Community Allotment Growth and Improvement to cater to a more numerous and diverse public (360G-EssexCF-A440278)
Funding Organization
£1,000
Recipient Organization
Towards materials and tools to set up a family allotment and orchard site
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Grant Details
| Amount Applied For | 4421 |
| Amount Awarded | 1000 |
| Award Date | 2017-04-18T00:00:00+00:00 |
| Beneficiary Location: Country Code | GB |
| Beneficiary Location: Geographic Code | E01015886 |
| Beneficiary Location: Geographic Code Type | LSOA |
| Beneficiary Location: Name | Southend-on-Sea 009D |
| Grant Programme: Code | 2016/17 |
| Grant Programme: Title | John Laing Charitable Fund |
| Impact Category | Transform access to, and engagement with, the environment and public spaces |
| Last Modified | 2021-04-29T00:00:00+00:00 |
| Planned Dates: Duration (months) | 12 |
| Planned Dates: End Date | 2018-05-01T00:00:00+00:00 |
| Planned Dates: Start Date | 2017-05-01T00:00:00+00:00 |
| Primary age group | All Ages |
| Primary beneficiary | Families |
| Primary ethnicity | White |
| Primary issue | Environment |
| Recipient Org: Description | Southend-on-Sea in Transition is part of the wider Transition Towns movement which aim is to address the challenges of climate change, peak oil and crisis economy through positive, local action. We do that through promotion of local food production, local renewable energy generation and ownership, sustainable building practices, reskilling, sustainable transport and promoting individual and community wellbeing and cohesion. To achieve these broad aims we look at practical local projects and have run awareness raising sessions and workshops for local residents. We help other organisations and individuals to network, become more effective at what they doing and inspire further social action locally. Our main website promotes local groups and events and we have an active Facebook group and newsletter. We run once per month networking meetings called Transition Drinks attended by members of the public and community leaders. We have helped initiated partnerships which applied successfully for funding such as The only Way is Green or which were able to start their own local projects such as Southend Inspiring Women and Southend Renewable Energy Coop. We support other groups through our volunteers and stalls with activities. For example we run the Seed Swap alongside South Essex Organic Gardener's annual Seed Potato Day and we support the Apple Day run by Trust Links. We currently run a community allotment open to the public where local residents and their families can come to learn how to grow their own food, take fresh food home and learn how to prepare it to improve nutrition. We use the principles of Green Gym hoping to improve local residents wellbeing through being in nature and physical activity. We break through isolation and improve community cohesion as people have a chance to meet new people and make friends. As the plot is run as a charity we generate goodwill from the community and support from local businesses. We have people visit who don't have their own gardens or never grew things before and they and their children enjoy spending time together exploring the plot. We take part in citizen research such as butterfly count and earth worm count to promote positive environmental attitudes and critical thinking skills. We use organic growing methods to improve soil health and the biodiversity of the site. We run additional activities to attract a wider range of the public who might not be interested in food growing but will still visit the plot and benefit from contact with nature and social contact. To do that we have run poetry sessions, bonfire in November, movement workshops and meditation activities. We are looking forward this year to activities in relation to drawing nature, music and life coaching. These activities have generated hundreds of social action hours contributed by the management committee and community members. We had a diverse range of volunteers and members of the public coming in as a one off or regularly with families with young children enjoying activities. We created a welcoming and therapeutic space with a number of our visitors being immigrants to the country and enjoying being able to apply the skills they learnt back home and make new connections. We have so far run everything on donations of materials, money and time from our volunteers and partners which meant progress was made but it takes a lot of time to develop the plot this way. The public interest has meant that the plot has become crowded and as we are starting to work with and advertise through South Essex Homes to their residents who live around the site we expect even more demand on the size of the space and type of activities. We have a lot of interest from families with young children who don't have gardens or the skills to grow their own and businesses such as childminders but they are in need of a dedicated plot. We would like to cater better to those who are not as strong physically but would enjoy the plot and those with disabilities or frailty but that requires infrastructure to be built ie. raised beds and to have electric tools on site where we don't have access to mains electricity. Another project we have set up is the Southend Repair Cafe run once per month from a community centre. Local residents bring their items which they would normally have thrown away and with the help of skilled volunteers and appropriate tools they learn the skills and build their confidence in repairing them. This addresses the issues of waste, changes attitudes towards repairing things, builds skills helping with further employment and creates new community networks. |
| Recipient Org: Web Address | http://www.sitcommunityallotment.wordpress.com |