Community Garden has "changed the atmosphere" of Bemerton Heath estate
Rise:61 redeveloped the Community Garden on Gainsborough Close earlier this year
A charity in Bemerton Heath is telling us how one of it's projects is bringing people closer together.
Earlier Rise:61 redeveloped the Community Garden on Gainsborough Close, at a cost of over £70,000, thanks to funding from UK Shared Prosperity Fund.
The space allows people in the community to interact with nature, spend time with friends and neighbours, as well as hosting after school clubs and community parties.
The charity is hoping to add a Youth Hub just meters away from the Community Garden to expand its offer of support for young people.
Rise:61 director, Robin Imeson, says it's had a massive impact on the estate.
He said. "It's just a really open inclusive community space and allows people the opportunity just to be together.
"I think isolation and loneliness is a huge issue and obviously we've become very screen dominated. So just having a very sort of physical real space is really important."
It also allows people an opportunity to volunteer in the upkeep of, and additions to, the garden, with Robin telling us it gives people a chance to use skills they might not get to use elsewhere.
"There's so many people with such amazing skills and they often don't get the opportunity to show that," he said. "Our whole system needs to get a lot better at getting people out of isolation into community projects where they can. enjoy fresh air, they and use their bodies their minds in being creative and making the community where they live better."
The space was previously full of brambles and a site for fly-tipping, and was created in the wake of the death of teenager at the site, with a group of the 19-year-old's friends wanting something positive with which to remember their friend.
It's described by locals as a "peaceful place to be", while Robin says it's changed the atmosphere around the Gainsborough Close area.
A volunteer said the garden has helped change their mental health, giving them the confidence to start integrating with people again.