Therapeutic Horticulture

In our vegetable garden, young people can spend time planting and nurturing. It’s a place they can get physically active, a place they can bring their worries and a place where they can start planning for their future.

About our project

Nurturing and tending to an allotment is an extremely social and therapeutic process.

At YMCA Exeter, our city-centre allotment provides young people with the mental space to reflect and learn about themselves, build a peer-based supportive and positive community, and greatly improve their physical health, general wellbeing and mental health. In particular, we find that young people are much more likely to open up about themselves when working alongside their mentor and peers than a very formal desk-based mentoring session.

Over this past year, our young people have been busy tending to and developing our community garden, and have learnt a lot about the role nature plays in their wellbeing.

Our impact

Our therapeutic horticulture project is helping to:

address inequalities,
improve health and wellbeing,
get people active,
encourage volunteering,
improve where we live.

Take resident Max for example. He’s been involved with building our new garden cabin through funding received from our local Rotary Club and The Finnis Scott Foundation. Max says:

“It’s been great working with Sam in the garden. I’m trying to get back into work and helping in the garden is teaching me new skills. Being outside in nature is also good for the mood and good for health.”

Get involved

To get involved in our horticulture project get in touch via our Contact page.

You can also use the links below to find out more about some of the fantastic local organisations already involved in our project: