FoE Cymru
Sunday, 21 August 2011
Federation of City Farms & Community Gardens
"FCFCG are a registered charity which supports, represents and promotes community-managed farms, gardens, allotments and other green spaces, creating opportunities for local communities to grow.
We work with these community groups to help empower local people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities to build better communities, often in deprived areas, and to make a positive impact on their surrounding environment. Our work contributes to creating better communities across the UK in both urban and isolated rural areas.
We also provide the national face of the community farm and garden movement, promoting its work and raising its profile with decision-makers, funders, the public and the media.
We have forged a number of strong partnerships with other organisations in areas such as allotments, school farms and care farming."
One Pot Pledge
"The One Pot Pledge is an exciting new grow your own campaign from leading gardening charity Garden Organic. Our aim is to get 30,000 people who have never grown anything before to give growing a go."
Buried Treasure, Bristol
"Buried Treasure is an innovative organisation, offering training, support & work experience in organic gardening, composting and recycling issues. We are also very active environmental community consultants.
We offer the following:
A cost effective gardening service
Hedge trimming & chipping options
Work for volunteers that truly benefits the community
Training in organic garden skills
Composting services & advice
Environmental consultancy services
A community gardening tool bank for Knowle & Filwood
Buried Treasure is based at The Park in Knowle, Bristol. This site is a vibrant community resource for the immediate area and beyond.
We work with a wide variety of organisations, both statutory and voluntary. Training, workshops and volunteer opportunities are available.
Volunteers will experience a range of environmentally friendly organic gardening skills, from sowing seeds to creating a whole garden!"
Jekka's Herb Farm, Bristol
"Jekka's Herb Farm is an award-winning organic herbs nursery, growing over 650 herb varieties in pots to buy online, delivered to your door by mail order. Our range includes culinary, medicinal, aromatic and decorative herbs.
The UK's leading organic herb growers, we have won over 60 RHS gold medals,including 14 at RHS Chelsea Flower Show. We also hold regular open days and herb workshops."
Open Days
Create, Bristol
"Create is a vibrant environment centre which hosts a range of events and exhibitions and also features a purpose-built Ecohome."
Saturday, 20 August 2011
Low-Impact Living Initiative
"Low-Impact Living Initiative (LILI) is a non-profit organisation whose mission is to help people reduce their impact on the environment, improve their quality of life, gain new skills, live in a healthier and more satisfying way, have fun and save money."
Transition Bristol
"Transition Bristol is run by volunteers and acts as a hub for a network of Transition Neighbourhoods across the city. It is working to raise awareness of Climate Change and Peak Oil and the impacts both will have on our lives.
We’re not offering the solution – rather we believe that there are many solutions and that the skills, knowledge, creativity and experience of the community is where they can be found. What we aim to end up with is an Energy Descent Action Plan – a timetabled, well thought out plan for Bristol’s transition from an energy dependent system to a locally resilient, sustainable, productive and vibrant city. We think decreasing our dependence on fossil fuels could be an opportunity to create a better standard of living than we have now, where community is more important than consuming."
Transition Network
"Transition Network's role is to inspire, encourage, connect, support and train communities as they self-organise around the transition model, creating initiatives that rebuild resilience and reduce CO2 emissions."
Eastside Roots, Bristol
"Eastside Roots is a not-for-profit, volunteer-led cooperative focused on promoting gardening, skill sharing and community building in and around Easton, Bristol."
The Freeconomy Community
"The Freeconomy Community's aim is to help reconnect people in their local communities through the simple act of sharing. Not only is sharing our resources better for the environment, it saves you money and builds friendships with those people who live closest to you. It is what we call a WIN-WIN-WIN situation.
Everything is shared for FREE on Freeconomy, and no money changes hands between members.
We do not use advertising, we receive no donations or income from the website and it is completely free to join, forever. Why? Just for the love of it!"
Superkilen and The Red Square, Copenhagen
"Superkilen is located in Nørrebro (north-west), a multicultural part of Copenhagen with 60 different nationalities represented. To reflect the community, the park will be furnished with elements like benches, bins, trees, playgrounds, ping-pong tables, lamp-posts and signage - all imported from 60 different countries."
Full report...
Guerilla Innovation
Brake the Cycle
"Brake the Cycle is a brand new social enterprise, seeking to inspire sustainable living and positive action through two-wheeled, carbon free adventuring. We recently completed a 21 challenger strong Land’s End to John O’Groats expedition, cycling over 1,000 miles in 2 weeks, and raising over £11,500 for the Otesha Project UK and AfriKids.
Next up, our first ever epic challenge – a 14,000 mile, unsupported bicycle ride through Europe, the Middle East and Africa, from Camden to Cape Town. Follow co-founders Joe Reid and Marcus Letts on their long way down, from September 2011.
Folks, we need you support. We’ll blog. We’ll tweet. We’ll photograph thousands of people, places and projects in over 14 months on the road. Please ‘like’ our facebook page, here, or sign up for updates via our website, and share our highs and lows as we earn our stripes in zebra country. Do we know the way? Will we be eaten by crocodiles? How many punctures do you accumulate over 14,000 miles?
Over the next few years, we hope to establish a regular programme of UK and European team challenges. We’ll help to empower young people and encourage them to make more sustainable lifestyle choices, by visiting eco builds, permaculture projects, organic farms and sustainable festivals during 3 and 6 week cycle tours.
As well as supporting the projects we visit, our challengers will raise funds for other grassroots, environmentally conscious and not-for-profit people and projects."
A Taste of Freedom
"A Taste of Freedom is a new social and environmental venture that intercepts fresh yet unwanted fruit before it goes to waste and transforms it into healthy, delectable treats.
Each year in the UK alone 20 million tonnes of food are wasted, even while 80 percent of school children do not eat enough fruit and vegetables. We aim to highlight this enormous amount of unneccessary waste, alongside the importance of eating a balanced diet. All with a dollop of swirly frozen fun.
The Freedom team are building on their amazing success with Feeding the 5000, the event in London’s Trafalgar Square where 5000 members of the public were given a free lunch made from food that would otherwise have been wasted. As Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall remarked, "I think it's a brilliant way of highlighting the problem of food waste."
Tastes good?
Freedom organises interactive games and workshops as well as talks on food waste and sustainability by author and campaigner Tristram Stuart. If you'd like a taste of Freedom at your school, festival, event or venue, we'd love to hear from you."
Food Cycle
"The situation is dire, and here's what we're doing about it:
Food Cycle empowers local communities to set up groups of volunteers to collect surplus produce locally and prepare nutritious meals in unused professional kitchen spaces. These delicious meals are then served to those in need in the community."
Food Cycle Bristol
The People's Kitchen
"The People’s Kitchen utilises and spreads awareness of food waste and celebrates the power of community by bringing together a team of volunteers to transform food that was heading for landfill into beautiful cooked meals that are served up on a ‘pay what you want’ basis.
The food supply system is in a precarious situation, prices are rising, and in some areas food shortages are already a common theme. One billion of the world’s people are hungry and as the world’s population rises, the problems look like they will be getting worse.
Yet we throw away tonnes of food every year. Estimates put the level of food waste in the UK at 20 million tonnes from plough to plate.
All food has taken energy, time and resources to create. The People’s Kitchen aims to intersect this food surplus before it finds a sad end within our UK landfill sites which are presently full to bursting point.
The kitchen also celebrates People power. Many hands make light work, and many bodies and minds make for a beautifully social atmosphere both in the kitchen and later, the dining room. So come and get involved or even start your own People’s Kitchen.
The People’s Kitchen is as example to us all that many of the things that we want and need in life are already there around us, and don’t have to cost the world."
Bristol People’s Kitchen
"Bristol People’s Kitchen is a donation-based community dinner that happens at the Factory (2-8 Cave St/Portland Sq) every Tuesday at 8pm.
We collect food from supermarkets, markets etc that would otherwise go to waste and use it to cook for 40 – 50 people every week. The meal is always vegan and there’s usually a wheat-free option. We welcome donations of all kinds – food, time or money!"
The Factory, Bristol
"The Factory Social Centre, Anarchist Squatted Self-managed Space.
We welcome community group use for meetings, workshops, activities and events. There is no charge for use of the space but in order to maintain the building we rely on donations and your participation in care taking. The ground floor and first floor are public social centre space, the above floors are residential only.
We aim to create a non-hierarchical, safer space for everyone. You are responsible for yourself and your friends’. Respect the space, please clean up after yourself and respect others using the space. Don’t let your substance use/misuse affect those around you. Please leave your prejudices outside the door. If you see something that needs to be done for the space – you can do it! If you need help, just ask, we’re all in this together."
Warzone Collective, Belfast
"Warzone Collective began in 1984 when a few local musicians decided to pool their efforts, seize the time and get their own venue, practice rooms and social space. By 1986 the Collective opened its first premises in Belfast which provided a vegetarian cafe/drop in centre (Giros), practice and office space, venue and screen printing workshop. It developed organically along DiY lines and soon became a focal point for anarchists, punks, radicals, bohemians and other n’er-do-wells. In 1991 the Collective moved to a larger and more ambitious venue. Over the years thousands of people passed through the doors and were exposed to new ideas such as anarchism and DiY politics and the Centre became the counter-cultural hub for the greater Belfast area and beyond. Towards the end of 2003 the Centre closed for a number of different reasons but it left a gap in radical Belfast culture. In 2007 discussions began and eventually in 2009 the Collective has reformed and is going through the process of trying to establish a new venue.
Warzine is a DiY newsheet produced by the Warzone Collective periodically since the mid-1980′s. The newsheet is free and uncensored and offers news of what the collective are up to, reports on local struggle and international issues as well as personal opinion. Articles, rants and opinions as well as graphics are always welcome. Send contributions to warzonecollective@riseup.net and mark the subject box ‘warzine’.
Annual festivities were recently resumed this year and hopefully Warzone Fest will be an ongoing event in the future. Warzone Gig Collective is now putting on regular gigs. To get in touch contact warzonegigcollective@gmail.com or visit the fb page."
Next to Nowhere, Liverpool
"Next To Nowhere/Liverpool Social Centre is a volunteer-run, radical, do-it-yourself social centre.
We run a vegan cafe every Saturday afternoon, hold regular film nights and occasional other events, and offer space for groups to hold meetings & events.
We have computers & wi-fi internet access that you're welcome to use, and a library of radical books."
Star and Shadow Cinema, Newcastle
"At the Star and Shadow Cinema, we programme films, gigs, live art and exhibitions. Anything that we believe that is new, different, underground, original, and, we hope, good."
Freedom Press, London
"Freedom Press, which comprises Freedom Newspaper, Freedom Bookshop and Freedom Publishing, is a longstanding anarchist publisher based in Whitechapel, East London. Founded in 1886 it offered a much needed outlet for radical ideas and a meeting place for the anarchist thinkers of the day, and we seek to continue that tradition today along with promoting and supporting current social and political struggles. We are the largest anarchist publishing house in the nation and the oldest of its kind in the English speaking world.
We publish a range of radical literature including classics from such anarchist heavyweights as Kropotkin, Malatesta, Rudolph Rocker, Alexander Berkman and Colin Ward, to the history of the Spanish revolution and the Makhnovist movement, as well as biographies on Zapata, Bakunin and Nechaev, George Orwell, Willliam Godwin and William Blake, and is home of the ever popular Anarchist Quiz Book. Alongside books, we also publish a fortnightly newspaper which remains the oldest and only regular anarchist newspaper in circulation in the UK. It covers all aspects of the anarchist movement as well as news and issues, from a radical perspective, relevant to people’s everyday lives."
The Cowley Club, Brighton
"The Cowley Club is a social centre on London Road in Brighton. It houses a cafe and bookshop during the day, a members bar during the evenings. It also has a library and is a base for a variety of other projects.
The club is collectively owned and run as a base for those involved in grassroots social change and those sympathetic to such activities, giving us control over our social space and resources. It is run entirely by volunteers - no one gets paid, and no one is making any profit. Instead, we are trying to provide a much needed alternative to everything else around us."
Kebele, Bristol
"Kebele is based in Easton, Bristol, and since 1995 has provided space for the development of radical ideas and activities, community campaigns, and international solidarity.
Kebele means “community place” in Amharic, an Ethiopian language. The term refers to community institutions, which dealt with their own needs & concerns, such as justice, health and community democracy. During the revolution in Grenada in 1979, Rastafarians involved in the struggle used the term “kebele” to refer to the community centres in each neighbourhood from which, in theory at least, the revolution was based. In 1983, the USA invaded the tiny island of Grenada to crush the rebellion.
The founders of Kebele were inspired by these meanings of the word, and current members are too."
The Sumac Centre, Nottingham
"The Sumac Centre provides resources and a meeting place for local groups and individuals campaigning for human and animal rights, the environment, peace and co-operation world-wide.
Established in the mid 1980s as the Rainbow Centre, Sumac works independently of, but in co-operation with, other groups both locally and nationally."
The Initiative Factory, Liverpool
"The Initiative Factory/CASA was set-up in the aftermath of the Liverpool Dockworkers Dispute to uphold the aims and objectives of the ‘Sacked Liverpool Dockworkers’ in promoting ‘Fairness and Justice’ for all.
We were established as an Industrial and Provident Society in 1998 with the objectives of relieving poverty sickness and hardship and advancing education in Merseyside. In particular, the community work we do serves unemployed and socially excluded, both working and work-less, residents of Liverpool."
We were established as an Industrial and Provident Society in 1998 with the objectives of relieving poverty sickness and hardship and advancing education in Merseyside. In particular, the community work we do serves unemployed and socially excluded, both working and work-less, residents of Liverpool."
The Common Place, Leeds
"Our aim is to create a place in the city centre in which together people can enjoy a sense of community, affordable entertainment and food; a non-commercial place to relax, talk, be creative, meet people and find information on political campaigns, issues and actions.
The Common Place is run horizontally and voluntarily. By this we mean without leaders and hierarchies and by everyone for everyone. Acting and thinking in a non-authoritarian and non-discriminatory way does not necessarily come naturally, and since we are educated to blindly follow rules and leaders, we believe it important to develop the principles and skills needed for non-authoritarian working practices and relationships. The Common Place is committed to radical social change and equality.
Nobody gets paid, and nobody is making any profit. There is no 'executive': the fortnightly members' meetings on Thursdays are the main decision making body. This reflects the kind of society we want to live in – it’s all about self-organisation and mutual aid.
The Common Place attempts to be flexible, pragmatic, open to creativity, experimentation and new/different ideas; people are involved for different reasons with different expectations and so it's constantly changing and evolving.
An atmosphere of tolerance and respect is of the utmost importance here. Any kind of discriminatory, aggressive or violent behaviour is not welcome. The Common Place is open to all individuals to use, but representational political parties, profit-focused or repressive organisations may not use the space.
This is an inclusive place where we ask members and guests to respect diversity. We want everyone to feel comfortable here."
Friday, 19 August 2011
Landshare
"Landshare brings together people who have a passion for home-grown food, connecting those who have land to share with those who need land for cultivating food. Since its launch through River Cottage in 2009 it has grown into a thriving community of more than 55,000 growers, sharers and helpers.
It’s for people who:
Want to grow their own fruit and veg but don’t have anywhere to do it
Have a spare bit of land they’re prepared to share
Can help in some way – from sharing knowledge and lending tools to helping out on the plot itself
Support the idea of freeing up more land for growing
Are already growing and want to join in the community
It began with the tiny seed of an idea – and it’s growing and growing."
Landshare fb
Transition Easton
Transition Easton
"The Aim of Transition Easton
To raise awareness of peak oil and climate change within Easton’s diverse community and support the people of Easton to create a positive, sustainable, ‘relocalised’ and oil-independent future.
Transition Easton's Vision
A thriving, inclusive, resilient, sustainable Easton that has successfully transitioned to a low-carbon way of life.
Achieving the Vision
To achieve this vision here are some initial ideas on the sorts of things we want to do:
Celebrate what makes Easton special and harness the collective genius of the community to develop a positive vision for its future
Produce more of our energy and food locally
Be more energy efficient and less wasteful
Become less dependent on cars
Strengthen Easton’s local economy and local services
Relearn the skills that will help us to be more self-sufficient
Work with and build Easton’s community networks and develop a sharing, trusting culture
Include everyone in the transition challenge!"
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