The Sheltered Work Opportunities Project (SWOP) has celebrated a rebrand and new programme.

SWOP has rebranded to ‘Plants and Minds’ as of July 1.

SWOP is known for its two plant nurseries in Dorset, Cherry Tree Nursery in Northbourne, and Chestnut Nursery in Poole set up in 1990.

Funded by NHS Dorset and Community Action Network (CAN) through the Dorset Community Foundation (DCF), the access wellbeing programme saw the NHS, local authorities, and voluntary and community sectors work together to deliver support for people to identify and work towards their own life goals.

Maria Tidy, Community Liaison Officer at Plants and Minds said: “We provide therapeutic horticulture activities to our volunteers, and although ‘The Sheltered Work Opportunities Project’ explained that to some extent it was more often used as its acronym, SWOP, which didn’t explain what we do by itself.

“And of course, for the majority of the public, we’re their local, home-grown, affordable, and good quality plant nursery; they might not know about how the nursery is actually run, or what its purpose is.

“We felt we needed a rebrand that explained more clearly what we do here and also included the nursery side of the organisation too.

“We’ll be using our two nurseries to provide a venue for horticulture therapy via social prescribing with the aim to improve people’s wellbeing and mental health.

“It’s proven that early intervention services and activities that support people in community-based settings improve their wellbeing and mental health, we see this every day with our current volunteers.

“This is about supporting people that need it, helping them live well for longer, and also reducing the need for NHS appointments and clinical intervention.”

Lucy Cribb at Health Watch Dorset commented: “The ‘See How We Grow’ day was very enlightening; to hear how the ‘Plants and Minds’ project conducts, and to get our hands dirty too! This is a very enriching and rewarding charity, by improving mental health through association with nature and nurturing plants to grow.”

Maria adds, “Following on from the success of ‘See How We Grow’ we intend to start a monthly ‘Let’s All Grow Together’ networking group for like-minded organisations later this year.”

For more information, contact maria@plantsandminds.org.uk.