Fignum Volunteers at Prospects Trust: Cultivating Community and Inclusion
In April, the Fignum team embraced the opportunity to volunteer at Snakehall Farm, the heart of the Prospects Trust, a remarkable charity in Cambridgeshire dedicated to empowering individuals with additional needs, learning disabilities, or autism (known as their Co-workers).
Over two volunteer days, the team helped plant onion sets and carried out maintenance work in the farm’s nature reserve, supporting the start of the growing season and the upkeep of the wider farm environment. Working alongside the Co-workers, we experienced first hand the inclusive and supportive environment that the Prospects Trust fosters. It was a fantastic opportunity to step outside the office, work together as a team, and give back to a brilliant local organisation making a real difference.
We were warmly welcomed by the charity’s staff and Co-workers, and it was inspiring to see the impact Prospects Trust has in offering meaningful work-based training and activities.
As Executive Director, Maz Baker shared:
The Prospects Trust is a little charity in the corner of Cambridgeshire, but we love to open up our farm gates to our supporters and new partners. Welcoming Fignum to the farm over two days at the start of our growing season was a highlight and a great kickstart to our agricultural year. Our organisation supports people with additional needs (our co-workers) to gain meaningful work-based learning, training and activities. At our Snakehall Farm, we specialise in horticultural therapy, but really need to grow the best organic produce too, vital for our social enterprise income. We often set a different pace, nurturing people and produce takes time, but the harvest waits for nobody. Hosting a work party means we have many willing hands to focus on a task, get it done well with acres of effort and wheelbarrows of fun. The team from Fignum were eager, enthusiastic and supportive of our charity aims as well as being kind and engaging with our Co-workers.
Charity Days, when businesses give back locally and sustainably, are vital for charities like The Prospects Trust. Many hands get the hard work done in a fun and different way, but more vitally, it helps us showcase the abilities of our Co-workers. Our Co-workers love to share their talents and their farm with new faces. Charities need support to grow, develop and be sustainable, it can be so much more than a donation in a charity pot. It can be an impactful charity giving day where you bring your team and we turn them into DIY SOS horticultural heroes. They get to enjoy our natural environment, get active outdoors and make a massive difference in just one day. From the Polytunnels of Prospects Trust and the organic fields of Snakehall Farm – thank you, Fignum, for all you have achieved in just two days.
Fignum is proud to have supported such an important cause, and we look forward to future opportunities to continue helping Prospects Trust grow and thrive.
Find out more about the Prospects Trust and their work at https://prospectstrust.org.uk.
