CONNECT magazine partner with GROW for 2020

Friday 27 December 2019

Guernsey CONNECT magazine is pleased to announce that it is partnering with GROW Ltd for 2020.

The Charity - an Occupational Workshop that provides people with learning disabilities with proper jobs and the ability to earn their own wage - has just launched a major expansion project, which will hopefully see it overhaul all of its facilities.

Because of their important role in the community, CONNECT asked GROW to be its charity of the year for 2020.

This means throughout the year, GROW's team will now be giving updates to where they are with their redevelopment project in each edition of CONNECT, featuring some of their key volunteers and staff members, and what progress they have made. 

GROW's plans for the future aim to:

• More than double the capacity at GROW, making available opportunities for up to 50 people. 
• Give the chance for crew members to learn transferable skills in food prep and front of house in a new cafe. 
• Expand indoor and outdoor plant sales.
• Further opportunities to learn woodwork and retail skills. 

All of those will come with a totally overhauled site, which will feature new buildings and greenhouses a like. 

Pictured: GROW has ambitious plans for its future. 

Further to all of that, it is hoped that having more space at GROW will allow them to accommodate like-minded charities as well as themselves. 

Currently, the States provide GROW with a grant to employ 17 people full time. That extends to employing around 30 people across a range of different hours. They each earn a small wage, which helps to give them independence they might struggle to otherwise gain. 

Marguerite Talmage, a Director at GROW, said they had worked out that there could be as many as 400 people with learning disabilities in Guernsey, so if they could extend their services to 50 of them, they would be able to make a real and genuine difference. 

"The objective in the long run is to look after 60 plus people," she said.

"We believe that there are enough people in the community that will take up the opportunity."

To find out more about what GROW do, click here and here, and keep an eye out of the February/March edition of CONNECT in 2020 to see their first article of the year. 

Pictured top: Marguerite Talmage and Eddie Higgins, the GROW's onsite Manager, and the latest edition of CONNECT.