I had a brilliant meeting today, Was really Interesting and helpful. But have sort of temporarily taken me on a different route.
It was agreed My main aim of my own centre is a great idea, BUT!!! It is going to take a long time to find premises etc, So it has been suggested that i concentrate on working in and with Local schools in Chatham, Rochester and Gillingham area.
One school has been suggested to have my base at, It is a special needs school that have started something similar and seem they would jump at having me on board, bringing other schools to them to use their premises... They already have their own woods attached to the school.. One of the ladies i had the meeting with is going to contact them.
Also they asked if i would like an allotment to use with the children, as if they cant get people to use them they are going to sell them off.. So i suggested maybe the council could donate an Allotment to each local school and what ever is grown can maybe be sold to the community or something..as well as maybe simple cooking lessons in the schools. So that is now part of the plan..
Another suggestion was me taken on small groups or one to one sessions with children who have difficulty mixing and socialising with others, hopefully eventually being able to intrigate them into small groups of other children.
We also thought of involving OAP's who are often lonely to help out, as many love to potter in a garden, this also forfills the need of bridging the gap between generations.
Then to top it all i had another brain wave!!!... Wildlife Birthday Partys, which was greeted as a great idea
So lots for me to get to work on.
Downside to all this I have Now got to write 2 proper Business Plans as these will be needed for me and my ideas to be taken seriously and to forward to schools and various organisations.
Will keep you all posted