack of resources needed to make the space an area that is enriching and stimulating for all.

Junction Point advised the N-Gage team on how to back up their ideas with both secondary and primary evidence to prove the need for their project, whilst encouraging them to produce a clear project plan and resource budget. With the help of the seed funding provided, N-Gage could purchase the supplies needed to create a fabulous sensory garden.

In the words of our Enterprise Development Director Lizzy Hodcroft, “The project has been an inspiration for everyone involved. It was humbling to see so many from the community wanting to give back and to make a difference. I’m so proud of everyone that took part and I’m really excited to continue to support and watch their journey as they grow. I really believe that with this project and the funding it can provide to those with ideas means that the timeline for our participants has been greatly accelerated!“

You can learn more about the project here.