CIC Training Centre has been set up by Powys Sense & Ten Green Bottles Powys CIC to provide individuals with access to supported placements, work sampling and achievable aims.

Would you like to grow your skills in farming and horticultural placements with an
Individual Learning Accounts with CIC Training in ‘Basic Horse Care; Fencing; Hedging; Hedge Planting, Laying & Dry Stone Walling; Practical Gardening; Ground Preparation; Practical Gardening’ or help other via a ‘Mentoring Skills’ call 0800 100 900 for an application form.
 
Healthy Lifestyles on farms, allotments and drop in centres has 4 key parts - stimulating outdoor activities, work ready qualifications, life enhancing produce and healthy cooking/eating.
 
Personal Development Plan: All volunteers will have a personal development plan for a 6 week accredited course which will be reviewed at the end of the 6 week course. The courses provide healthy activities on farms and offer land based skills allied to Open College Network qualifications (e.g. fencing, dry stone walling, sheep care, hedging, horse care).
(The Personal Development Plan will take on board all levels of disabilities and will use a range of communication and learning resources including video, audio, documentation).
 
Tasters & Placements: As part of the PDP and as further training the farms offer a range of activities such as gardening, horse care, feeding the animals, pond maintenance, fencing, egg collecting, lambing & wool gathering, tree maintenance, tidying the environment, cleaning barns & sheds, walling.
 
Horticultural projects: We are working on several allotments to provide healthy outdoor work, recuperative placements and training and to encourage healthy eating. Also we aim to use the herbs, fruit and vegetables grown for food packs for volunteers and for the cooking courses at drop in centres, as well as in the long term develop employment opportunities via sales and community gardening.
 
Cooking: Building on the cooking courses we intend to run ‘Healthy Food Days’ at drop in centres,  where we will provide cooking skills, menu planning, simple recipes that can be used at home and take donations for serving the food to the centre users. In association with the horticultural sites and local suppliers we will cover areas such as pickling, freezing and recycling jam jars.
 
The farmers have a wealth of under-utilised skills they are willing to share. The Powys Sense staff & trustees have a range of business, personnel, training, mentoring and employment experience. The volunteers, who mainly suffer from mental health problems & learning disabilities, have a vast amount of undeveloped potential.
 
The volunteers all come via a referral agency including GAVO, Powys County Council Mental Health & Learning Disabilities Team, Gwent & Brecon Volunteer Bureau, Abergavenny MIND, Cartrefi Cymru, Progress2Work, A4E, Maindiff Hospital, ZEST, Score, Oak House, Shaw Trust. Providers, sites & trainers are risk assessed & have training plans. Volunteers’ Personal Development Plans include a Personal Needs Assessment. Transport, clothing & refreshments are provided. 
 
Via our CIC Training centre we offer a range of courses including Basic Horse Care; Dry Stone Walling; Fencing; Hedge Laying; Gardening; Cooking; Mentoring Skills. {We are also able to provide training via Indivual Learning Accounts}

We are keen to work with partners who provide training, work sampling and supported employment. Please contact us if you would like to work though our OCN centre.

Powys Sense Ltd set up in January 2007 as a company limited by guarantee with a voluntary governing body has via its main activity ‘Working Farms’ provided over 500 placements on 20 farms (in Powys, Monmouthshire & Herefordshire) for 60 individuals. It has been trialled and developed with funding from UnLtd, Social Risk, Laura Ashley, RCA Monmouthshire, GAVO’s Grass Roots, Monmouthshire County Council (CEDS) and WCVA Social Risk (one of 15 out of 400 projects to get a 2nd grant) in Monmouthshire & Powys. Recently we have been providing training in Herefordshire via Communities First NEXUS grant. We also developed a range of access to work leaflets, ran a benefit blog & organised mentoring and setting up social enterprise training. We have comprehensive range of policies & practices and Public, Employers, Professional Indemnity & Volunteer insurance.