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Listen to thisThe allotment that helps abused and neglected children thrive
A team of unemployed teenagers has transformed an abandoned allotment into an oasis with chickens, courgettes and hedgehogs for children and young adults in care.
“When I first told people about the project they said, ‘Great, we’ll be burgled every week then!’,” says Kelly Henderson. Expectations were pretty low when she and a group of six unemployed teenagers moved in to work on an abandoned allotment in Hartlepool.
The teenagers, part of the Team programme run by The Prince’s Trust to empower and engage unemployed 16 to 25-year-olds, had been given a choice of community projects to work on. The one they chose – Henderson’s project – involved turning a patch of rubbish-covered ground into a garden that would be, uniquely, looked after and used by foster families.
“They decided on this idea and I think it’s because there were two people in the group who were being looked after, and this would mean more to them than any other project,” says Henderson. “The girl was in supported accommodation and she was living quite a solitary life. She said she wishes there would have been something like this when she was in foster care.”
The allotment had been neglected and abused for two years by then. Skips were sent in to clear asbestos, animal carcasses, broken glass and six fish heads. The team raised £4,000 and spent three weeks transforming the allotment. “It was raining heavily at the time, and they were flogging their guts out, getting soaking wet, sitting eating their packed lunches in the rain, and they weren’t getting anything from it except the satisfaction of finishing the project. So I think it changed many people’s opinions on young people. They would never have done what they did, if they were anything like what people portrayed them to be.”
The garden doesn’t officially open until next spring, but so far there are seven chickens running around and in the raised beds there are already plenty of vegetables to harvest, including a mammoth courgette. They are planning for a picnic table at the back, next to the climbing tree, with pots of herbs and flowers all around. Eventually an insect hotel will be installed and hedgehogs will be welcomed to come and nest in the garden. The Portakabin needs more work before it can act as an informal classroom, but the idea is there for somewhere to talk, learn about gardening and dodge the rain. And Henderson, a long-time youth worker now turned foster parent herself, says that she has already seen some positive outcomes from the garden.
“I have a parent and child in care who come along, and the mum is involved. It’s a little bit of an escape for her, time out from being a mother. We all need time out, and she’s only young! She comes up and helps out whenever she can. She thinks it’s brilliant. She said: ‘Eeeyh, what’s that?’ She didn’t know what a courgette was! And we go home and cook it and it’s teaching her how to cook vegetables and she’s enjoying them. As a young 16-year-old, being able to cook fresh vegetables for your son, rather than buying a tin of something in the shop, is a big deal. It’s teaching her really good life skills.”
The reality for young people in this corner of northern England is bleak. Hartlepool is UK joint bottom with Wolverhampton for youth employment with a rate (excluding full-time students) of 28.1%. Stranton Ward, where the allotment is located, is in the top 1% of the most deprived areas in England.
And those in the care system face even larger impediments; 23% of the UK’s adult prison population and a quarter of those living on the street have a care background. Almost one-third of children in care leave school with no GCSEs or vocational qualifications. A quarter of young women leaving care are pregnant or already mothers, and nearly half become mothers by the age of 24. As Oliver Wilkinson of the Who Cares Trust says: “Children in care are some of the most vulnerable young people in the country – the majority come into care because they’ve been abused and neglected. Understandably, many struggle with education because of the trauma they’ve experienced before coming into care. The care system should provide love, security and stability for all children, but too often they tell us of a system that doesn’t support or listen to them properly.”
Henderson had always wanted to foster. “When I was 14, my best friend was fostered and she was a cantankerous sod,” she laughs. “She was a nightmare! But I felt sorry for her. When I saw her foster carers – and she had a lot of them – I saw what they put up with and I thought that there must be a reason why they do that.”
“When I wasn’t a foster carer, I anticipated it would be difficult; but not as difficult as it is. I think a lot of people think it’s just another mouth to feed or another kid to clothe, but it’s really hard. You’re constantly dealing with the challenges of contact arrangements with the family, being there for them when something goes wrong with the families and picking them back up, taking the brunt of the frustration because you’re the one who gets the blame, because you’re the one who is there!”
When she tried to explain to her then six-year-old son that she wanted to foster and what it was, they both ended up crying. “I just said to him: ‘Well, not everyone is fortunate like you, son. Some kids don’t have mums and dads, because they might have died or they aren’t as nice as your mom and dad.’ He started crying and my initial thought was that he doesn’t want us to foster. I said ‘What’s up, son?’ and he replied: ‘I’m sad.’ ‘Why are you sad?’ ‘So does that mean that their mummies and daddies won’t read them bedtime stories?’ And actually that really upset me because you don’t realise how much a child gets from having a story read to them in bed every night. Such a simple thing like that. It’s just something that you do naturally as a parent, isn’t it? And it made me realise that something I thought was insignificant, was actually a big deal.”
The garden, which has been nicknamed A Lot O’ Love, she believes, will be a crucial place for foster children and parents to meet and talk about their experiences. “There is one individual who comes who is quite a troubled young man, and I know for a fact that when his foster carer brings him along it’s making a difference for them as well as him. If he wasn’t coming here, he’d likely to be at home causing havoc. He’s learning by coming here that actions have consequences. If he’s playing up they say that he can’t go to the allotment. They’re using it as a carrot rather than saying ‘you’re grounded’.”
As far as Henderson is aware there’s nothing else quite like this out there. Agencies provide chances for holidays for foster families but she has not heard of a place where they can meet regularly and spend time together. “Foster kids are not different from any other kids but I’m sure they have lots of things they would like to discuss that other foster kids would understand better than anyone else. One of the aims is that the kids will be able to come and talk about being fostered, and they’ll have my experience and other foster carers around to talk if they need to.”
It’s not only meant to be a respite for the children, it’s also for the foster carers. “It’s quite a stressful job. And it is a job. A 24/7 job,” Henderson says. “I like to come. It’s nice even though it’s freezing because it’s like you’re being away from the world. It’s really relaxing.”
As Wilkinson says: “Above all, children in care should be able to wish, dream and plan with purpose, supported by teachers, foster carers and social workers who help them to aim high. Being believed in costs nothing and can’t be legislated for. It’s often the single thing that makes all the difference.”
Maria Evrenos
19 September 2014
