From car park to paradise: Hulme Community Garden Centre
Hulme Community Garden Centre is a charity owned by its community, employing nine local people and with a turnover of £300k per annum. When it wanted to grow its indoor space and social impact, the Community Shares Booster Programme was able to help.
Hulme Community Garden Centre (HCGC) opened its doors back in 2000, converting an area of scrubland, and later a car park, into a public green space to encourage healthy living through gardening and sustainable food growing.
It’s a place that brings the local community together by offering low-cost, ethically sourced plants. It also offers extensive volunteer and education programmes through gardening.
“The centre offers a place to relax, learn new skills, build confidence and enjoy urban green space with an opportunity to forge lasting friendships,” said Manager Gianetta Grainger.
The centre issued a share offer in 2019 to further develop the organisation – to make it financially more stable and better able to deliver its social impact. The aim was to:
- Increase the amount of indoor space, to bring people together all year round – including a warm hub for volunteers, functional office space, new toilets and an improved cafe.
- Make the site more accessible for everyone to enjoy the garden.
- Secure sustainability and increase turnover by creating a bigger shop and boosting plant sales.
The Community Shares Booster Programme supported this with a £8,200 development grant and £100,000 in matched funding. The share offer successfully raised £204,850 from 221 investors in 42 days.
About community shares
More Than a Shop episode 4: Changing the conversation about mental health
Growing the community: Sutton Community Farm
Apply to the Booster Fund