NAME OF ORGANISATION: Wildgoose Rural Training
LOCATION: Worcester
YEAR FOUNDED: 2000
ABOUT: Wildgoose Rural Training offers land-based activities to school groups and young people with learning and mental health disabilities, brain injuries and children who have been excluded from school.
INVESTMENT PURPOSE: The purpose of the investment from the West Midlands SITR Fund was to enable Wildgoose Rural Training to relocate to a new forty-two-acre site and has also enabled acquisition of a new on-site activity hub.
INVESTMENT AMOUNT: £85,000
DATE OF INVESTMENT: November 2018
SOURCE OF INVESTMENT: West Midlands SITR Fund
IMPACT: Education & Learning; Work & Employment
ABOUT: Wildgoose Rural Training offers land-based activities to school groups and young people with learning and mental health disabilities, brain injuries and children who have been excluded from school. Wildgoose Rural Training offer a range of activities and courses such as gardening, woodwork and animal husbandry with the key aim of improving mental and physical wellbeing through providing a calm and positive atmosphere, reducing stress. Wildgoose also offer qualifications and training experiences to students as well as playgroup farm and forest experiences to children aged five and below.
PURPOSE OF INVESTMENT: The purpose of the investment from the West Midlands SITR Fund was to enable Wildgoose Rural Training to relocate from their old two-acre site to their new forty-two-acre site in order to use the large space as a care farm with settlement ponds. The investment has also enabled acquisition of a new on-site activity hub.
This investment has enabled Wildgoose to increase the number of people supported by ten times. This means that more children facing school exclusion and children and young adults with autism, learning and mental health disabilities and brain injuries can be supported in gaining experience and qualifications.
Jim Hidderley, Managing Director of Wildgoose Rural Training: “We are delighted to be in our new home and have lots of exciting plans to help more students, whilst building new relationships with the general public and businesses who want to get involved in the work that we do. […] The final piece of the jigsaw was the £85,000 from the Resonance West Midlands SITR Fund, which gave us the opportunity to complete the project and build a modular hub on site. […] The latter will be a fantastic new facility where we can continue to run our training kitchen, whilst also hosting a visitor and education centre so we can engage with more local schools and the general public. It will also give us a place where we can showcase some of the great horticulture projects, craft skills and care farm work we take part in.”
Grace England, Senior Investment Manager at Resonance: “Wildgoose Rural Training is a great social enterprise that offers an amazing service - it has the potential to do so much more for people that need specialist support, but the previous site had reached maximum capacity […] The move is a brilliant opportunity to grow the business and its social impact. We’re delighted that the Resonance West Midlands SITR Fund could offer the final £85,000 that was needed to make such a significant project possible, on terms that really worked for the social enterprise. […] When you visit the new location, you can see how important our investment has been, especially now the team can support 50 more students ever year and increase commercial revenue through access to more space and improved facilities.”
Resonance Limited is a company registered in England and Wales no. 04418625
Resonance Impact Investment Limited, a subsidiary of Resonance Limited, is authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Firm number 588462.
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