Government Social Research
On 6 December the Government Social Research Unit (GSRU) team departed for the Treehouse School in East Finchley to improve the grounds of their temporary school. The trip was the GSRU contribution to the Year of the Volunteer 2005.
Treehouse is a registered UK charity aiming to provide an educational centre of excellence for children with autism and related communication disorders. The school currently provides an education for 40 children aged 3 - 12, with plans to extend its base to 80 pupils aged 3 - 19 over the next 10 years.
During the course of the day, the 10 volunteers got to grips with weeding and tidying cold frames, which provide the children with sensory stimulation through hands-on experience of planting vegetables and seeing them grow. Other tasks included weeding and tending to a strip of land at the entrance to the school, helping to erect a Christmas tree, and building extremely professional looking cold frames and covers– Groundforce eat your heart out!
Sue Duncan, Chief Government Social Researcher, said “The usual challenges of team working applied, but the context was different and we had to quickly acquire new skills. By the end of the day, we were muddy and tired but felt a big sense of achievement – we completed the task and the results were tangible and much appreciated. We’d helped a worthwhile charity and learnt something about ourselves.”
Fundraising has begun to enable the Treehouse charity to construct and move into a new permanent building, which will comprise a specialist school and the training and outreach facilities to support children with autism across the country. The project, which will cost in the region of £11.5m, is looking at ways to raise the remainder of the funding required.
A variety of fundraising initiatives have been developed. One of these is a scheme where anyone can recycle their old mobile phone handset and the Treehouse charity will receive £3.50 per phone towards their target. For details of this scheme, and other fundraising initiatives (including the chance to go white water rafting or skydiving!) please see the Treehouse website.