Case Study (Macclesfield Community Garden Centre)

Aurora Managment and Development Consultancy has been working for almost two years on creating a Community Garden Centre situated on a derelict site in the middle of a park in Macclesfield. It operates as a social firm and its USP (unique selling point) is its location.


This organisation is a social enterprise, training and preparing adults with learning disabilities for employment within the sector. When fully operational, it will

employ up to ten employees of whom 25% will have a disability and twenty volunteers and it will train up to twenty adults a year on a six month cycle to avoid a stagnant turnover.


Situated in a park it will both grow and sell produce to the community. It will also bid for garden maintenance projects from statutory bodies. In addition the enterprise is working in partnership with a number of other charitable organisations that have horticulture projects and work with vulenerable adults. They will provide some of the produce for sale and provide volunteers who are ready to rejoin the community.


Although an idea from Cheshire County Council's Supported Employment Dept it was

taken forward by a Steering Group whose members were parents of adults with learning disabilities and stakeholders who could contribute to the development of the project e.g.: partners with existing horticulture projects, social enterprise partnership, mencap, and various government departments. urora managed this process and undertook and extensive feasibility study to identify whether there was a business case.


The Project attracted funding from LSC for capital build but it's most successful application was to SEIF (Social Enterprise Innovation Fund) Dept of Health. Although only £100,000 was bid for they increased the amount to £150,000! to help sustainability in the development. Part of the eligibilty criteria was compulsory attendance to SROI (Social Return on Investment) training.


This was to prove excellent forward thinking as the centre was due to open in April 09 and didn't open until Dec 09 due to major

problems with Local Government Reorganisation. This resulted in six district councils and one county concil being merged into two unitary authorities and whilst transition problems had been recognised in the feasibility study it had a much greater impact than thought, due in the main to internal politics. SEIF sees the project as a flagship model that can be rolled out across the country.





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