Gray’s Court, the north Belfast supported accommodation service for homeless people recovering from substance abuse, has been awarded a grant from the Nation Garden Scheme (NGS) to renovate areas of its garden as part of its residents’ recovery process.
National Garden Scheme committee member in Northern Ireland, William Hamilton with Gray’s Court Project Worker, Frances Craig, with one of the raise troughs provided by the NGS grant.
Opened in the year 2000, it is one of the services provided by the Presbyterian Church in Ireland’s (PCI) Council for Social Witness, PCI’s social care arm, and is managed by Carlisle House, the Church’s Substance Use Treatment Centre.
Receiving the special plaque in the garden from two of the National Garden Scheme’s Northern Ireland committee members, Joy Parkinson and William Hamilton, Gray’s Court, Project Worker, Frances Craig said that she was “absolutely delighted with the award.”
“We are so grateful to the National Garden Scheme for supporting us to replace our two rotten raised vegetable troughs and dilapidated garden shed, which truth be told, all had all seen much better days and were falling apart! We could not have afforded to replace them ourselves, so the grant of £1,583, which may seem small, meant a huge amount to our residents.
“The new troughs and the shed will be so helpful for our continued work with successive groups of people in recovery from substance use who come through our service. Our residents who use the service can plant vegetables in the troughs every year and use the produce for their own cooking, or for group nutrition sessions which we have. Working in the garden and growing our own produce is very therapeutic as well as promoting good nutrition, which is also important in recovery. The troughs are already being used and we now have dry storage for our tools, so thank you NGS for your support.”
Gray's Court Garden
National Garden Scheme committee members in Northern Ireland, Joy Parkinson of Ballyrobert Gardens near Ballyclare, and William Hamilton, who opens his garden in Seven Mile Straight, visited Gray Court’s to present the commemorative plaque and view the garden itself. Speaking after their visit, Mrs Parkinson said,
“It was a delight to come and see the garden, meet some of the residents, and see how the grant has been used. There are around 30 dedicated garden owners in Northern Ireland who open their gardens to the public to raise the funds that provide for the grants for gardens like Gray’s Court.
“All applications are considered on their individual merits and can lead to an award from £1,000 to £5000. We are very proud of the fact that last year in Northern Ireland we raised around £36,000. In addition, £11,788 was awarded to four community garden schemes locally and a total of nearly £10,000 is being awarded this year.”
“Gray’s Court benefited from one of our smaller grants, but it has obviously made a huge difference. The benefits of gardening go way beyond gardening itself, and can affect our health and wellbeing – even just enjoying one of our open gardens.”
Gray's Court Gray’s Court is funded by the Northern Ireland Housing Executive’s Supporting People programme, and run in partnership with Woven Housing Association. For more information see the Gray’s Court page on this website here.
Adding his thanks for the award, David Cuthbert, Director of Carlisle House, explained that Gray’s Court has seven fully furnished apartments and as a regional service it accepts referrals from across Northern Ireland. The services provide accommodation for people over the age of 18 who are registered homeless and have previously engaged in treatment for substance use.
“Our work is undertaken within a Christian ethos, which underpins our service, compassion, respect and acceptance of the men and women we support. Our work at Gray’s Court began 26 years ago and has been a valuable service providing help and support to over 300 men and women since then.
“Our overall goal is that people have a two-year space in a safe and therapeutic environment to reconnect with their family, community, and faith, while maintaining a substance free life.”
Mrs Craig also thanked members of Fusion Women’s Group at Graystone Road Presbyterian Church in Antrim, whose donation provided the compost, seeds and bedding plants in the Gray’s Court garden.
National Garden Scheme Run by volunteers, the National Garden Scheme was established in 1927 by the Queen’s Institute of Community Nursing to raise funds for district nurses. For nearly a century it has given annual donations to nursing and health charities, raised by gardeners who opening their private gardens to the general public and charge an admission fee.
In England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands in 2025 the NGS donated £3.9 million to provide critical support to nursing and health charities. This included 114 community gardening projects which benefitted from £288,876, which went to supporting community gardens, allotments rehabilitation projects and gardens designed to support mental health and wellbeing.
Applications for 2027 NGS funding will open between September and October this year and can be accessed via its website here.
Church in Society, Social Witness
Communities Minister, Gordon Lyons MLA, saw first-hand today (1 October) the benefit that supported accommodation provides for homeless people recovering from substance a…
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