To support our mission of advancing fairer, safer and more prosperous communities across the UK and Ireland, colleagues from across the Seetec Group have been encouraged to utilise their provided volunteering days to support local causes and charitable organisations close to their heart.

For colleagues based at our Head Office in Essex, South-East England, their time has been spent supporting a local horticultural project that provides training and experience to individuals with learning disabilities. Hamelin Trust’s Roots & Shoots project is designed to provide a unique environment for individuals to get outside, get back to nature and learn more about food production and the wildlife around them. Participants are also encouraged to develop other key personal skills, such as building social relationships and gaining employment skills while working towards individual action plans tailored to their needs.

Recently, colleagues from the Seetec Group awarded the Roots & Shoots project with a donation from our Community Investment Fund – a charitable initiative where colleagues can petition for donations to be awarded to a cause of their choice.

Speaking on the project and the impact of the donation, Pippa Martin, Specialist Manager for the Roots & Shoots project said:

“It’s been a really exciting time at our site in Rochford over the past few months. Since joining Hamelin Trust back in October 2022, I’ve been focused on getting stuck in and supporting our gardeners with transforming the project into somewhere that is really a super place for people’s mental health.

“We’ve also been trying to develop new ways to make some money from the things we do, which we can invest back into the project to fund more opportunities. At the moment, we’re growing every kind of vegetable and herb you can think of with the idea of selling our own produce. This of course provides more educational and training opportunities for our gardeners, teaching them essential skills they’ll need in everyday life and potentially in the workplace.

“The support provided by you guys at Seetec has been great. The workshop for starters went from this grey and boring building to a bright ray of sunshine! It’s had a big impact actually and has really helped to transform the space.

“The donation you have provided will essentially fund the development of our new wildlife pond, which is not only great for the space, but is fantastic for supporting our local wildlife. We ran a competition with our gardeners across multiple sites, and we received some fantastic entries but ultimately settled on a winning design. We’re really looking forward to starting work on it this summer and plan on placing a sign stating this pond was thanks to the donation provided by Seetec. Of course, we’d gladly welcome you back to help with building it too!”

You can find out more about Hamelin Trust and its volunteering opportunities by clicking here.

You can also follow @HamelinTrust on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.