See what's on

Location: Broughshane
Start time: 10:00
Open to the public: YES
Contact/venue/travel details: Houston's Mill, 10 Buckna Road, Broughshane BT42 4NJ
Expected duration: 1 hour
Category: Green up
Council: Mid and East Antrim Borough Council
Group name: Sensory Kids
Description: We want to address the need in our community for a sensory garden for our community and further afield to visit. This new project will included local primary schools, elderly adults of Mill Brae Fold, teenagers, unemployed, those who have a disability, dementia, Autism, sensory needs and mobility issues; this has been requested by our community who have on average 600 persons who fit this category. We have 150 families registered on our books and during our last survey complete in 2019, 130 of those families requested a sensory wellness garden in their area. Parent of children who use these organisations such as RNIB (Royal National Institute for the Blind, Northern Trust), Sense NI, Guide Dogs for the Blind and Adult Day Care facilities stipulated an interest in a sensory garden. We estimate it will take us 10 months to get the garden ready and will run for the forcible future with the help of volunteers from the community. To help people, schools and the community know our garden is open we will be relying on word of mouth, Schools Newsletters, and local community notice boards, shops putting up posters, facebook and newspapers. We aim to learn from making our garden by taking advice from specialists, our own committee and those on committees we will be setting up to help us understand what is needs for short term and long term needs for example: a school committee, fold committee, community committee ect. Therefore we will bring our knowledge and intergenerational understanding of a particular part of the project together by working together as a team which will help everyone learn and pass on skills for the future and shape future projects we will undertake. By providing a sensory wellness garden there will be an improvement in the physical fitness, health, mood and cognition. For those who are hyper-reactive to stimuli the sensory garden will provide a relaxing environment, and for those who tend to be under-reactive to stimuli the sensory garden is a great way to stimulate the senses. A sensory garden will create an opportunity for children to experience sights, textures, tastes and sounds they may otherwise not be exposed to, such as bird, butterfly’s, smells from flowers, rock, moist dirt, tiny seeds and large shading trees. This type of sensory stimulation is critical to healthy wellness and brain development. For families who do not suffer from a disability a sensory garden is beneficial in that it that allows them to explore and learn about their senses and nature and understand the needs of children/adults with a disability.
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