Premium housebuilder Redrow South East has donated £10,000 to Health Heart Hope, the charity supporting Kent and Medway Mental Health NHS Trust. The contribution has funded the creation of a summer house at St Martin’s Hospital in Canterbury, providing patients, staff and volunteers with a peaceful, sheltered space.
The new summer house, which was handed over to Kent and Medway Mental Health NHS Trust today, was assembled with responsibly sourced timber and is set within Webb’s Garden, a beautiful two acre walled garden. The summer house will be used as a peaceful, sheltered therapy space for patients, staff and volunteers to reflect, engage in conversations and connect with nature.
The garden is part of the trust’s mental health programme, offering patients, staff, volunteers and their family’s year-round access to nature-based recovery.
Alongside the donation, 14 Redrow South East staff members volunteered their time through the construction process. Redrow’s sub-contractor partners, E W Gee, Landmark Civil Engineering, and C&M Carpentry also volunteered their time to help with the construction.
Kent and Medway Mental Health NHS Trust provides a wide range of adult mental health and learning disability services to its local population of 1.8 million people in Kent and Medway. Each year it cares for over 2,000 people in its hospitals and 59,000 people in the community and employs over 3,9000 people.
The donation reflects Redrow’s wider mission to create thriving communities and advocacy of mental health and wellbeing. This includes the housebuilder’s commitment to delivering nature-rich developments ensuring long-term benefits to people and nature.
Redrow is also a proud advocate of supporting key workers, with the Key Worker and Armed Forces Deposit Contribution scheme providing up to £25,000 towards the purchase of a Redrow home, enabling them to move into a premium, energy efficient home much quicker.
Alongside the summer house, the charity has planted an Oak Tree in the garden, a node to Barratt Redrow’s logo, encapsulating strength and endurance, much like the patients there who live with a mental illness.
Chris Lilley, Managing Director at Redrow South East, comments: “At Redrow, we believe time outdoors is vital to wellbeing and our commitment to green spaces extends beyond our developments. We’re delighted to have donated £10,000 to Health Heart Hope and proud to collaborate with them on the new summer house in Webb’s Garden at St. Martin’s Hospital. This initiative will make a crucial difference to those being cared for and supported by Kent and Medway Mental Health NHS Trust by providing a safe space where they can also connect with nature.
Building sustainable communities is incredibly important to us, and equally, supporting key workers and armed forces members who make our communities such a success. Our dedicated schemes help more people who commit their careers to helping our communities and serving our country, to move into their dream home, whether that be their first home or taking their next step on the property ladder.”
All those involved in the project including apprentices, volunteers, Redrow South East board, sub-contractors, and the Trust’s charity managers and board members.
Kirsty McInnes, Charity and Volunteer Manager for Health Heart Hope, expressed her gratitude: “We are incredibly grateful to Redrow for their generosity and belief in what this project could achieve. Their £10,000 gift is the largest single donation we have ever received and it has enabled us to create a space that will make a real and lasting difference. The Redrow Retreat is much more than a building; it is a place where people can find calm, connect with others and feel supported on their recovery journey. This project shows how powerful social value partnerships can be when we work together to support people in Kent and Medway who are living with mental illness.”
