For our community project my team chose to work in Vicary’s Field Community Garden near Baker’s Park in Newton Abbot. It is one of the key projects of Transition Newton Abbot (TNA) and aims to provide a pleasant community space and growing area for local people. The space is an organic garden where local people can go to grow their own vegetables, herbs, plants. We wanted to get involved and help improve the space for everyone that uses it and make it more accessible. Our project included building a new gate, slope for disability access, a bench, a toolbox and 3 raised flower beds. We had to build the bench, toolbox and flowerbeds from scratch and we only had 2 weeks to complete the project.

In order to do the project the young people had to fundraise and they managed to raise money through a cake sale, baked bean challenge and jail break a week before. Half way through the project we ran out of wood and the young people had to spend one day working their magic to get more wood from local suppliers for as cheap as possible (if not free!). category youth skills

The Young People worked very well as a team, helping each other out and supporting each other – it was great to see! The weather was very challenging and it was raining a lot (typical Devon weather) but they didn’t give up and completed the project.

The group was happy to help and contribute towards a garden that is used to host events which allows local people to meet, learn new skills, and contribute to community projects.

Marta – University Social Work student on placement at Young Devon