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Vision & Mission
Since 1988 Easy Care Gardening has been helping older people in our community to live more fulfilled lives at home, for longer.
Vision
Easy Care Gardening is a volunteer-based organisation that strives to help older people to lead more fulfilled lives.
Mission
To enable older people to remain in their homes longer by providing gardening services conducted largely by volunteers.
To fulfil this mission, we will:
Provide gardening services that deliver safe, manageable and easy care gardens.
Create and maintain a social connection between volunteers and clients.
Acknowledge the importance of client-directed service.
Our history
The story of Easy Care Gardening began over 35 years ago.
On the 8th of August 1988 Anne Shires, Kathleen Ciemiega and Henry Llewellyn, the three founders of Easy Care Gardening (ECG), started the organisation with a grant for just $1,500 from Ku-ring-gai Council.
They were all Horticultural Therapy Association volunteers and had seen that there was a need for a gardening service for the older people in the community that would help enable them to remain in their own home for longer.
By February the next year ECG had 31 clients and just four volunteers. Clients were assessed and visited on a monthly, bi‑monthly and “ring when needed” basis and were asked to donate a small fee to assist with ongoing costs.
In 1990 a grant from Home and Community Care assisted ECG to take over clients from the Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Home Handyman service so that the service now covered Hornsby and Ku‑ring‑gai. By February 1991 ECG was granted incorporation with the status of a Charity. Further grants enabled one full-time and one part-time member of staff to be employed. By 1998 there were 306 clients, 100 lawn-mowing clients and 150 volunteers.
In 2003 another grant was provided by the Department of Ageing, Disability and Home Care (DADHC) for ECG to expand into Ryde and Hunters Hill council areas, taking gardening clients to 500 and 100 lawn-mowing clients.
Today we have helped over 5,300 clients and serviced over 65,000 gardens. With our increasingly ageing population, the need for more volunteers is crucial as we continue our work in the community.
Funding
To enable us to operate we depend on donations from groups and individuals and government funding.
Easy Care Gardening is a not-for-profit charitable organisation financed by the Federal Government Department of Health and Aged Care through the Commonwealth Home Support Program (CHSP).
Donations from Hornsby, Hunters Hill, Ku-ring-gai and Ryde Councils, as well as donations from community, companies, businesses, and individuals, contribute to how we are supported.
