- Gardening & Social Care -
ELVES Community Interest company (CIC)
We are a Social Enterprise that aims to solve social issues, rather than making a profit.
We work as a consortium of social care services and are currently testing and developing innovative ways to address urgent social issues towards helping people live well at home for longer.
Garden service
We provide a safe and trusted gardening service particularly for people who are vulnerable, living alone, have a disability, are recovering from surgery or just temporarily struggling with their garden due to health issues.
Why
Dumfries & Galloway Council stopped the garden assistance service in 2020. Up to the closure of this service nearly 700 households were receiving this free service for people who were registered as disabled. Since then many gardens have become overgrown, unsightly and in some cases hazardous; adding further pressures to people.
We believe a garden should be considered a place of wellbeing and recovery at home, not a burden.
We believe gardeners who are also trained in social care are well positioned to offer a light-touch check-in on clients.
Many people are at risk of social isolation and an overgrown garden can cause further isolation and negative attention from landlords and neighbours.
We encourage people to become active gardeners; we know gardening improves mental and physical health and overall wellbeing.
We aim to build community relationships and positive neighbourhoods by matching up our gardeners with households near to where they live.
Who
We provide gardening for people wanting a safe and trusted service, either for yourself or you can arrange it for a family member.
We welcome anyone 16+ who is thinking of becoming a gardener. We offer training and mentoring to help you discover a variety of aspects of horticulture work. Through our Youth Scotland membership we are able to provide SQA qualifications.
We welcome all volunteers regardless of background, age, gender or any aspect which makes us unique. By volunteering with us we can help more people who have little or no support.
Where we operate
Our classroom and training HQ is at Dudgeon House, The Crichton, Bankend Road, Dumfries.
Our work experience continues into gardens identified through our garden assistance referral process.
We work on Dumfries town properties as well as large rural estate properties within 20 miles radius of Dumfries.
When
ELVES CIC is a new and growing organisation. We are actively building a workforce from 2025.
To express interest in having a garden service at yours or someone else's home please fill out our form on this link.
To express interest in training click here.
To express interest in volunteering click here.
