The Centre also provides training programmes for the unemployed. The courses teach both the theory and practice of permaculture. The students then act as multiplying agents as they return to their own environments and begin repeating elements of the project in the community. In the heart of the once bustling Port of London amid crumbling warehouses and decayed deserted docks, a living green natural park has been created on the site of the recently demolished Old Surrey Docks. There are fish in the ponds and songbirds in the bushes.
Wild flowers grow in profusion.
To the local residents it is a green oasis in the midst of urban Industrial blight. They come here to walk or just to sit and enjoy the sight, sound and scent of living things around them. TRUE was founded in response to a growing public call for the greening of British cities, particularly those blighted areas that have been abandoned by industry. TRUE s purpose is to preserve and protect urban wildlife both for its own sake and to allow for educational and recreational uses. The Trust works closely with municipal authorities, ecologists, planners, social welfare agencies and local residents to convert inner city wastelands into parks.