Outside visit to "Our Barn" Youth Club in Osterley

OUTSIDE VISIT Monday 9 JULY

5pm to 5.45pm (prior to Rotary Club meeting)

Our Barn Youth Club Gardening Project at Osterley Park

just off Osterley Lane

Our Barn’s Manager, Karen Adams, will introduce us to the organisation through their gardening project in the kitchen gardens at Osterley Park run in partnership with the National Trust.

Under the guidance of Osterley's Head Gardener, their team contributes to work in the Tudor style kitchen garden, learning horticultural skills. The long term aim for this project is to develop a social enterprise that provides gardening services to the wider community.

Our Barn is mainly funded by Hounslow Council and is intended as a 'bridge' between formal education and adult life for young people with learning difficulties or other disability. It is a meeting place for 16 to 25-year-olds to share their experiences and to grow and develop in a setting that is less formal than school but still provides structure and support.

They run activities that are fun and focus on members' interests to help them develop and grow as individuals and in a group. The young people may undergo accredited training for employment or work to enhance life skills.

Their aim is to develop a service that young people are keen to use, with high quality and energetic staff keeping activities safe, engaging and age appropriate.