What is the

project?

In 2015, Innovate Trust received funding from the Big Lottery’s People and Places fund to set up the Green Days project. The aim of the project was to provide op- portunities for people with learning disabili- ties and mental health problems to take part in environmental conservation activi- ties across , the Vale and Rhondda Cynon Taff. Why environmental

conservation?

There are so many benefits to working out- doors and helping to improve the local envi-

ronment.

Our hope was that our participants would get to know and become involved in their local areas, improve their health and well- being, meet new people, learn about na- ture and gain new skills all while making a positive difference to the environment.

Our participants Our participants are at the heart of the Green Days project. We successfully engaged with 372 adults with learning disabilities and/or mental health conditions over 3 years.

80 participants engaged in year 1

155 participants engaged in year 2

137 participants engaged in year 3 Participant stories Alex

Alex first joined the Green Days project in Alex has definitely achieved what he set out March 2017 when he attended our Wood- to. He has learnt new skills such as how to peckers group’s open day at Cosmeston use tools properly, how to identify plants Lakes. He came supported as he was and has been working on improving his extremely anxious about attending alone. timekeeping. When we asked Alex how he felt on his first We’ve also seen him come out of his shell— day he said “I felt a bit nervous and I didn’t from someone who barely said a word on really know what to expect”. his first session to the person who starts We were doing some cutting back that day debates about politics while we work. When and Alex didn’t stay the full session as he asked what he enjoys about attending The was so unused to the physical nature of the Woodpeckers he told us that “it helps me work that he was totally exhausted after an get out of my shell a bit and I feel more hour. He was also extremely nervous and relaxed”. didn’t speak to anyone on his first day. What’s next for Alex? “I’d like to have the However he wasn’t deterred and decided to confidence to get a job. [Green Days] has join the Woodpeckers full time—”I decided given me the confidence to go up and com- to join because I wanted to improve my self- municate to new people”. confidence and self-esteem and get me out- side more to learn new skills”. Participant stories Kellie

Kellie started with Green Days through Kellie overcame a real fear of slipping in Treforest Learning Curve. When she first thick mud in one section, but carried on came to one of our activities she lacked self with the support from the rest of the group. -confidence and made it quite clear to staff She finished the walk successfully and was that she definitely wouldn’t be able to do elated at conquering her fears. any of the things we might ask her to do. To Staff at her day centre have commented her intense surprise and pleasure she quick- how they rarely used to see her smile but ly proved herself wrong! that since starting with Green Days her Since then she’s joined Green Days for a demeanour has become so much more variety of activities, learning new skills positive. Kellie herself marvels at what she’s along the way and improving her self- achieved. She told us that “normally it’s confidence enormously. She learned to use only the boys that do this [kind of work], a saw to coppice ash trees, has cleared and now I get to do it”. She also told us how overgrown pond edges with loppers and she always tells her partner what she’s planted trees to create an orchard in holes done and that he’s always surprised – she she dug herself. She joined our monthly clearly takes huge pleasure in showing conservation group at Country people how she can learn new things, take Park and has also come along to some of on new challenges, and confound her own our one-off activities including a walk where and others’ expectations. we were learning sign language as we went. Participant achievements As part of the Green Days project we gave our participants the op- portunity to complete different training and achieve qualifications of varying levels. Here are a few examples of the qualifications achieved. Qualifications achieved with Green Days

37 participants learnt invaluable first aid skills by taking part in the British Heart Foundation’s Heartstart training.

20 participants gained their Entry Level 3 diploma in Workplace Hazard Awareness through the British Safety Council.

21 participants completed Agored Cymru Entry Level 1 qualifications—14 did Working as a Team and 7 did Conduct at Work. We’re immensely proud of our participants, everything that they’ve achieved with us and have progressed onto since leav- ing us. As part of the project we kept a record of our participants’ per- sonal progressions with us and what they moved onto once they left the project. Here are a few of our favourites...

Secured a full-time job working at the sorting office over the Christmas period.

Learnt to travel independently by attending our activities.

Attended something alone and unsupported for the first time in her life.

Secured a work placement with the Cardiff Parks and Countryside team.

Started a boxing class to improve his physical confidence.

Started volunteering for the Cardiff rangers independently.

Lost 3.5 stone, partly thanks to attending our sessions.

Completed his Duke of Edinburgh silver award.

Learnt to catch the bus to Cosmeston Lakes independently.

Left Green Days to start college full-time.

Started a work placement in a café.

Our volunteers

Our volunteers come from all walks of life and help us to support the Green Days participants to get the most out of the project.

40 volunteers engaged in year 1

40 volunteers engaged in year 2

70 volunteers engaged in year 3

Our volunteers and participants combined contribut- ed a massive 13,869 conservation volunteering hours to the Green Days project between July 2015 and June 2018. Volunteer stories Meirion

Meirion joined Green Days as a volunteer or a nice house. It’s pure and simple, be- on our Falcons conservation group in May cause you’re there, and that makes all the 2017. Meirion’s role was to help Green Days difference”. staff to manage the group as a whole but With the Green Days project coming to an also to work one to one with the partici- end, we asked Meirion whether his experi- pants who needed a little extra support with ence with us had helped him to move onto certain tasks or help to maintain their focus new things. “It’s helped me because of while working. where I come from being in addiction my- When asked what he hoped to get out of self and now with Green Days, the whole volunteering with us when he joined, Meiri- acceptance thing, for me personally, it’s on explained “There’s so much I get out of moved me as a person vastly. I can’t de- it. For me it’s more acceptance and more scribe really the difference it’s made to me understanding of the needs of people who personally and the way I treat everyone else are disabled. I don’t mean big, huge things as well. It’s given me a whole new outlook going on in their lives but the simple things, on life and how good it is. […] It’s opened the easy things that I take for granted”. my eyes really to this area of volunteering. Meirion has also made friendships on the […] It’s just a wonderful way of spending Falcons group which he particularly values time. You’ll get more out of it than you put as he describes them as “not a friendship in. No matter how hard you try, you’ll still based on material things […] they see you as come out of it with more. And that’s the you are. Not because you’ve got a nice car truth!”. Where have we worked? Throughout the lifespan of the project we have carried out conservation work in numerous amazing and varied sites across Car- diff, the and RCT. Cardiff National Museum Cardiff Canton litter picking wildflower meadow Llanover Hall garden Forest Farm St Fagans National Museum Fairwater litter picking Heath Park of History Parc Coed Y Nant Howardian Nature Reserve Chapelwood in Llanedeyrn Parc Tredelech Cefn Onn Park Plymouth Great Wood Trelai Park Coed Y Felin woods Worcester Court care home Diana Gardens Bute Park Ferry Road Nature Reserve Empire Way Pontcanna Fields Grangetown Bowls Pavillion Llandough hospital #750 Newport Road The Taff Trail Lawrenny Avenue litter pick Hendre Lake Nant Fawr Green Starts allotment on Grangemoor Park Llandaff Fields Colchester Avenue Hailey Park Canton Community Garden St Mellons litter picking The Ely Trail Cathays litter picking Chapter Community Garden The Vale of 3 Saints walk Dunraven Bay Glamorgan Porthkerry beach Dinas Powys (litter pick) Barry Community Garden Dow Corning and allotment woods Cosmeston Lakes Sully Beach

RCT Aberdare Barry Sidings The Gadlys day centre Cefn Yr Hendy Dare Valley Park Nant Y Brynau Ty Rhiw Project achievements Over the past 3 years the Green Days project has been lucky enough to be involved in some amazing one-off events that have changed the local environment for the better. Here are just a few examples. Creation of Cardiff’s first permanent World War I memorial at Hendre Lake

Friday 7th July 2016 marked the 100th anniversary of the start of the Battle for Mametz Wood where the 38th Welsh Division suffered heavy losses while driving German forces out. The Falcons and Kingfisher groups both contributed to a permanent war memorial at Hendre Lake for the two thousand Welsh soldiers who lost their lives in World War One. In the lead up to the 100th anniversary, both groups planted trees representing the fallen soldiers, and were joined by The Rt. Hon. Lord Mayor of Cardiff, Cllr Monica Walsh, Cabi- net Member for Environment, Cllr Bob Derbyshire and Cllr Ralph Cook to plant hundreds of poppies to surround the memorial. Helping to save Cardiff’s White-Letter Hairstreak butterfly populations

In February 2017, The Green Days Falcons group was involved in a citywide initiative led by Bug Life and the Council’s Community Ranger team to increase the population of White-Letter Hairstreak butterflies in Cardiff. The group planted 6 Dutch elm disease resistant elm trees in Bute Park near Blackweir Bridge. White-letter Hairstreak butterflies rely on elm trees to lay their eggs and as a food source for their caterpillars so planting these trees will help to increase their numbers.

Give and Gain week 2017

Give & Gain Day is the annual celebration of power and potential of employee volunteering and the positive impact it can have in communities, schools and workplaces across . Green Days first took part in Give and Gain week in 2016 when we had a work session with some volunteers from Motonovo Finance who helped our Kingfishers group to repair and restore footpaths in Cefn Onn park. For Give and Gain 2017 we decided expanded to three separate days at Forest Farm, with the main task being to take apart a stone bank and move twenty tons or so of soil and stone across the road to build walls around a newly reinstated pond. Over the course of the week 86 people came out to work with us, including employees of The Welsh Government, Motonovo Finance, Lloyds Bank and ACT Training as well as Green Days participants, Innovate tenants and individuals from the Gadlys and Treforest day centres. We achieved so much—not only did we move all the soil and stone which created the new wall around the pond, we also hay raked, dug up invasive Spanish bluebells, cleared overgrown nettles and weeded the cottage garden. It was great to see all these very different individuals come together and work as a team to achieve so much over the course of a week.

The Our Orchard project at Llandough Hospital

Our Orchard is a project at Llandough Hospital which plans to develop a 7 acre site in the hospital grounds into a community orchard. This space will allow patients to be taken out of the traditional clinical environment to enjoy fresh air and natural light which can assist with recovery. We spent 2 sessions working in the orchard with groups of Green Days par- ticipants and individuals from Treforest Day Centre in February and March 2018. On the first session we planted hundreds of whips to create a border that will protect the orchard and shelter the trees. During the second session we got to work on the orchard itself and planted 32 apple trees. We planted a few different old Welsh varieties, including some Arthur Turners which are particularly good for pollinators. It’s a really positive project to have been involved in and we hope that it will make a differ- ence to the well-being of both patients and staff based at Llandough Hospital once it’s completed. Our partners Partnership work with community groups, businesses and other charities has been indispensable in the achievement of our aims. We really value the work and educational opportunities that our partners have provided for our groups over the years. The Cardiff Community ranger team Our partnership with the Cardiff Community rangers has been invaluable. They have consistently provided us with meaningful conservation opportunities and access to all the sites that they manage. Our participants have benefitted so much from working with them—from learning to use tools and gaining practical hands on conservation experience to discovering hidden nature reserves and tak- ing part in important biodiversity surveys.

The most successful thing about this partnership is how much it benefits both parties as so many of Cardiff’s parks and nature reserves have benefitted from Green Days’ work. To quote Alec Stewart from the Community ranger team: “All volunteers are essential to what we are doing and it’s one of the things that we are about, particularly Green Days who were one of the first organised groups that we got to work with. Over the years it’s been invaluable basically, without them a lot of our work we couldn’t do. We can rely on them to come on certain days, they always bring enough people, they’re always enthusiastic, they take on board everything we say, they always get on with the work, and the amount of work they’ve done is incredible really”. The Vale of Glamorgan Council Thanks to the Vale community ranger team we were able to spread our reach to the Vale of Glamorgan. They invited us to volunteer at Cosmeston Lakes once a week where we established our Woodpeck- ers group, as well as planning regular sessions at Porthkerry Park and Southerndown. Thanks to them our groups were also able to work in the beautiful walled gardens at Dunraven Bay and the Medieval vil- lage at Cosmeston, both of which were popular sites!

Treforest Learning Curve Green Days first worked with Treforest Day Centre during Give and Gain week 2017. Since that day we’ve worked together once or twice a month and achieved so much. From clear- ing the Scout Field of invasive Himalayan Balsam and coppicing ash at Forest Farm to help- ing us get our new site at Porthkerry off the ground. We’ve really appreciated their enthu- siasm and willingness to get stuck in—whatever task we set them! Sarah Davies from Treforest feedback that “individuals are taking pride in their work, […] the group [have] gained in confidence and are now working well as a team as well as indi- vidually”.

Our partners

Thank you to all our partners—everyone who we have worked with and who have provided opportunities for Green Days participants over the past 3 years.

Maes Newydd Day Centre Ysgol Y Deri Gadlys Day Centre Woodlands High Brynna Jones Day Centre Grow Wild Llwynypia Day Centre Friends of Howardian Cefn Carnau Friends of Grange Garden Pavillion Llanover Hall Friends of Cwm Talwg New Link SVC Green Links Canton Community Gardens Sustrans St Fagans National Museum of RCT Parks and Countryside team History RCT rights of Way team Valeways Worcester Court Sheltered Housing Keep Wales Tidy Wild Spirit Bushcraft Bute Park Education Centre Opal Open Air Laboratories National Museum Cardiff A special thank you to our funders

And finally we’d like to thank our funders without whom none of this would have been possible - The Big Lottery’s People and Places fund and the WCVA’s Volunteering in Wales fund and Volunteering Wales Grant.