The garden bringing people together
A group of businesspeople and rangatahi (young people) from a Taranaki youth service have come together to build a community garden in New Plymouth.
Young adults from the YMCA’S Youth Development programme mucked in with volunteers from Powerco to create the garden at the service’s new home at the Rangiatea campus in Spotswood.
Youth Development was initially part of the central YMCA buildings in New Plymouth and had tried to build a garden at its previous site, but was unsuccessful.
So when it moved to Rangiatea last year and spotted an overgrown garden, Alton Gondipon, a member of the programme’s board, approached Powerco to see if it could help restore it.
The company agreed, and on Wednesday 40 volunteer staff spent the day gardening alongside young adults from the programme, which teaches life skills, education, values and work.
Programme manager Jo Austin said the day was all about integrating the values of the YMCA into the rangatahi while building something everyone could enjoy.
‘‘The reward is we get this wonderful garden to nourish and supply to our whānau and the community, but the bigger underlining is the relationship and working collaboratively, which doesn’t happen in everyday life.’’
The community garden was part of a bigger initiative to get others involved with Youth Development and other education programmes.
Austin said it was important for the rangatahi to work with the community because it ‘‘makes students feel like they do have value and that there are people in the world who support them’’.
Youth Development was based in the old polytech building near Central School for 21 years until it was given back to iwi and the not-for-profit group had to relocate.
‘‘We found this site and what we are trying to do is recreate what we had there,’’ Austin said.
Powerco’s Robyn Towning said the community garden was a chance for the volunteers to help out.
‘‘I just knew with a large group of people and pulling together a few
other favours that we could pull something off.
‘‘For me, if there can be one or two that get a bug for growing things, it’s so good for mental wellbeing, a sense of purpose, having the opportunity to nurture something and grow it, I think it’s wonderful.’’
Powerco also donated 18 refurbished laptops to help Youth Development students apply for jobs, create CVS, complete assignments and have access to the internet.