Gardens around our health care centres not only make the area look nice but can help to brighten the environment for patients and staff. But sometimes they can become a haven for people to discard their rubbish, and even drug taking paraphernalia.

However, an innovative collaboration between West Yorkshire Community Rehabilitation Company (CRC) and CHP, has provided a solution to the problem in the North East region.

Imran Hameed, Tenant Liaison Manager at Westbourne Green Community Centre, in Bradford, engaged with the West Yorkshire CRC who assigned people on community payback schemes to help litter pick, clear used needles and leaf litter as well as sweeping up the paths and bin stores. The litter picks started in September 2020 on a fortnightly basis across three sites.

The community payback team worked on clearing the gardens using PPE provided by the CRC. The result is a cleaner more pleasant environment, reduced costs for tenants, increased tenant satisfaction and an opportunity for those on payback to give back to their local area as part of their rehabilitation. The scheme has proved so successful it is now being rolled out at more centres.  The project has been running since September 2020, continuing during lockdowns.

West Yorkshire CRC is run by Purple Futures, a partnership led by construction company Interserve which also includes charities and social enterprises. Purple Futures provides probation and rehabilitation services on behalf of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) in West Yorkshire.