Sprout’s Vision

Sprout’s vision is to be a leading recovery service for people with mental health challenges, and be proactive in responding to wider social, political and environmental changes.

About Sprout

Sprout is a community initiative of Mind and is a supported community garden that has been developed by those on their recovery journeys from mental health, drug and alcohol challenges and at risk of homelessness.

Sprout provides opportunities for personal, interpersonal and vocational skills development through a range of horticulture and enterprise activities that are valued by the wider community. Sprout helps create opportunities for well-being, gardening, creativity, employment, and community strengthening through skill development and community enterprises like Sprout Community Market. This will be on from 3-7pm on the first Thursday from February to May and September to December 2011 (closed during winter), with an extra on on December 15!

There are opportunities to develop and share gardening and woodwork skills, be creative, or simply relax and enjoy being outdoors. Activities at Sprout range from sowing seeds, nursery work, growing plants for sale, woodwork, community art projects, cooking to getting involved in running a community market, plus more!

Sprout’s aims:
• To provide prevocational skills training, personal development and recreational opportunities for people experiencing mental health challenges
• To maximise participant involvement in shaping the future direction of Sprout
• To generate income streams (for individual clients and the program overall) through the development of micro enterprises
• To encourage the participation of corporate and community volunteers
• To operate in a sustainable manner
• To reduce stigma in the community towards people with mental health challenges
• To grow partnerships with other community organisations
• To promote the activities of Sprout in the general community

Day to Day Living Program

The Day to Day Living Program at Sprout offers regular gardening, community kitchen and art sessions and includes pre-vocational training and skill development to clients in a range of areas. These include work preparation skills, health, team work, problem solving, literacy, numeracy, customer service, retail experience and enterprise development.

This program is Commonwealth funded through the Department of Health and Ageing and is aimed at supporting people living in the city of Darebin or Whittlesea with significant mental health challenges towards recovery and improved well-being.
Sprout is seeking expressions of interest from people who meet the above criteria to become part of this new and exciting program. People taking part in the Day to Day Living Program can take part in workshops and sessions, which run on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Click here for more details.

If you have an interest in this program and are living with mental health challenges or support someone who is, please contact us at Sprout to discuss these great opportunities.

Sprout Community Market

All activities at Sprout are supported by a monthly Community Market operated on-site as an outlet for participants' work and organically grown produce from the site. As part of this approach Sprout hold a diverse and vibrant local Community Market on the first Thursday of each month (except through Winter and January)

If you are interested in a stall please download the guidelines and application form here.

For more information on the Sprout Community Market visit here.

Sprout also has an ‘Open Gate’ every non-market Thursday 1-4pm for Sprout plant and produce sales.

Volunteers

Volunteers are an important and valued part of the Sprout community. We welcome people to volunteer in supporting us to work together towards better well-being and mental health for individuals and wider communities. Sprout has many different areas that volunteers can be involved in from working with plants, to helping out with creative projects, cooking, maintenance, woodwork, administration or monthly community markets and events. We are committed to providing an enjoyable and enriching experience for volunteers. Please contact us if you would like to get involved.

Contact Us

Telephone: (03) 9484 5565
Email: sprout@mindaustralia.org.au
Postal address: PO Box 1599, Preston South VIC 3072
Location: 40 Clapham St, corner of Clapham and Watt Streets, Thornbury