CSR - The High Backs - The Burnhill Community Garden Project
Updated: Jan 21
Building Community Together: Hugh Stirling's Involvement in the Burnhill Community Garden Project.
Hugh Stirling had the opportunity to contribute to a project that brought genuine value to the residents of Burnhill. Working alongside the Burnhill Action Group, Community Engagement Officers, Action for Children, and Community Payback, we helped support the creation of Burnhill Community Garden - locally known as 'The High Backs' - a shared space reclaimed from an overgrown derelict space.
This collaborative effort aimed to give the community a place to gather - a place where they could take pride in and take ownership of. For the team at Hugh Stirling it was a chance to help support young people, champion safe working practices, and supply materials that could be put to real use in the community.
Supporting Young People Through Practical Training
Hugh Stirling worked with Action for Children to deliver health and safety training to young people involved in the project. A total of 60 individual training courses were completed across five construction-based projects - each was accompanied by a certification. This gave the participants from the community a practical introduction to safe working methods and helped build confidence as they contributed to the garden's development.
Malcolm Parker, our point of contact at Action for Children, also shared a video documenting the project's progress. It features the work carried out by the young members of the community and the collaborative approach taken by all of the organisations involved.
Kilbarchan Church - Donating Materials Directly to the Community
A significant portion of the garden's structures and features were built using wood reclaimed from the pews at Kilbarchan Church. We were pleased to see Kilbarchan Church donate a large quantity of this material, giving it new life and a continued purpose in a community setting. The young people used the timber to construct seating, planters, and other elements that can be seen throughout the space.
This practical reuse of materials helped reduce waste while offering hands-on learning opportunities at each stage of the build.
An Example of What can be Achieved in the Community
The garden stands as an example of what can be achieved when local groups, public agencies and businesses work together. Burnhill Action Group led the charge, supported by Community Engagement Officers, Action for Children and Community Payback, each bringing their own strengths to the project.
As well as giving something back to the community, the garden also serves as a memorial to local resident Margaret Fleming - a tree was planted and an engraved plaque was placed on one of the benches in memory of her life. Margaret was a vulnerable young adult who disappeared from Inverkip in 1999. She lived with her full-time carers who never reported her missing and continued to claim her benefits for sixteen years before they were convicted of her murder.
The idea for the memorial came about after three school friends of Margaret’s - Gillian McCulloch, Lynn Foreman and Jon Cox - spoke with Jon’s brother, Stephen who had begun work on the project with the group.
The Impact of Hugh Stirling's Participation in the Project
Our Staff from Hugh Stirling also played a key role in training the young people in joinery and putting the young persons through a variety of certificates in Health & Safety, Site Induction and Safe Handling of Tools to safely carry out the intended works - which was facilitated by our in-house training and compliance manager, David Hardy.
Some of those involved in the work have already received work placement opportunities with Hugh Stirling and others will be helped to enrol with Action for Children’s employability programmes.
If your organisation needs support in a community project, reach out to our team and we'll see if we can help.
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