Life-saving transformative service of garden volunteering

Transformative Service Research (TSR) aims to improve societal welfare through service. Based on free-flowing discussions with Garden Volunteers (GV) in Botanic Gardens (BG) and Automated Content Analyses of narratives via Leximancer and Nvivo, this TSR considers perceptions of experiences and impacts of GV activities on wellbeing. Such narratives highlight the health, wellbeing, and marked, personal transformation outcomes that volunteering in BGs brings. This exploratory study further develops insights on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3: Health and Wellbeing, Target 3.4; emphasis being on BGs and public, private, voluntary, and local communities to collectively improve services, which has capacity to support and enhance health and wellbeing outcomes, whilst maintaining the vitality and viability of BGs. It is recommended that gardens and similar settings further recognise and act upon transformative service: experiences, ecosystem aspects, impacts, and outcomes. It is notable that more effective use of garden volunteer’ stories to inform relevant service design and communication to the public, partners and potential partners regarding health and wellbeing outcomes become key objectives. Further longitudinal studies and analysis into monitoring and review of GV health and wellbeing would certainly be key recommendations, and to study transformative aspects of service making and subsequent marketing and management efforts.