About Us
About Us
About us
Growing People has been running at the Sadie Centre (formerly The Letchworth Centre For Healthy Living) since October 2006.
The project was founded by John Cliff who had previously run projects for Thrive, the national charity for Social and Therapeutic Horticulture.
The project launched with one half day session per week, operating indoors and outdoors in what is now the garden of the privately owned lodge.
Initially, the project operated as part of the Letchworth Centre for Healthy Living and after a few years it had grown sufficiently to set it up as an independent charity, based at the orchard area of The Sadie Centre (formely Letchworth Centre of Living), where it is still based today (though now part of the centre itself) using Social and Therapeutic Horticulture to support people in the Hertfordshire area, who are struggling with their mental health.
On registration as a charity in 2012, Growing People was fortunate to secure Philip Harkness (from Harkness Roses) as Chair, and two trustees who had considerable experience with other charities, one of whom Alison Shersby, took over as Project Manager when John stood down.
By then the charity had a turnover of over £100k and employed three qualified horticultural therapists and was running 7 different programmes and some 12 half-day sessions per week, both on and off site the latter including two local hospitals.