Growing Solidarity (GS) is a project focused on building community and wellbeing for refugees in Reading, with the countryside in and around Hempen Farm as our setting and inspiration.
Nature provides our foundations, tools and backdrop. Every week we meet to exchange skills, share knowledge, combat social isolation and build resilience.
GS was originally created by the members of Hempen Agricultural Co-operative in collaboration with Reading Refugee Support Group and Reading City of Sanctuary, using Hempen’s land resources to combat food instability and social isolation in the refugee community during the covid19 pandemic.
In February 2022 Growing Solidarity was awarded Garden of Sanctuary Status by Reading City of Sanctuary.
‘It’s amazing to see the energy they’ve poured into becoming recognised as a Garden of Sanctuary. They are really do such much to welcome people of sanctuary backgrounds’
– Lorraine Briffitt, Chair of Reading City of Sanctuary
In 2025 GS merged with Resettlement, a CIC based in Reading who focus on supporting people experiencing displacement with housing, signposting and general (non-legal) advice.
HELEN BREWER ‘LANDSCAPE OF CARE’
A short film featuring Growing Solidarity participants over the summer months of 2021. Together exploring a healthy and participatory relationship with food, which empowers those who are otherwise relying on insecure ways of sourcing food, like foodbanks.
BUILDING COMMUNITY, BUILDING RESILIENCE
At Growing Solidarity we are keen on building connections to the natural world. With all the amazing things we can grow and forage, nature gives us many gifts and empowers us to provide for ourselves and our communities.
Collectively, our small actions can lead to big changes. It is through these actions that we can build a better future for the generations who will come after us.
WANT TO FIND OUT MORE?
VOLUNTEER
If you like to dip your hands in the soil, take strolls in the woods, and chat with people from all walks of life, volunteering with us may be the thing for you!
CARPOOL
Many of the people we work with face barriers when accessing our site. You can help improve accessibility by joining our community driver carpool!
Email hello@growingsolidarity.net to find out more and apply.
WORKING TOGETHER
Community for Resilience
We work in collaboration with The Natural Resilience Project to deliver an innovative approach to working therapeutically with women with irregular migrant status, developing personal resilience by connecting to nature and community. We work with nature and each other to expand our awareness – paying close attention to what is happening around us, inside us and between us.
Food For Resilience
We have worked with the Landworkers’ Alliance, to experiment with developing a replicable and scalable model that empowers people who are on a low-income, food insecure and reliant on food-banks to grow, cook with, eat and share nutritious food at home or at the farm. This is part of a nationwide initiative, the Community Resilience Project.
Community Fund
We want to say a huge THANK YOU to The National Lottery Local Community Fund for financially supporting the Growing Solidarity project.
