If you have time and skills to offer to Growing Well on a voluntary basis we would love to hear from you.
As we expand into new locations in Cumbria we need the support of all parts of the community to support as many people with mental health challenges, to make the project highly valued and supported by each community, so we can be sustainable for the future.
Our Volunteers
The participants in our mental health support service are called our Volunteers. Nobody likes the words ‘service users’, ‘patients’ or ‘clients’. In some contexts, such as funding applications and communications with other charities and referrers, we also call our Volunteers our ‘beneficiaries’.
For more information about joining our mental health service, please see our Get Help pages. To learn more about how you can volunteer to help our charity and its beneficiaries in the traditional sense of the word “Volunteer”, please read on!
Support Volunteers
If you don’t have a mental health challenge but would like to help Growing Well, support our staff team and our beneficiaries, and learn about horticulture, we sometimes have Support Volunteer roles available.
Our Support Volunteers come one day a week to join our Therapeutic Growers and Volunteers in the day’s activities. Support Volunteers either support individuals, or the group as a whole, to carry out tasks and activities. All have Mental Health First Aid training and safeguarding training.
To enquire about becoming a Support Volunteer please email:
kendal@growingwell.co.uk for our Low Sizergh Farm site near Kendal
tebay@growingwell.co.uk for our Tebay Services site
egremont@growingwell.co.uk for our West Cumbria site
Community Volunteers
If you’d like to get involved with Growing Well, learn all about horticulture from our professional team, meet new people, and enjoy a healthy, active day working outside in a beautiful setting, then we offer Community Volunteering days on the farm at Low Sizergh, in our kitchen garden at Tebay Services and our West Cumbria site at Beck Green Nurseries, Egremont.
These are currently on Fridays at each site.
Volunteering outdoors is widely recognised as being great for wellbeing, and a preventative measure against the development of mental health problems. If you have a developing mental health problem you are trying to address by volunteering with us, do please discuss with our team whether our core Volunteer programme or Community Volunteering is more appropriate for your individual needs.
To enquire about Community Volunteering and join our mailing list please email:
kendal@growingwell.co.uk for our Low Sizergh Farm site near Kendal
tebay@growingwell.co.uk for our Tebay Services site
egremont@growingwell.co.uk for our West Cumbria site in Egremont
Fundraising and event volunteers
As we expand to new communities it also means we have to find more money to fund our service! We receive no NHS funding for our core service. Income from our produce covers about 20% of each sites running costs – the rest we have to find from grants, donations, businesses and community fundraising.
We will be doing more and more community fundraising and events at and around each site in the coming years and we’ll need an army of Fundraising and Event Volunteers to support us.
This could be taking part in fundraising and public engagement at events and shows where we might have a stand or gazebo, helping us raise money and spread the word about our work to the 4 million customers every year at Tebay Services.
Or you could be a town or village ambassador for Growing Well – making sure doctors’ surgeries, village noticeboards and other facilities have posters, leaflets and other materials that promote our service and our work.
To enquire about being a Fundraising and Event Volunteer for Growing Well and join our mailing list please email:
kendal@growingwell.co.uk for our Low Sizergh Farm site near Kendal
tebay@growingwell.co.uk for our Tebay Services site
egremont@growingwell.co.uk for our West Cumbria site
Specialist skills to offer? Let us know!
In the past years local supporters have donated their time and skills to help us with maintenance and construction work, financial management and much more.
If you have practical or professional skills you think might be of help to Growing Well, no matter how much or little you can commit, please get in touch – you never know what we could be needing a hand with at any one time!
To offer your specialist skills about please email:
kendal@growingwell.co.uk for our Low Sizergh Farm site near Kendal
tebay@growingwell.co.uk for our Tebay Services site
egremont@growingwell.co.uk for our West Cumbria site