Our charity was established in 1986, originally a small Project in the corner of Furzey Gardens, Minstead, with one member of staff and five young adults with learning difficulties. With a spade and a patch of ground and using horticulture training, those young adults developed skills, confidence and general wellbeing.
From those small seeds grew the Minstead Trust which you see today. Now based in the inspirational setting of Minstead Lodge, Minstead Trust provides a wide range of Day Opportunities, Residential provision and Supported Living to enable people to live independently in the local community. We now work with over 175 people ? ensuring that we put them at the centre of all that we do to develop their skills and independence whilst also having fun!
Furzey Gardens enables us to provide work-experience through maintainance of the gardens, Furzey Nursery and the Gallery Gift and Coffee Shop. In 2012, we took a Learning Disability Team to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, working with our Patron, Chris Beardshaw we won a RHS Gold Medal.