The Clonmel Substance Misuse Unit have been nominated for an Aontas Star Award in 2023.

This wonderful Community Education group meet every week and are supported by Tipperary Education and Training Board, Community Education Programme , along with the Community Education CEF, Veronica Crowe.  The group is open to anyone in the community who has a substance misuse related issue. Everyone is welcome. In 2021, they received funding from the Tipperary ETB through the Mitigating Against Educational Disadvantage Fund (MAEDF) and again in 2022 now called the “Reach Fund”. This funding allowed the group to buy gardening tools and polytunnels, as well as funding some horticultural hours with a tutor. This group has been motivated to learn and has gained a strong interest and in-depth knowledge in horticulture and gardening.

They have learned about polytunnel growing, crop planning, staging, and shelving, pots and pot selection and have the skills and knowledge now to grow a variety of crops and rotate crops.

The group are now working on a new project “The Colour Purple “. The group will continue  with the Social Therapeutic Horticultural Programme and expand the service to include propagation and planting of an organic allotment to facilitate fruit, vegetables and flowers. The fruit and vegetables will be used by the service users involved and any extra supply will be donated to the local Soup Kitchen in Clonmel. 

The flowers will be re planted in a “Postage stamp Garden” depicting the process of Rehabilitation through planting , this garden will be put forward for Bloom 2023 and will be named “ The Colour Purple” .

The extra flowers produced will be planted on and around the Substance Misuse Service as a sensory project to allow all service users of the Substance Misuse Service to appreciate, enjoy and become therapeutically involved through the senses, touch, smell and taste. 

Well done to everyone involved . Tipperary ETB wish the group all the best with the project and the awards in 2023.

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