Workbridge supporting our community

Last year during the peak of the pandemic, the Woodwork department at Workbridge were able to build on and deliver many great new partnerships with local organisations in Northamptonshire.

One of our new business customers, Northampton Partnership Homes (NPH), manage the local authority council housing services in Northampton.

Northampton Partnership Homes approached Workbridge with a project proposal at the end of 2019. As part of NPH’s commitment to improve local green spaces, and support their residents to turn their gardens into havens for local wildlife, NPH set Workbridge the task of developing nature friendly wildlife kits, raised beds and garden planters to be installed for the benefit of their residents, on development projects around the town.

One of the first projects our team of service users, instructors and volunteers in our charity worked on, was wildlife friendly nature kits for NPH.

Each kit was made by hand utilising woodwork skills we teach our service users in session, then put together by the community. Not only was this a great activity to improve the confidence of our service users, there was also a social aspect to each nature kit - NPH provided the nature kits free of charge to local residents, schools and community groups to promote and raise interest in environmental issues and local wildlife.

“They’ve been a huge hit with residents, and the hedgehog houses were snapped up especially quickly!” ~ Anna Thorpe, NPH.

As well as the wildlife habitats, Workbridge also produced wooden raised beds and planters for NPH as part of a new allotment project in Northampton, and also in a scheme to welcome new residents to their homes in Toms Close. The garden planters included a hand pyro-graphed logo on each, a great technical skill to be able to teach our service users.

Anna Thorpe, Resident Involvement Officer at NPH said:

“We’re absolutely delighted with the items Workbridge made for us, and they’ve been a huge hit with our residents. Everything has been really well made, and the team are really professional and always provide excellent customer service.”

As we move into spring 2021, we are really pleased to continue to support Northampton Partnership Homes with new woodwork projects helping them reach their environmental and sustainability plans to improve green spaces across the town.

We thank Northampton Partnership Homes for having faith in our service users, and for supporting us to help adults with a range of mental health needs, realise their potential.