Thrive - the gardening for health charity

Thrive is the gardening for health charity who help to improve people's physical and mental health through gardening and horticulture.

At our  centre near Reading we offer calm, safe spaces for people to connect with nature and with others through group gardening sessions facilitated by a trained practitioner.

We currently run general sessions which are an open-ended programme for adults living with a disability or ill health or who are otherwise from isolated, disadvantaged or vulnerable.  The aim of these sessions is to improve individual health and wellbeing, increase social engagement and achieve individual goals.  The day is from 10am-3pm and people can attend one or more day according to need. Funding is required to attend and is typically funded through adult social care budgets.

 The practitioner tailors the gardening to an individual development plan and activities which focus on goals identified by the individual, their family, carer or support worker to help progress and/or recover. The groups undertake a wide variety of tasks within the garden; sowing seeds, potting on, planting out, weeding and watering.

 Benefits include:

• Having fun, making friends, feeling great
• Improving sense of purpose and achievement
• Building muscle strength and stamina
• Improving balance, mobility and coordination
• Stimulating cognitive development and memory

You would be very welcome to come and visit us and see what we do.  Visits  normally take place between 10.30am and 2pm. 

At Thrive, we also:

• Deliver training courses so people can go on to practice Social and Therapeutic Horticulture and other forms of Green Care

• Share our knowledge freely to reach as many people as possible through the ‘Get Gardening’ section of our website, our Gardening Club newsletters and our various publications
• Have a brand new app, Cultivating Wellbeing, to give extra support and motivation to create and maintain your gardening for health plan. Available to download from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store