Local green space used to tackle isolation and build skills
A Dalton charity is reporting strong community take-up of therapeutic gardening, outdoor learning and skills activities as it looks to expand support for people across Huddersfield. Growing Works, based on Wakefield Road, says its allotment site has become a growing hub for adults, families and young people seeking social contact, practical skills and better wellbeing.
The organisation has framed its work as more than simply producing vegetables: sessions are designed around social interaction, mental health benefits and practical learning. In 2025 Growing Works delivered a range of programmes that together attracted more than 2,400 attendances from 333 individual participants, the charity reports.
- Therapeutic gardening and allotment work
- Outdoor learning and bushcraft
- Crafts and mindful creative sessions
- Cooking and healthy eating activity
- Targeted youth programme for teenagers with additional needs (Young Shoots)
Programmes are run under a tiered structure and include sessions branded as Bud, Sprout and Young Shoots, alongside mindful craft classes aimed at improving mental wellbeing. The charity emphasises that while the attendance figures demonstrate the scale of activity, the individual outcomes — such as increased confidence and social connection — are the central measure of success.
| Programme | Sessions in 2025 |
|---|---|
| Bud | 127 |
| Sprout | 60 |
| Young Shoots | 27 |
| Mindful craft sessions | 4 |
"Nature has an incredible ability to bring people together. At Growing Works, we want to create spaces where people feel safe, valued and able to be themselves – while discovering that they are capable of far more than they may have imagined,"
The charity’s chief executive, Kat Woolley, highlighted the role of the allotment site in giving people a safe place to meet and build confidence. She said activities are tailored to allow participants to learn practical skills — from growing food to basic outdoor crafts — alongside opportunities for social contact.
Support for young people with additional needs
A core strand of the work is the Young Shoots programme, which offers outdoor learning for teenagers with additional and other support needs. The charity says the hands-on approach removes young people from a conventional classroom environment and gives them time to acquire practical abilities while working collaboratively in nature.
Growing Works told WE NEWS that the programme model is intended to help young people discover new strengths and to provide a different type of learning environment that can be more accessible for some. The charity’s 27 Young Shoots sessions in 2025 formed part of the wider offer that attracted 333 individual participants over the year.
The organisation believes that the benefits extend beyond individual skills: for many attendees the allotment provides a reason to leave home, a chance to meet others and to feel part of a community. That social element is central to the charity’s case for supporting people at risk of isolation or struggling with wellbeing.
As Huddersfield faces the same social pressures seen across many towns — rising loneliness, mental health needs and limited local services — community-based initiatives such as Growing Works are being positioned as practical, low-cost interventions that can complement statutory services. The charity’s figures offer a snapshot of demand: hundreds of attendances and a growing cohort of regular participants who use the site.
Officials and funders routinely look for measurable outcomes when supporting local charities. Growing Works’ attendance data and the breakdown of session types provide a clear ledger of activity that could be used to argue for further backing or partnership with schools and health services in Huddersfield.
For people interested in accessing or supporting the allotment programmes, the charity operates from Wakefield Road in Dalton and has published details of its session types and intended participants as part of its 2025 summary of activity.
