Community Day 2009

8th April 2009

The Research Partnership recently held its annual community day, where staff offer their services to help a local charity or community. This year volunteers travelled to Saint Mary Abbots Rehabilitation and Training (SMART) centre, a local charity affiliated with the Hammersmith and Fulham hospital that helps people with mental health problems to learn life skills.
 
The SMART centre was in desperate need of a sprucing up, both the interior and exterior building.  Our volunteers had a big task ahead of them for the day, but they successfully managed to make a positive difference, by:

•  Re-painting the cafe & garden tables
• Clearing flowerbeds & adding fresh compost
• Replacing flowerbeds with vegetable/herb patches
• Building a trellis
• Framing SMART artwork for display
• Planting vegetables and herbs in the greenhouse
• Preparing hanging baskets for the front exterior

All of this wouldn't have been possible without the help of a few of our hands-on executives, Marie, Nicky, Rachel, Lucy, Marietta, Sam, Laura, Angela and Jenny who all gave up their time to help out for the day.
 
SMART were very grateful for the work that we did, as is evident from the thanks we received afterwards:
 
“Thank you so much for all your help with SMART - your team were great and we loved having them here. The place looks fantastic and all the members are keen to help out in our lovely garden. It has made such a difference! We're working on a new garden project where we can teach members some practical skills and give them some paid employment in our gardens. Eventually we hope to unleash a full gardening service on our neighbours!”

About the charity

SMART runs bridge-building projects and training sessions to encourage people to participate in community activities and get back into mainstream employment, whilst giving members a sense of purpose and self-confidence.
 
If you’d like to learn more about SMART then please visit smartlondon.org.uk