Building a Social Value Relationship with The Right To Work Community Interest Company (CIC)

About 5 minutes from our offices in Havant is Staunton Country Park. Located within this park are Storey Gardens where a Community Interest Company (CIC) - The Right To Work offers a range of work-related day service opportunities for people with learning disabilities. Working in partnership with local businesses they create sustainable and appropriate work opportunities for people who can and want to work, but require support to do so. The Staunton Partnership is one aspect of their work, and the tasks there include:

•    Growing Vegetables to be sold in the Staunton Shop
•    Lawn mowing and hedge trimming
•    Growing plants
•    Preparing bags of animal food to sell to the visitors
•    Litter picking in and around the visitor areas and wider parklands
•    Crafts connected with outdoor life, using materials sourced in the park
•    General maintenance of the site, painting, cleaning as appropriate and/or necessary
•    Harvesting and preparing produce for sale
•    Keeping the sales area full and appealing
•    Collecting and sawing wood for ‘firewood’ sold in the shop

Our Communications & Engagement Manager met with Louise Macmillan the Director of Horticulture for The Right To Work CIC (Staunton) to see how we could support the work that they do in August 2023. The plan was to build a relationship where Comserv could provide assistance through donating materials, offering advice, and helping with practical repairs work when required.

Materials Donation for Sales Displays

The Right to Work had plans to expand the outdoor shop area in Storey Gardens to make it look more attractive but needed materials to set this up. They wanted to create seven raised beds with differing colour schemes and needed scaffolding boards to build them. We supplied them with all the boards and 2 x 2 wood for the corners. The wood was delivered, and a very excited group of volunteers helped to unload the van.

Over the summer and into the autumn, the groups built the new beds, painted, and filled them. We visited in November when the beds were filled with Christmas plants and looking very festive.





Delivery of materials
The planters in progress
The planters all finished and filled with festive displays

Bodpave Matting for Sales Area

As you can imagine, the walkways around the gardens can become extremely boggy and slippery during the wet winter months, and this particularly affects the sales area. With the arrival of Storm Ciaran in early November 2023 The Right To Work contacted us to see if we could help them to purchase some Bodpave matting to cover this area which had already turned into a mud bath.

In total 291 square metres of matting was required which we gladly ordered in three batches and delivered to the team. They then prepared and levelled the ground and laid the matting to create safer pathways around the sales area within Storey Gardens and towards the cottage where their offices, eating areas, and toilet facilities are based.

It was a huge task but the team worked tremendously hard to dig out the ground, lay the matting, and then fill it with shingle. The end result is fantastic. Well done to everyone at The Right To Work!











Delivery of Bodpave



Installation



Sales area complete!

Julie Strutt, Communications & Engagement Manager for Comserv said:

“It is a privilege to be able to support The Right To Work. They provide valuable work opportunities for a fantastic group of people.
As a not-for-profit organisation they sometimes struggle to get the funding that they need.
Comserv are glad to support this organisation who are based in the heart of the community which we serve in Leigh Park.”

Debbie Lyall, Managing Director The Right To Work CIC said:

“Thank you. This is beyond generous and will make such a significant difference to our sales area.”

Support for Repairs to Cottage

Some of our support isn't monetary, it's advice, and this can be just as important as the materials we supply. The cottage that The Right to Work use within Storey Gardens is a Grade II listed building that is rented from Portsmouth City Council. The cottage needed some repairs to the roof which was leaking and some decoration but their lease agreement details for who was responsible for these costs was unclear. Our Repairs & Maintenance Manager – Dave Kilborn, visited the cottage, researched details on their lease agreement and put the team in contact with the correct people at Portsmouth City Council to get their repairs underway. He also met with the surveyor on-site to ensure that everything was correctly addressed.

Louise Macmillan – Director of Horticulture for The Right To Work CIC (Staunton) said:

“Thank you so much for putting us in touch with Dave, he has been incredibly helpful and supportive.”