A Hertfordshire housing association has been nominated for a Comet Community Award for its work with vulnerable people in helping them with their gardening.
North Herts Homes has been nominated in the Great and Green category by Nicola Price, commending the association for its ‘Giving Something Back’ scheme.
She said in her nomination: “We have in employment many local people who work in social housing because they really care about this communities and the people in them.
“During 2016 NHH ran an internal staff version of Dragons Den and a core small team were successful in winning the top prize with an idea that would really make a significant difference to the local communities vulnerable people.
“That idea linked in with the agreement that NHH would work towards becoming a social purpose organisation.”
The proposal was that every member of staff could take two working days out of the year to go out and support their local community of a charity organisation.
Nicola continued: “North Herts is notorious for its large gardens, great if you are physically able or have the income to pay somebody to help you, not so great if you can’t garden yourself or can not pay somebody.
“A small team devised a plan to link together the Giving Something Back staff days and these vulnerable people, and go out and do the gardens ourselves.
“A bunch of tools were purchased for the purpose, training given to the key team members on how to use them and a steady stream of gardens were assessed for meeting the criteria.
“From Spring last year until late Autumn one day a month was dedicated to staff volunteers getting out and clearing extremely overgrown gardens for our residents.
“For the staff that got out of the office, literally rolled up their sleeves, got covered in sweat, scratches and dirt and went home exhausted having cleared almost jungles, the feedback was immense. They really felt they had made a difference and as such I would like them to be recognised for this.”
This year’s awards have 12 categories and there is not limit to the number of categories individuals or groups can be nominated for. To make a nomination visit cometcommunityawards.co.uk.
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