The Garden Haven will transform community wellbeing by linking food growing, sharing, and holistic health with education, therapies, and sustainable practice in a dedicated space.
Project Description
The Garden Haven will be a purpose-built community space within the Community Roots Garden in West Kilbride – a once-derelict site reclaimed by local people four years ago and steadily developed into a thriving community asset. The Haven is a stand-alone project that will provide a base to connect our Community Garden and Village Larder with wider holistic aims of wellbeing, sustainability, and education.
This welcoming, sustainable building will build on the community’s success in transforming neglected land and place it into fuller use, directly supporting North Ayrshire’s Community Wealth Building strategy. It will create opportunities for skills, learning, and local enterprise while ensuring that wellbeing services are accessible to everyone, regardless of income.
From the Haven we will deliver workshops on sustainable growing practices, nutrition, and the use of herbs for health, alongside stress management and complementary therapies. These activities promote healthier lifestyles, reduce environmental impact, and help people adopt low-cost, sustainable choices. Sessions will be offered free or on a pay-what-you-can basis, tackling inequalities in access to wellbeing. Through partnerships with the local college’s complementary therapy courses and local holistic practitioners, the project will also support education, fair work experience, and local expertise.
Costs and Funding
Phase 1 – Core Build: £59,849. Due to commence end of October 2025. Funding secured: £50,000 (National Lottery Community Led Fund). £5000 Communities Mental Health & Wellbeing Fund Shortfall: £4849
Phase 2 – Finishing & Sustainability (decking, fencing, landscaping, solar panels, battery storage, decorating and furnishing): £18900
With support, the Garden Haven will complete the transformation of a once-neglected site into a sustainable, community-owned hub for wellbeing, learning, and environmental resilience
The Community Wealth Building award will go towards the outlined costs and we are seeking out other sources of funding for the remainder. We aim to be completed by Spring 2025
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