Transition Town Tooting

Category: Wellbeing

  • Gardens of Refuge project – February 2017 monthly update as we start with a Family Activity Day

    After the long haul of communicating near and far for voting in the Aviva Community Fund last year, winning funding in January, and getting on with the planning for 2017…we’ve begun the project!

    Our first session with the CARAS refugee and asylum-seekers has been a Family Activity Day on Valentine’s Day..
    It was a familiar mother-and-children event like many repeated all across Britain when it’s half term, and that everyday normalness was exactly the point: creating a safe and friendly space for some fun and practical family time together as a community.
    That’s the purpose of Gardens of Refuge: to create with asylum-seekers and refugees a therapeutic sense of wellbeing and feeling at home, plus growing activities and meeting members of the wider local community.

    Run by CARAS staff and volunteers, plus more from TTT, by 11:30 the church hall at All Saints Tooting was transformed with friendly faces and drop-in games and toys for all ages.

    Egle from CARAS ran a 90-minute programme while lunch was being prepared:

    • In a circle of chairs: welcome, introductions & ground rules for inclusion and safety.
    • In a big burst of energy – playing ‘fruit salad’ to get us all interacting, adults and children alike.
    • At 3 tables: looking at images from the Tooting Community Garden and saying which kind of activities individuals would like to try out this year- gardening, picnicking & cooking on a fire; garden crafts; and enjoying nature. Everyone had 5 votes to distribute using sticky stars…results to be shared.
    • Continuing at the tables to decorate flower pots using stickers, feathers and pipe cleaners.
    Carefully writing a plant label
    • Transplanting growing pots of supermarket herbs (donated by Waitrose Balham). Each pot was divided into 5 or 6 smaller pots, so the roots of basil, parsley, coriander, and greek basil have room to grow on windowsills back at home, and so they could all be shared out between 45 people.  
    • Meanwhile lunch was being cooked by Rama, one of the Chickpea Sisters, plus Georgie and Sara from Abel & Cole (who donated fresh salad).
    • To really get an appetite, we played another active circle game: ‘change places if you are wearing stripes…’
    • Then everyone sat down together to enjoy a hot meal.
    • Departure at 2:45 was a balancing act as there were a lot of plants to carry home – some families had three buses to catch – and another time we’ll bring some extra paper bags.

      Thanks to the CARAS volunteers: Rama, Vicky, Ruby, Susan, Nadia.
      And to the TTT volunteers: Resina and her children, Rose, Georgie, Sara, Chuck and Chris from the Royal Horticultural Society. Chris helped us through 2015 and 2016 with ‘Rooting in Tooting’ our first project with CARAS, and is continuing as a mentor in 2017.

      We’re making plans for Gardens of Refuge activities both with the CARAS Women’s Group and the Youth Club. Yesterday we met the Club’s Youth Council to see how they can be involved in guiding the project. The Council is great – 8 young people from 3 countries who are gaining experience of leadership, communication and self-confidence. More on that group later.

      PS – CARAS and TTT both share other updates on our respective facebook pages and on twitter – do follow if you want to be closer to the action! And, do get in contact by email if you want to offer volunteering time or resources – or ideas – to the whole project; we’d love to hear from you.

      In the kitchen
      Our motorscootering mentor

    • ‘Gardens of Refuge’: our new partnership project for 2017 with CARAS & The Grange. Vote for funding online through the Aviva Community Fund!

      “To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.” (Audrey Hepburn)

      We are thrilled that Gardens of Refuge, our new partnership project plan has reached the final public voting stage of the Aviva Community Fund! The project is centred on the refugee and asylum-seeker community who are supported by the Tooting charity CARAS.

      Read the description of the project online here.

      For the future: bulbs for 2017

      Gardens of Refuge is listed under ‘CARAS’ on the Aviva Community Fund website.
      You’ll see that the project is all about growing the therapeutic benefits of gardening plus greening the community we share in Tooting.  
      And it’s about building ways to enable refugees to share their knowledge and skills locally to imagine and create a more beautiful neighbourhood as a legacy for all.

      Legacy: flourishing from 2015’s cuttings
      There are three partners in Gardens of Refuge:

      CARAS – with whom we have worked in depth for 18 months  on Rooting in Tooting.

      The Grange – a residential respite and permaculture centre in Norfolk who work with CARAS. Please see The Grange.

      & Transition Town Tooting

      As of today, the website is live for the public to vote for the projects they would like Aviva to support. 
      Voting is open until 18th November: but please don’t delay!
      Please vote and encourage Aviva to support Gardens of Refuge!  

      You have to register individually before you can vote: to register, please click here for the Aviva webpage
      Then search for CARAS or Gardens of Refuge to vote!

      Thank you so much for your support, 
      and please contact us by email if you have any queries.

    • Urban Heat 2nd October ’15: our third Tooting workshop on community-led approaches to urban heatwaves

      Today we hosted the third workshop in the Urban Heat research project. This is an 18-month research process into community-led responses to urban heatwaves, with a particular focus on the local impact on vulnerable people. The research is led by the Policy Studies Institute at the University of Westminster, with funding from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
      For the details of the wider project, please see our short posts on the two previous workshops in June and July. TTT has been inviting and convening local groups to take part, and hosting the events.

      Today’s workshops saw diverse Tooting community organisations meet a group representing the strategic and borough-wide institutions who have a mandate to act on heatwaves alongside many other priorites.
      This was not intended to be adversarial…! The purpose was to bring together key players who respond at different local and city ‘levels’ to heatwaves, all in the interest of local people’s wellbeing and health.

      The community groups summed up their ideas and proposals identified so far, and these were grouped into three themes:

      • Bridging and making connections
      • Communications and awareness
      • Resources and infrastucture

      Everyone present discussed each theme in detail – so we can all understand, anticipate and respond to the impact of urban heatwaves, together. There was a lot to talk about!
      The research team will be summing up points made and actions proposed. This is ‘action research’ – it is up to us all locally to decide which of these ideas are most valuable and can be put into practice, while the researchers continue with the next steps of the project.
      We’ll keep you informed.

      Represented today were: Age UK (Wandsworth), Be Enriched, Emergency Planning at St George’s Hospital Trust, Furzedown Low Carbon Zone, Housing Strategy & Development at London Borough of Wandsworth, Neighbourhood Network SW17, Public Health at London Borough of Wandsworth, Thinking Works and Transition Town Tooting. Thank you all!

    • Snapshots from the CARAS Open Day in Tooting

      TTT is looking forward to our new partnership project with CARAS and the RHS ‘Greening Grey Britain’ campaign (see our 18th Aug post below). To help launch ‘Rooting in Tooting’, we joined in at the CARAS Open Day at All Saints’ Church, Tooting. 
      It was a very welcoming day for the extended CARAS family, where many people knew each other and came to chat in the sun (or find some shade), or play outdoors. 
      We had a brilliant lunch made by The Chickpea Sisters (who’ll be at the Tooting Foodival on Sun 13th Sept). There was music, dancing…& some diverse growing action.

      Chris was flat out sowing seeds and playing with mud:
       

      Chris plus seed sowers
      Making mud seed bombs

       

      Threshing and winnowing wheat grown in the Tooting Community Garden: we took the heads of wheat and did the steps used round the world for thousands of years (and which are still in our language even if we’ve never seen it happen). 
      So, Seamus found helpers for threshing to separate the wheat grains from the heads, and then winnowing the resulting mix to remove the chaff:

      Bashing bags on the ground…
      …or jumping up and down on them
      Then, with the right puff, the chaff blows away
      Flicking up the chaff to catch the wind: experts!

      We also gathered great ideas in several languages for what to consider growing in the project: for food, for health, for beauty, and for nature:

      Thanks to all (of all ages) at the open day for getting so involved! 
      Plus, we’re grateful to Chris and Sophie from the RHS, and to Seamus, Jenny and Chuck from TTT, and all at CARAS. More news as ‘Rooting in Tooting’ develops.

    • Tooting Field Days – Free Family fun – Starting Sunday 19 April

      Tooting Field Days are local safaris based in and around Tooting; a chance to get outside and play, walk or make something. We can’t promise lions and zebras but you might discover something you’ve never seen before, think something new or have a mini adventure!

      Tooting Field Days will happen every month on a Sunday afternoon from April until September. The first Field Day is Sunday 19 April.

      The theme for the April Field Day is “Natural Neighbours.” Make a pine cone bird feeder, discover voices of Tooting past and do scavenger hunts in Streatham Cemetry. Drop in for part of the day or join us for the whole event.

      2pm: Meet at Tooting Library (75 Mitcham Road, SW17 9PD) to make a pine cone bird feeder that you can hang in your garden or balcony to encourage more feathered friends to visit you. Materials provided.

      3pm: Depart Tooting Library to do Tootingwalks 1, a specially-made audio walk packed full of music and the voices of local people, talking about Tooting past and present and Tooting’s love of food. MP3 players and maps provided.

      3.45 – 5.30: Treasure Trails, Scavenger Hunts and honey tasting in Streatham Cemetery (enter through gate on Broadwater Road).

      You can join us for the whole afternoon or drop in for just one section.

      All activities are suitable (and fun) for children and adults.

      Tooting Field Day is a collaboration between Transition Town Tooting and local arts organisation fanSHEN.

      To book a (free) place or for more information, click here

    • WHY A Wild Afternoon in Tooting? Part 3

      We’ve had two posts about WHY? we’re offering this urban ‘Wild Afternoon’ on Sunday (details in Events Calendar opposite).
      The first post was about making the commitment to get outside more – and enjoying the benefits of chance discovery here in Tooting. 
      The second post looked at some of the ways young people can take part in the outdoors – including examples of structured programmes.This post looks at connecting the outdoors to health & wellbeing.

      We’ll see the Project Wild Thing film on Sunday at 4pm. Another of their projects is developing information for maternity units, to help staff and mothers explore the value of being outdoors from week one: 

      Looking at all age groups, there’s a well-researched family of actions to promote wellbeing.  The ‘Five Ways to Wellbeing’ is a practical shortlist: Connect, Be Active, Take Notice, Keep Learning and Give. 
      These activities are simple things we can do in our everyday lives.
      The ‘5 Ways..’ were developed from evidence gathered in the UK government’s Foresight Project on Mental Capital and Wellbeing and published in 2008 by the New Economics Foundation.

      For example: In the second WHY? blog post we saw the young people from The Challenge group connecting with nature in a way that was new to them as they dug for potatoes; they were certainly being active, taking notice, and inquisitive about flowers and seed sowing. Yes they were learning and giving. Actions to benefit our wellbeing are simple and accessible, and outdoor opportunities are all around us.

      Here’s a great example from the National Wildflower Centre which summarises the ‘5 Ways’ as outdoor actions, and on a ‘loyalty card’:

       
      Brilliant, I wish I’d thought of this!
      It’s very neat method for reinforcing these positive actions. It makes me want to borrow this idea for the outdoor learning activities we do with Gatton School…there’s a lot to explore on just one small card.

      Come along on Sunday 22nd for a top-up of your natural 5-a-day.

      Finally: the Project Wild Thing film talks about how to ‘present’ nature to people who have lost the habit or fluency of getting into the outdoors. 
      Does nature need a local marketing campaign?
      TTT, fanSHEN Theatre, the Tooting Community Garden, the Friends of Streatham Cemetery and other partners will all help with that locally. Please join us. – Charles