Northdale Today

Northdale Horticulture has the benefit of a purpose built facility with a well stocked plant centre, disabled toileting with hoist and changing facilities, rest areas, woodwork room, work shops and meeting room. Northdale’s buildings, grounds and services are open to the community all year round and have been designed to be as physically accessible as possible.

Northdale @ Work

Northdale provides realistic work opportunities for people who wish to work but who might find it difficult to cope with the pressures and expectations inherent in conventional open employment. Northdale’s sheltered environment enables people to gain confidence and skills at their own pace and with a level of support appropriate to the individual.

Northdale provides four major areas of work activity, woodwork, garden landscaping, nursery work and from 2006 arts and crafts. (In 2006 Northdale Horticulture accommodated Ashtree Arts, an emerging social enterprise, as a new arts activity, See Ashtree Arts@ Northdale)

Each Northdale department has a dedicated instructor working with between three and seven service users. The service users are able to choose between work activities dependent on space being available in the particular department they wish to join. Please see individual headings for a more detailed description of the work carried out in each Northdale department.

Northdale @ Play

Northdale Horticulture provides a range of social and creative opportunities which are in many ways equally important as the charities work activities. Much like any work place Northdale provides regular contact with a peer group and fellow work mates, to provide as many opportunities to socialise as possible. Staff and service users go on an annual holiday and everybody attending the service goes on at least one day trip a year.

The gardens, grounds and nature trail at Northdale are regularly used by local schools and the grounds are often used to host outdoor events. Northdale Horticulture has also sponsored a number of artists to work with adults attending the service to create sculptures, art work and photography, all of which can be seen in and around the buildings and out in the grounds.

Funding

The work undertaken in each of the Northdale departments and the resulting income, contributes to a little over 52% of the charities total income, with the remainder generated from contract fees paid by North Yorkshire County Council. As a rule Northdale Horticulture funds its core activities from long term sustainable sources of income and avoids using funding from Trusts, the National lottery etc to fund its core activities. Funding applications are reserved for the purchase of one off capital items or the development of projects that fall outside the charities core work activities.