Floral display all set to brighten lives and raise spirits at The Junction
A splash of colour has brightened up the garden at one of our projects after staff at a city firm handed over a planter to mark Mental Health Awareness Week.
The planter, which contains a sculpted box hedge surrounded by pink flowers including verbena and busy-lizzies, has been given pride of place at Derventio’s homeless project The Junction, after it was donated by Pride Park-based Gold Crest Surveyors.
The Junction is a nine-bedroom property that offers homeless people aged 18 upwards a place to stay without having to undergo an assessment interview beforehand.
It was opened last year and gives them their own room and washing facilities, with access to communal space and a shared kitchen.
They can also use the garden, which it’s fair to say needs a gardener’s touch – making the planter a highly welcome addition to the outdoor space.
Gold Crest donated the planter as part of its own activity to mark Mental Health Awareness Week, which also saw it deliver planters to the P3 charity in Ilkeston and a family with a disabled daughter living in Long Eaton.
Sharon Perry, client communication manager at the firm, said: “We’ve heard of the great work that Derventio do in the community and know how much of a lifeline the Junction is for the people who come to live here.
I like gardening and appreciate the mental health benefits that it brings, so we all decided that these donations would be a fitting way for us to mark Mental Health Awareness Week.
People are free to water it and prune the box hedge, and we’ve used trailing flowers in the planter, so in a few weeks it will give beautiful display of colour.
Team leader Emma Muir said:
We’re so grateful to Gold Crest for their thoughtful donation, which will help to brighten up our garden and will bring a lot of pleasure as it grows throughout the summer.
Two-thirds of our residents have experienced some form of mental health problem and so this planter will offer those who enjoy flowers and nature the chance to get involved in some gardening therapy.