2021 Shortlist | Northern Hull Community Rainbow Gardens
Northern Hull Community Rainbow Gardens
Shortlist – Improving Impact: Charities with 0-3 paid staff
About the Charity
Northern Hull Community Rainbow Gardens is an inclusive community garden based on the North Hull Estate, offering the opportunity for people of all ages and abilities to grow salads, herbs, and vegetables and to assist in the general maintenance of the garden. Because they grow a variety of plants, without the use of pesticides, community members also create wildlife habitats, positively encouraging birds, insects and amphibians to thrive in the garden. The charity holds various additional activities for key groups, such as children and families, which include arts/crafts, gardening, and/or learning sessions focused on wildlife and the natural environment.
The organisation aims to improve the conditions of life for inhabitants of the City of Hull and surrounding areas, by providing a community hub and working in partnership with other local organisations to offer advocacy, advice and information as well as recreation and education services.
Charity number: 1113564 | rainbowgardenhull.wordpress.com
Community Development | England – Yorkshire & the Humber | 0-3 paid staff | 11-25 volunteers
What the Board Achieved
Since March 2020, social distancing and lockdown measures have increased the risk of social isolation for the charity’s beneficiaries while also forcing the community garden to close its gates for extended periods of time. The charity risked losing contact with its service users, but the board worked together to find opportunities to help the charity transform its outreach and increase its impact. The charity launched an information and resource campaign across its social media profiles to stay engaged with its regular service users, attract new audiences, and promote its fundraising efforts. Taking this a step further, it began a virtual gardening club to support local people and rebuild its community online. However, the charity realised that many regular visitors would be excluded from digital services, so the charity also used telephone and text to reach out and connect, and delivered produce to help community members engage with and benefit from the work of the charity.
Lockdowns and closed doors did not stop the Rainbow Gardens from helping the local community and regular visitors connect with nature and with one another while learning new skills and gaining confidence. The COVID-19 restrictions forced trustees to reconsider how the organisation could fulfil its charitable goals, seizing the opportunity to diversify its outreach programmes. Before the pandemic, 24 volunteers logged nearly 1650 hours. In 2020, 21 volunteers were only able to serve 699 hours. However, one volunteer said, ‘It means a lot to me to be back at the garden. I can see my friends, and I like to be back outside working and to have something to get up for and not feel isolated in my house.’ Those who could not return to the gardens throughout 2020 were still supported. The charity experienced an increase of 98% in Facebook followers in 2020 alone, where the virtual gardening club started. The charity made 287 calls or texts throughout lockdowns. One recipient reported, ‘[It made] me happy and feel like I’m not forgotten. Feels like I’m part of a family and not discarded.’ Another, ‘It cheers me up, and I look forward to the call. We always have a laugh.’ Feedback from those who received produce deliveries included comments like, ‘You get a text to say there’s rhubarb on your doorstep; it’s amazing how something like that can make your day!’
Trustees led the transformation by supporting staff. The board provided the tools required to connect with service users online and by telephone by investing in technology and infrastructure that had not previously been required at the garden centre, ensured staff received the necessary training to utilise the technology effectively, and updated policies and procedures to facilitate the efficient working conditions and practices. Trustees also provided staff with pastoral support and safeguarding advice, and ensured staff themselves did not feel isolated with their new working conditions and mental or emotional stress of supporting community members through a difficult crisis.
By the end of 2020, the board had begun to look ahead, evaluating its digital and remote service delivery solutions and planning for how the charity could harness these in the future when the Rainbow Gardens is open once more. The organisation has added a part-time staff role to help support the additional services and to enable the charity to monitor and evaluate impact better in the future. New trustees have been recruited and the board has transformed its governance procedures alongside the service delivery areas to meet the challenges of the pandemic, and any that arise in the future. Northern Hull Community Rainbow Gardens is also now registered with Reach Volunteering, a member of NCVO and other networks, and has built partnerships with the Cranfield Trust and Smile Foundation to help it develop and implement new strategies for improving impact.
What Inspired Our Judges
This tiny organisation is very clear on the impact it is striving to achieve, with a good understanding of its charitable purpose and the role that impact measurement can play in fulfilling it. The charity responded to COVID-19 with a well-thought through, iterative and intuitive approach to change. Judges were impressed by the way the organisation committed to communicating with its audiences and communities to help it understand what they needed and used the information to improve its work.
Judges also appreciated the board’s openness to utilising digital to support its face-to-face services. This is something other organisation’s can aspire to achieve, using digital to add value to or improve service delivery where possible.
