Putting Down Roots
Excerpt from an article by Kindred LCR
Duane Chong founded Grow Wellbeing in 2018, alongside his partner, Angela Samata, to focus on “work around community development, social impact and nature-based interventions,” he says. For the first two years it was predominantly Duane at the helm, supplemented by another forest school assistant and a handful of volunteers. Grow delivered sessions in schools and slowly built partnerships across the region, with organisations like the YMCA, local housing associations, Wirral CAMHS team and Barnardos Young Carers.
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It was steady, patient groundwork but it was also, by Duane’s own account, unsustainable in the long run. “I was still the principal delivery person for our activities and – before we got Kindred investment – I was doing the marketing, I was doing the bookkeeping, I was reaching out, I was doing the networking – all the things that sole traders do,” he admits.
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The arrival of investment from Kindred changed the trajectory of the organisation. By that point, Grow already held a contract with Lifelong Learning to deliver workshops across 20 schools and had been engaged by Mersey Forest to deliver part of a nature learning programme across the north west. The demand was there – what was missing was capacity.
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“We asked for funding that would enable us to employ a project coordinator for 12 months, a bookkeeper and a forest school leader, that we could offer regular hours to for a year,” remembers Duane. The investment came with a portion of the repayment due via social returns, making Duane candid about weighing up the risk. “I took confidence from Erika and Nicola – and others – about Kindred’s ambitions and its ethos and principles,” he says. “That made me think there is a risk involved in this… but it’s a risk worth taking.”
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Five years on, the results speak for themselves. Grow now employs four full-time staff and six other delivery staff, supported by four or five regular freelancers. “We’ve seen growth year-on-year, which is high growth,” Duane says. The relationship with Kindred has also become reciprocal: Duane has sat on money panels since 2022, drawn by a sense that “it’s not just a commercial transaction. Kindred was invested in us doing well and I feel like I’m contributing to the network and to the development of the ecosystem.“
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