“ I’ve been the administrator at HART Services now for three years and part of my role is in recruitment for volunteers for all of our services. Today we are here with Trish and we have a garden blitz taking place with our sponsors, Bunnings. Bunnings do 2 gardens per year. Our other sponsor is Fuji Xerox and they do 2 garden blitzes with us per year as well. It gives us an opportunity to identify somebody who can really benefit from on of these garden blitzes. We consult with our sponsors and have a look at what we can do and it takes place. Our sponsors contribute around $500 per blitz.
One of the main drives behind Able Gardens is helping people stay in their own homes longer. Able Gardens is a social enterprise. We are a not for profit service. As part of the service we take a wellness approach which means we try to involve our clients in every aspect. We want it to be how they want it to be. It’s about letting Trish do what she wants to do and helping her, not just doing it for her. Trish is still quite active in the garden.
If somebody calls up and asks us to come and see what we can do the coordinator comes out and checks what they want to achieve, looks for risks that may be around, slip hazards etc. In consultation with the client we work out what they want to achieve. We come out on a regular basis and there’s always 2 people that come out. Walter for example might do the heavier work with equipment, chainsawing or brush-cutting and the volunteers add value to what Walter is doing by weeding, pruning etc. With our volunteers you don’t need any special skills, you just need to enjoy gardening I guess. There’s a lot of camaraderie in the team.
If the client wants more than the $500 then they can contribute as well. Today Bunnings have provided 6 wonderful workers, shade cloth, lattice, mulch, manure and a beautiful assortment of plants.
This has been the trial period of the service to see if its viable for us and our clients. We’ve started within the boundaries of the Lismore area. We have advertised and we’ve put it in our handbook that goes out. The client base we provide services to is people who are over 65 or people who may have a disability.
We really would like to get more volunteers on board. We have 52 clients now and we only have 7 volunteers at the moment. Half of those are travelling and two are not well so we could do with another 10 – 14 volunteers. It is a social outlet for some of the volunteers. There’s a feeling of contributing to the world, helping others and all sorts of levels of satisfaction when you’re volunteering.”