TACT Healthy Park – The TACT Group, established in 1978, set up this initiative provides the local community with the opportunity to use the park to learn how to grow their own vegetables, plants and trees as well as making use of the training facilities. Based at Carlowie Avenue, Coatshill.
The project grew in direct response to the committee’s desire to further engage with the local community and to make use of a piece of unused land next to the community hall. It was proposed to create a polytunnel, raised bed area and workshop. The proposal benefited from strong support from various local groups including schools that wished to use the park as part of the curriculum. It also attracted interest from the local hospice, mother and toddler groups, NHS teams and voluntary groups supporting people with learning difficulties. Post Millennium the unused land was transformed into a space that brings considerable benefit to the community and environment and is also sustainable in its use.
The park supports an ethos of healthy eating and healthy lifestyles and was initially aimed at vulnerable people and certain groups in the community. TACT is a non-profit organisation so all the produce is available for the community in exchange for donations, improving accessibility to quality produce. Volunteering from within the community is encouraged, which the facility greatly relies upon.
By 2009, TACT had recorded 250 people dropping by to use the facility and this only grew in future years. Volunteers lead the Committee and the success of the park is a result of their dedication. In 2009, TACT Healthy Park was the winner of the Surf Awards. Seeds are collected and the whole process of sowing them, growing and selling starts again each year.
In July 2018, TACT Healthy Park’s Facebook page was created, raising further awareness and following a very successful 2018 season, where members of the public were busy buying plants, hanging baskets, potted plants, fruit and vegetables in record quantities.
Featuring Blantyre Project Social Media with permission. Strictly not for use by others on or offline, our visitors said: