Sowing the seeds for a brighter tomorrow

“Since I’ve got older I enjoyed gardening more. It keeps you fit, you don’t have to go to the gym every day.” Dean is a 26-year-old trainee at the Clervaux Trust’s Clow Beck Eco Centre a mile south of the River Tees near Croft.

He had been in the care system since the age of eleven, and first came to the centre when Clervaux Trust was launched two years ago.

It came into existence as a partnership between an existing eco-farm run by Bill Chaytor and the Ruskin Mill Educational Foundation, a national charity working with young people with learning difficulties.

From the 13th to the 16th centuries the Clervaux family were landowners here. In 1999, Bill Chaytor, a Clervaux descendant, donated 33 acres to get the project going.

The idea now is to take young people here, and also to a bakery and cafe recently opened in Darlington, and show them what can be achieved in life by working on the farm and with the food that’s produced there. Rick McCordall, the commercial manager, says. “It is a chance for a young person to really connect with the land and engage in an activity.

“Then we hope they progress and gain vocational work experience in the cafe and the bakery, and interact with the general public.

“What is very interesting to see is that some of our students behaviour is significantly better when they’re faced with a member of the public in the cafe.” At any given time more than 25 young people are either at the eco farm or at the cafe and bakery. Clervaux Trust was launched as one of 12 pilot projects around the country, working with 14 to 16 year olds who were in danger of becoming NEETs (Not in Employment Education or Training).

Now the trust works with other vulnerable groups such as teenage mums and dads, and is in partnership with a local college.

This means 16 to 19 year olds are benefiting from the practical activities at the farm and cafe. And in doing so, the youngsters can discover the link between “seed to plate”. Clow Beck is 100 acres, 30 of which are given over to growing vegetables, the rest is either woodland or used for pigs, goats, and a pair of donkeys which have just arrived.

Additionally, there are metal and greenwood craft workshops. Rick McCordall firmly believes that a lot can be achieved by finding ways that youngsters of this age can expend lots of energy. “We have had young people who have engaged in practical activity here, but have never engaged in anything else, in their lives,” says Rick McCordall. He adds they learn important social skills too, and this helps them find an alternative to falling into the prison system. “There’s a young person who came to us from a difficult background, who on the basis of their behaviour at the cafe, now has a Saturday job with us. Effectively a member of the paid staff treated in exactly the same way as the paid staff.

“I think that Clervaux Trust has enabled that individual to develop into somebody who has matured and is now employable.” Clervaux Trust has now extended the work it does to the armed services, and is working with veterans who have recently returned from war zones.

Clervaux is working with a charity called Riverside ECHG (English Churches Housing Group) which has set up dedicated accommodation for ex-serving veterans who have found themselves homeless.

The idea is to set up a bakery, similar to the one already operating in Darlington. “One of the main problems that the veterans are suffering from is lack of self-confidence,” says Rick McCordall. “There is the opportunity here to re-engage that veteran in an activity which provides an opportunity to increase their self-confidence, and self esteem, as well as vocational work experience.

“This means when they leave the facility they have experience not just in baking, but food preparation, customer service and many other skills relating to the running of catering business.

“They can also get a reference from our head baker if they so wish.”

Ironically, as Clervaux is helping those who are coming out of the army, one of its youngsters, who has already helped at Clow Beck, Dean Sumner. is thinking of going in the other direction “I want my future plans to be in the army because I like to cook for a lot of people. I like that extra challenge.”

He adds that having been taken into care at the age of eleven, the Clervaux Trust has made a huge difference to his life. “Clervaux’s supported me with my work and helped me get a job,” he says.

“I don’t have any close family...I suppose Clervaux’s like my real family.”