The Reclaiming the Wilderness project aimed to restore and make publicly accessible the Wilderness Garden in Croydon, originally created by Reverend Wilks, a prominent horticulturist in the 19th and early 20th Centuries. The garden, owned and managed by MHA, adjoins their Hall Grange care home Hall and one of the main objectives was to establish the space, a haven for urban nature, as a recreational and therapeutic space for residents, including those living with dementia, and local people. The main challenge during the Development Phase was reaching a balance between the safeguarding of Hall Grange residents, and the conservation and promotion of the heritage while achieving value for money for the Heritage Fund in terms of levels of public engagement.

Having developed the Round 1 application (2016-2017), Tricolor was appointed to project manage the NLHF Development Phase (2017-2018), as well as deliver the Activity and Interpretation Plans (2018-2019), and the Project Evaluation  (2018-2021).

We devised innovative activities and interpretation which would allow public engagement but not impact upon the welfare of residents or the conservation of the natural heritage. Low level species habitat improvement activities were developed, in which members of the public and residents could participate together. These were designed to strengthen ties between Hall Grange and the local community with the added benefit of encouraging wildlife back to the garden.

Tricolor was also commissioned to undertake the Evaluation of the project, using Theory of Change, and associated logic models. A range of methods collected both quantitative and qualitative data demonstrating the project’s delivery of NLHF outcomes, and provided a framework for ongoing post-project evaluation.

As well as monitoring progress against NLHF outcomes, achievement was assessed using the Inspiring Learning For All Framework which supports institutions to assess strengths and plan improvements, provide evidence of the impact of activities through the Generic Learning Outcomes (GLOs) and Generic Social Outcomes (GSOs), and improve strategic and operational performance.