What is Green Gym?
Conservation Volunteer Northern Ireland's Green Gym offers regular sessions of conservation activities in accordance with health & safety guidelines. Experienced leaders provide training in practical skills and encourage people to work according to their own capabilities. Green Gyms are open to people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities.
Conservation Volunteers currently run Green Gyms in the following areas:
- Belfast
- Coleraine
- L/Derry
- Downpatrick
- Irvinestown
- Mid-Ulster
- Newtownards
History
The
first Green Gym in Northern Ireland was run as a partnership between Conservation
Volunteers Northern Ireland, South & East Belfast Health & Social
Care Trust and Victoria Day Care Centre.
In 1999 the Health Trust recommended the Green Gym to its clients as a means of increasing their physical activity levels outside of their daily settings while completing purposeful tasks. One of the aims of the project was to create a Green Gym group who work together as a team, learning new skills, building on motivation and self-esteem to achieve set goals.
With a retention rate of over 90% the Victoria Green Gym team are still going strong today. Taking part every Thursday since 1999, this team has successfully completed a wide range of projects, learning new practical skills within their own garden and on Conservation Volunteers sites.
During
the first two years of this Green Gym a major challenge was to assist in
the creation of a wildlife garden adjacent to their Centre, converting
waste ground into an area useable by the Day Care Centre clients and wider
community involved many working partnerships. The area is now a maturing
garden with colourful shrub, herb and wildflower beds attracting plenty
of birds and insect life to it. The Green Gym team completed a number of
environmental based mosaics, which not only bring all year round colour
but added interest to the garden.
The Victoria Green Gym team, having received full training, now takes on the management and maintenance of the garden. Continually developing new ideas and incorporating individuals interests they have recently added a composting area and a very productive vegetable patch to their garden. Wider centre users and the local community regularly enjoy the Garden for BBQ’s and relaxing.