GROWTH Programme Stage 4 – Community Habitat Management
As we are now in the Winter term, our 30 week GROWTH programme has completed it’s first term at our partner schools!
Since September we have met and worked with over 200 young people, from children in Year 2 to our young people in Year 10. The principles of CHEXS are always based on our 4 key pillars. These are the foundations on which our projects are based.
Each stage of the CHEXS Growth programme focuses on teaching resilience as well as providing young people with a meaning and a purpose. The projects inspire young people to consider their aspirations for the future and work to achieve them as well as setting a culture of expectation to create healthy and supportive relationships which promote wellbeing.
One part of the GROWTH programme is our Community Habitat projects, where we take our young people out to local community areas such as Cedars Park, Cheshunt Park, Gunpowder Park and Fishers Green to help tidy and maintain the overgrown areas.
The Community Habitat days begin with a trip to our container to collect the tools and equipment for the day. We talk to our young people about the safety equipment they will be wearing and what tools we will be using, which usually gets them all excited for what is to come! Once equipped and ready, we hop on the bus and make our way to our area of work for the day. Once we have arrived, we often find the park rangers, who are extremely grateful for our support, following this, the fun begins!
The young people work in small groups, with CHEXS staff’s support, to find areas of overgrown shrubs, trees to coppice or beds to plant. These projects are so much more than just ‘chopping trees’ or ‘gardening.’ These days out in open spaces help to improve young people’s well-being, work on their life skills, talk to CHEXS staff about anything that may be on their mind and get involved in a project they can go home and feel extremely proud of.
Our young people have all been working tirelessly to help our local areas and are gaining so much from these days out. Once the hard work is completed, we have a cup of hot chocolate and discuss all our wins from the day. The young people get to admire the work they have done and go home with a smile on their faces and a sense of achievement!
Some feedback from our young people:
“I like coming out and talking with CHEXS because it helps with my confidence.” – Child in Year 6
“I enjoy CHEXS because it was my first-time gardening and I feel proud I have learnt new skills.” – Child in Year 6
We also message parents at the end of every session to celebrate their children’s achievements. Some parent feedback we have received:
“That is really great to hear. He’s really enjoyed the times he’s been out and looks forward to them. Thank you!”
You can track our projects and the Growth programme updates by following our facebook social media channel.
#charity #support #selfesteem #confidence #teamwork #leevalley #chexs #community #broxbourne #Hertfordshire #HenrySmith
