“It’s our day today, Mum” Our latest testimonial has had us all welling up… I’m an adoptive mum. Alongside being a parent, I’ve worked within the Virtual School for the past 11 years, supporting children in care and helping schools

One year at Banks Mill… Celebrating our first Banks Mill Birthday! Having a dedicated Growing Me space has been incredible. The fact it is in such a creative, supportive community in the centre of Derby is the icing on the

So called because of their ancient use as a calming agent, the cheery star-shaped flowers of the yellow loosestrife are currently blooming beautifully. Apparently farmers used to make loosestrife necklaces for their cattle! For the cows, it was probably the

YMCA Family Fun Day We had the warmest of welcomes (in more ways than one – it was scorching hot!!) at the YMCA Family Fun Day at Parcel Terrace, Derby. Families added leaves and flowers to our newly created wonder

Helping Children Thrive at Derby Museum of Making  Last Monday, we came together to share how we help children with difficult life stories thrive – sharing wonderful work across education, health and social care Special thanks to Rob @shotbyrutley for being

We’re Finalists in the NatWest Social Enterprise Awards! We’re very very excited to announce that Growing Me are finalists in the Nat West Social Enterprise Awards! Our founder and Creative Director Nicky is a finalist in the ‘Pioneer of the Future’

Join the conversation: How do we help children thrive when their life story has been complicated? In partnership with Culture Derby, Growing Me is excited to be hosting this interactive event to share best practice, celebrating work that supports children

Come and join us this Friday for a friendly, fun and creative volunteer making day! There’s lots of wrapping and collating the Make Stations to be done this week… And lots of cake and tasty snacks to be eaten! Let Nicky know

Another lovely testimonial… “We currently use the pack we purchased from Growing Me as a part of our suggested resource for our students on our Level 3 Trauma-informed Life Story Work customised qualification accredited with the nationally recognised awarding body

Watch our Growing Me video! We are so excited about our new film, created by the very talented Gavin Repton Thanks to the National Lottery Community Fund for funding this creation, and to our wonderful customers who provided such heartwarming

Dear the Growing Me ladies, I just wanted to say what an absolute privilege it has been and still is to experience the Growing me journey with our looked after children.  For someone like me who was a bit nervous

Thank you Derby Uni Creative Health and Wellbeing Students and Staff Last week, we had the pleasure of meeting students from the University of Derby’s Creative Arts Health and Wellbeing degree course. Together we explored the role of creativity, relationships and

Growing Fast… Growing Slow… Beech tree saplings tend to grow in the shade of their mother tree. This helps them grow slowly, which is just what they need to grow strong. They can branch off in new directions, all with

Adoption Beauty Today I’d like to share how much I love being an adopter! There’s an ever growing shortage of adopters in the UK. These incredible children are waiting longer than ever to find new families. Humans (with the help of

Look how well Growing Me aligns to the Children’s Homes Quality Standards! Speaking to care home managers as part of Children’s Homes Quality’s Managers Monthly Meetings last week about what is important when delivering Therapeutic Life Story Work (TLSW), it

Creativity and Connection It’s slightly out of season for butterflies here in rainy Derbyshire, but I found this doodle that I did a while ago and it got me thinking about connecting through creativity. Whether picking outfits together for a

CSR Making Fun We had loads of (productive!) fun with the Roadchef team delivering a CSR session! The absolutely lovely team not only helped us build and package ‘Play Dens’ for our toolkits, but also had a go at some

Now we have the keys, we are very busy getting our lovely space ready for making! Making Days will happen on the 3rd Friday of every month, starting 18th July Each making day will follow a familiar structure, with the

Raindrops You can almost hear the plants breathing a sigh of relief as the rain drops fill the air after weeks of hot sunshine Glorious sunshine and heat that we longed for during dark, cold and soggy winters It’s the

A new workspace for Growing Me! Growing Me CIC is getting a space of our very own at Banks Mill Studios Derby The building is owned and managed by The University of Derby, and offers a fantastic community of creatives,

Fabulous Funding News!  Incredibly excited to share that Growing Me has been awarded funding from The National Lottery Community Fund Reaching Communities Fund! This means Growing Me can grow, making Therapeutic Life Story Work accessible to more care-experienced families A

Presenting to your groups… Did you know, Growing Me can present to your community group or organisation? We love to chat about the amazing care-experienced community and spread the word about the work we do. We also like to get

Holding On I get a weird feeling at this time of year… Winter has come to an end and we are on our way to a glorious Springtime.  Yet a part of me is holding on, terrified of losing it again.

NEW WEBSITE URL: growingme.org.uk It came to our attention that some high security servers were not able to access the Growing Me website… it turns out our IP address had been wrongly blacklisted, and it’s been a bit of a

Upcoming Making Day On Friday 21st March from 10am until 2pm (note we’ve moved away from Wednesday’s to accommodate more people), at Lunar Mind (2 Vernon Street Derby), we will be holding another Making Day, where we will be putting

Wonderful Feedback!   We are over the moon to know what a difference Growing Me is making to young lives… 🌱 Introducing the @growingmecic Life Story Work Toolkit🌱 I’m so excited to share a truly transformative tool I’ve recently started

2025 Making Day Dates Calling all those who are missing the folding and wrapping of pre-Christmas!! We have some Making Days coming up in Derby: Wednesday 15th January 10am-2pmWednesday 12th February 10am-2pmWednesday 19th March 10am-2pm Making Days are an opportunity to learn more

Hulk – why he’s important as well as incredible! Anger can be such a hot topic… especially at this festive time of year And here, as a fantastic epitome of anger, is The Incredible Hulk, expertly drawn by Nicky’s talented

Harvest time 16/09/2024 Lots of juicy berries and apples helping creatures great and small, fatten up for winter. The animals help the trees too, by spreading the seeds far and wide, with a nice nutritious pile of poo to help

A Different Path? 9th September 2024: Despite what our social media feeds might lead us to believe, we can assure you that not every child is smartly dressed and beaming at the camera, excited for a new term! Many children

Which Guinea Are You!? Hello from Growing Me ☀️ Hope that you are enjoying some sunshine this summer! I’m writing this whilst watching our guinea pigs in their new cage, nervously staring at their new ramp… With a few tasty

Waiting to bloom… Hollyhocks come in many different colours, and the buds towering above the wilderness in my garden are showing no clue as to which colour they will be. Like a child waiting waiting to unwrap a present, I’ll

Lessons from a Dog Rose The dog rose flowers (and thorns) are meandering their way through my garden; simultaneously providing homes and food to small birds and insects, whilst spiking bigger creatures, that might otherwise eat them. Human or plant, we

Stag Beetle Pondering We love a stag beetle! These incredible little creatures spend most of their lives underground, only coming up to surface for a few weeks to mate and reproduce. The big and beautiful antlers on these tiny beetles

Helping Professionals 1st May 2024: Growing Me is for everyone in the team around a child, but this post wants to highlight how we make life that little bit easier (and a bit more fun!) for children’s social workers. Social

Umwelt 29th April 2024: This week’s blog starts with a book recommendation: ‘An Immense World’ by Ed Yong (https://edyong.me/an-immense-world). The book starts by imagining a room full of different creatures, thinking how each in turn would experience the situation –

Sustainable Destruction! 15th April 2024: Hail on the first morning of the summer term! Gahhhh! Don’t know about you, but hailstones down the back of the neck on the school run is not something I want to celebrate. Growing Me

Bubbles are brilliant! April 13th 2024: Blowing bubbles encourages slow, deep breaths, calming our sensory systems… Popping bubbles is a good wake up activity, and bubble pass is a good game to connect and have fun… So, each Growing Me

Sustainability at Growing Me 5th April 2024. Sustainability is at the heart of Growing Me, and we want to support organisations that are on the same page. These beautiful books from VENT will be included in our toolkit as a

Egg-cellent Springtime! Today’s post had to be an eggy one really! Containing a jelly of information and fuel to create a new life, all wrapped in a hard shell, and kept warm and safe from harm by a feathery parent,

Funding News! 29th March 2024: Some good Good Friday news for us at Growing Me… The Gerard Pearse awarded us funding to help us get up and running Thanks so much toFoundation Derbyshire for all your expertise and help with the

Frogspawn is in the Pond March 18th 2024. There’s always a rush of excitement at the arrival of these tiny black dots in their balls of jelly. They go through such incredible growth it’s no wonder that adults and children

The Long Tailed Tit with No Tail March 11th 2024. Some of my favourite visitors to our garden are the Long-tailed Tits. To me they are like little flying, fluffy chattering lollipops! Last month, one of them lost its tail,

Winter vs Spring Feb 29th 2024. Wintery days keep interrupting the emergence of spring, and there’s a similar feeling at Growing Me! The days are getting longer and the birds are singing but it’s certainly not springtime yet. Our designs

Animation Celebration Last week, @sheffhallamuni Void Cinema, showcased the work of 5 talented graduate animators, Caitlin MacBeath, Samuela Levinson, Liv Berry, Louis Veevers, and Will Anderson They were fresh from their BA’s in Animation when they took on the task

Wagtail Wonderings… Many birds fly away from our cold winters to find warmth and sunshine – but not the Grey Wagtail! It cheered me up this week to see the wagtails dipping their tails as they walked, even as the

Wouldn’t it be good to be an owl? January is the best time of year for owl spotting – With incredible vision, stealth mode flying, and super speedy reflexes – I often think some owl superpowers could be really helpful!

Off to the printers we go! As we send the final designs to the printers, we are taking a moment to celebrate So much time, thought, and love has gone into our resources that we are confident – and super

Sharing… Really excited to be back to work today… To celebrate, I’ve opened a chocolate bar, safe in the knowledge that I can have it all to myself. As I’m sat really really enjoying my chocolate, I’m feeling ever so

DNA… The festive season seems to shine a bright light on ‘family’. Massive meals, sparkly parties, foodie gatherings of every kind, and a fabulous Christmas dinner. Traditions become important, and for many, memories of childhood Christmas hold a kind of