Work with us

Collaboration & Event Guidelines

Thank you so much for your interest in working with NGC. We genuinely appreciate every email and collaboration request we receive, and we are always delighted to connect with like-minded organisations and funders.

As a very small, grassroots team, our capacity is limited. Between our personal commitments, family life, and tending to our community garden land, we are blessed to be serving others.

Furthermore, our team navigates chronic pain and disabilities, which means we have to be mindful of how much physical work we take on outside of our core site. Our own workshops at the garden, including the ones people book and pay for, are where we put most of our energy, and they help keep the garden going.

Our Operational Model
NGC was founded by a Muslim, and we do not accept lottery funding. Our regular workshops are held exclusively for women and are taught by female instructors.

We also run activity-specific sessions for children, such as our nature's play sessions and children’s workshops. These sessions are run according to the Muslim faith (similar to many scouts groups, where older boys and girls babe separate sessions).

How to Submit Requests
Please send us a clear, detailed breakdown of any opportunities you have in mind. While we may not have the capacity to take on everything, we are part of a wide network and are always happy to pass along relevant opportunities to trusted contacts.

Please also bear in mind that we receive a high volume of emails, and our small team spends a considerable amount of time on administrative tasks. Your clarity and conciseness are greatly appreciated.

A Note for Funders & Partner Organisations
Our standard practices:

• Offering women-only sessions, taught by women.
• Providing a safe, welcoming space for all women.
• Giving BPOC women a space to speak openly about their culture and history, to use their mother tongue, and to have translators on site where possible.

This consistency is key to the trust our community places in us.

We understand that councils and organisations seek us out specifically for our community reach. We hope you will continue to trust us to serve the communities we are part of. Our ability to engage marginalised and underrepresented groups comes directly from our lived experience, giving us an authentic understanding of their needs, as we are from these very communities.

This does not mean our workshops target the global majority only. Our members have always been mostly British White, who are always welcome and at home here. We find gardening is an amazing way to build community relationships, due to the friendliness and warmness found in gardeners.

Last year, we were approached by various organisations to run Men’s Shed sessions, prompted directly by the rise in severe mental health challenges following lockdown (hence the popular free sessions for fathers at Lloyds Park, where we learnt the importance of this). In response, we are offering a very limited number of these workshops (mostly due to lack of funds, partly due to men lacking free time). Please register your interest to be notified when spaces become available.

• We have found a local carpenter to teach carpentry. Dates will be sent out soon. If you would like to collaborate with us on this, whether it is supplying wood, screws or funds, please get in touch.

We look forward to hearing from you and working together where possible.