Transition Town Tooting

Tag: CARAS

  • ‘Gardens of Refuge’ project wins 2017 funding from the Aviva Community Fund

    We are thrilled that Gardens of Refuge, the 2017 project working with Tooting refugees and asylum-seekers, has been awarded funding by Aviva. The project application was made by the local charity CARAS (Community Action for Refugees and Asylum-Seekers) and TTT are the partners along with The Grange respite centre in Norfolk.

    Thank you for all your votes and support! 

    Here’s our vision for the Gardens of Refuge project: please click here to read

    This funding award lets us look forward to a fascinating 2017, developing and delivering the new project and building on our learning and experience from our previous project together.  

    We want to do some things that we know work well, and also some new things.

    Plus we’ll invite ideas (and resources) from the many well-wishers who voted for Gardens of Refuge last November.

    A new feature that will add value is the new CARAS Youth Council. This governance group will help provide a voice for project beneficiaries in the youth club.
    We’ll also be working with other members of the CARAS community.

    We all expect to learn and benefit. One of our first reactions, apart from joy at the award and making the project real, is that this award gives profile and visibility to the fact that refugees’ lives matter, and that they have much to contribute in our shared communities.

    We’ll post more information on project plans as they develop.
    Yes, we all worked hard to get to this stage, so it’s great to have the affirmation from the Aviva Fund judges.
    It took us a while to be sure on announcement day: students of communication will be interested that Aviva made the ‘Project Winner’ info available online and by twitter…and it was 24 hours before CARAS received a direct email saying ‘You’ve won!’. By then we’d taken the public messages at face value and trusted that it was all true.

    And there are some extra surprises – such as a reception at Parliament in late January where all the funded projects can meet each other and their constituency MPs.

    We’ve worked since early 2015 with CARAS – that was on the ‘Rooting in Tooting’ project, supported by the Royal Horticultural Society’s ‘Greening Grey Britain’ campaign and by Sir Walter St John’s Educational Charity – more info here. That project brought new volunteers to CARAS & TTT; we’re really delighted with that.

    Thanks again for all your interest and support – 
    this is a very motivating start to the New Year!

  • Team London’s International Volunteering Conference, December 5th at London’s City Hall

    Egle, Jenny and Chuck were honoured to be able to present our shared experience from the joint CARAS + TTT ‘Rooting in Tooting’ project at this free conference yesterday. It was run by Team London to celebrate the end of London’s tenure as International City of Volunteering for 2016. Over 300 people attended.

    We tried to tell the story visually with pictures of participants and activities over 2015 and 2016. Here’s a snapshot of our presentation:

    You can look at the slides in the normal way by clicking here on the conference website. Our session was shared with Alkisti Macrynikola from Ethelon, an NGO in Greece who also work with refugees.

    We emphasised the project benefits for the young people, for CARAS, for the community, and for TTT. A graphic facilitator captured the day’s learning and stories, and Rooting in Tooting features in the top right of the image:

    We’re glad that some of the key points have come through – including achieving a ‘Sense of Belonging’ with the young people from the CARAS Youth Club. You can see the graphic full size by clicking here.
    There’s a lot of detail to explore!

    The main hall – wow!

    It was inspiring and too much to summarise in a few sentences – have a look at all the session presentations by clicking here. (Scroll right to the bottom of the page). One debate was whether ‘volunteering’ could be called ‘social action’ to make it sound more focused or more attractive to a different audience -‘to be continued!’

    London’s City Hall is a great venue, and the whole event was very welcoming. Thank you for inviting us!

    Tower Bridge, Chuck & Egle

    The garden at Potter’s Fields

  • Gardens of Refuge: yes we are through to the finals of the Aviva Community Fund!

    Brilliant success at the voting stage: Aviva Community Fund has just confirmed that we’re through to the finals for the Gardens of Refuge project! 
     
    We now do some further application steps by December 7th, and then there’s judging and then the results are announced January 10th ’17.
    Great news & thanks for all the support!
     

    To see the project description, click here: https://goo.gl/y6b66Y

  • First feedback after voting closed Friday 18th on Gardens of Refuge via Aviva Community Fund

    We’re proud to share where we reached when voting closed yesterday on the Gardens of Refuge campaign with CARAS.   
    Over 600 people supported the project online.
    We believe we came THIRD, with over 6200 votes. 
    WHICH IS WONDERFUL!

    Our formal ranking will be confirmed on 22nd Nov by Aviva & we’ll communicate wider after then. 

    If we’re in the top 4 in our project category, we go through to the next round – to a more familiar bid process.

    By the way votes went from 3400 on Weds morning to 6200 by lunchtime yesterday!

    Thanks for your votes, patience and energy in this period of repeated messages and nudges in every medium possible, dominating the TTT airwaves.

    Normal service can soon be resumed on communicating the rest of TTT’s rolling projects.

    Every vote really did count!

  • Please vote by 12:00 Friday November 18th for ‘Gardens of Refuge’ project funding from Aviva

    This week is the home straight for voting online for funding support for Gardens of Refuge at the Aviva Community Fund. It will come down to our tally of votes at the end of 18th November, and of course the other ‘Aviva projects’ are also doing a push this week.

    Please vote by Friday 12:00 for Gardens of Refuge, and ask your family and friends to vote too. Together we can support this creative and forward-looking Tooting partnership project with the refugee and asylum-seeker community centred on the Tooting charity CARAS.
    Every Vote Counts, and every vote is appreciated!

    How to vote?
    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!

    Project Details:
    Read the description of the project online here.

    For the future: bulbs for 2017

    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 own knowledge and skills locally.
    Together we’ll 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


     Thank you so much for your support & please vote by 12:00 on 18th Nov!

  • Celebrating and sharing learning from our experience of ‘Rooting in Tooting’

    This autumn TTT is delighted to be able to contribute to events to share our learning from Rooting in Tooting (our joint project with the refugee and asylum seeker community served by CARAS)
    It’s brilliant to be meeting new people and groups, and sharing in different ways: thank you for the invitations!
    We certainly don’t ‘have all the answers’ but we would like to join others in asking questions and sharing practice.

    There are 4 very diverse autumn 2016 events where we’re celebrating or telling the Rooting in Tooting story:

    1 The Royal Horticultural Society OneRHS managers conference

                      Credit: RHS / Julian Weigall

    CARAS & TTT were honoured to be the only outside speakers at this event for 175 RHS managers. We had fascinating discussions about how the RHS can most effectively engage with community projects.

    2 Team London Volunteer Awards 2016
    TTT is thrilled to be on the awards shortlist in the Greening & Cleaning category of the Awards. We’ll be joining other voluntary groups for the ceremony. Here’s the Mayor’s tweet on Monday morning: @MayorofLondon @SadiqKhan will celebrate the capital’s volunteering heroes at tonight’s #TeamLdnAwards at City Hall.

     

    3 Cause2Create: “where we find specific, targeted solutions to challenges posed by the refugee crisis”
    We’re invited to Cause2Create’s ‘hack’ weekend. “We know we’re not going to solve the refugee crisis in one weekend, but we can explore some of the specific challenges and develop scalable and actionable solutions.”

    4 International Volunteering Conference at City Hall, celebrating London as European Volunteering Capital 2016
    CARAS & TTT are co-facilitating one of the conference workshops in December. Joining in with the Greek volunteering NGO Ethelon, the aim is to explore training and community engagement aspects of working well with refugees. What benefits do both refugees and communities experience when working together?
    During the year we also:

    • Explored the project in an Outdoor Learning workshop at the Transition Network International Conference in Sept ’15 (linked to experience with Gatton School, NCS The Challenge, Tooting Field Days & the Tooting Community Garden).
    • Described the project at the Transition Network Day in Paris alongside the COP 21 climate change talks in December ’15.

    Interesting learning about project management is that none of these events was specifically planned when we started out in spring 2015. In the project plan we agreed that we wanted to share learning, and then be ready for serendipity and emerging opportunity.

    It was good luck and being flexible that we were able to link refugee Youth Club young people with Border Control, the concept garden at the RHS Hampton Court Flower Show

    Rooting in Tooting has involved over 20 local individuals who freely gave their time and experience alongside CARAS staff and volunteers: thank you all!
    We also want to say a big thank-you to two project funders:

    • The Royal Horticultural Society’s Greening Grey Britain Campaign gave us materials and expert advice, and opened doors to new opportunities to add value to the project
    • Sir Walter St John’s Educational Charity voted funds which helped us recognise the contributions of key session facilitators, and paid for art materials

    Finally – you will have spotted that we now have a new project with refugees and asylum-seekers under development: a 3-way partnership called Gardens of Refuge.

    We’re asking for public votes from our friends and supporters (and their friends!) for funding via the Aviva Community Fund. 

    All the details are here, and thank you so much if you can take the time to register and vote for the project!

  • ‘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.

  • Update on Border Control – Gold Medal garden at RHS Hampton Court Palace.

    On the 30th June CARAS Youth Club members travelled to the RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show to help with the build of the Border Control Concept Garden. It was a fascinating visit – to see the TTT blog post, click here.
    Now the garden is finished and open to the public. The Youth Club paid a second visit this week to see it.

    In the past week there has been a lot of interest in Border Control. Although we don’t claim any responsibility we are thrilled…
    The garden won an RHS Gold Medal, and also won the Award for the best of the ten Concept Gardens. 
    We’re proud because taking a very small part in the garden has helped us spread the word about the reality of refugees’ experiences and helped us be confident that our Rooting in Tooting project with CARAS is valuable. The visit has given fascinating experiences for Youth Club members as a group about encountering new aspects of Britain, and created and opportunity for them to explore and communicate their own responses.

    The Evening Standard covered Border Control again yesterday, including an interview with one of the CARAS Youth Club members – you can read the article here

    Finally, there are a few free tickets available for the Hampton Court Show, for tomorrow (Sunday) – the last day.  
    These tickets have to be collected in Tooting today, Saturday 9th July, before 4pm.
    This is a very last minute-offer so excuse the rush – if you would like to have a ticket or two, email as soon as you can to TTT at transitiontowntooting@gmail.com and we will explain how to collect.
    Go and visit Border Control in person!

  • Rooting in Tooting project: CARAS Youth Club members explore ‘Border Control’ show garden at RHS Hampton Court Palace flower show

    For over a year TTT has been facilitating Rooting in Tooting project activities with diverse groups of all ages via the Tooting charity CARAS (Community Action for Refugees and Asylum-Seekers).

    Yesterday we accompanied a group from the CARAS Youth Club to explore the build of the Border Control show garden at the RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show which opens on 5 July.

    Not ‘herbaceous borders’…. the garden is aiming to illustrate the physical and emotional challenges and successes faced by refugees: goals, barriers, borders, setbacks, surprises, hopes and fears.

    The show garden is the creation of 2 designers Tom Massey and John Ward, and supported by the UN Refugee Agency. Thanks to you all for the hospitality and discussions!

    Photo: Paul Wu UNHCR

    The young people met Mark Tran from The Guardian, and here is a link so you can read his article published today, titled Hampton Court Palace flower show to highlight plight of refugees.

    There were many more human stories just in the short journey we made together yesterday. For some of the young people it was their first ever train trip. “Look how big the river is here…where does it come from?” The dozens of teams of contractors on site made us wonder “how do they all know what to do..?”

    At the security gate we filled in forms and collected wrist ID along with our high-vis vests and brand new safety boots (thanks to Chris at the RHS, to Tom and Mark and to Laura from UNHCR for sorting all that out).


    We gazed thorough another fence at the semi-wild deer living in the park. In a preview of the butterfly dome, the free-flying insects settled on our shoulders and on the lantana flowers: “we have that plant everywhere in Afghanistan”.

    The build will be completed this weekend (it has to be) and on show all next week. The CARAS Youth Club will go again to see the finished garden. Maybe there will be other local visitors from Growing Tooting grow-your-own classes.
    Do visit Border Control & say you’re connected with TTT and our optimistic work with partners in Tooting.

    It’s the largest flower show in the world – have an eye-opening trip if you go!

  • Rooting in Tooting update: TTT’s project with local refugees and asylum-seekers

    We’d like to update you on the Rooting in Tooting project: TTT’s joint project with the Tooting charity CARAS (Community Action for Refugees and Asylum-Seekers).

    In our past blog posts (view them here) we’ve outlined that we have a year of diverse activities planned with CARAS.

    Participant groups include the CARAS Youth Club and After-School Club, with families and the Women’s Group still to come.

    The project purpose?
    Threefold – to help develop teamworking and relationships while enjoying new activities, to help develop language and communication skills, and to help participants feel that they are joining in with the local community.
    We’re so proud that CARAS won a Team Community Hero award at the Balham and Tooting Community Association annual celebration of local contributions on December 10th.

    Working with the Youth Club
    This is the group with whom we did the pilot project in spring – and it’s typical of working in the refugee setting that the individuals and participant numbers have been changing all the time.

    In one session we were making models of the rain-fed growing planters that we hope to build for real outdoors – a fun and focused session with a dozen young people.

    In another session two dozen young people carved pumpkins, and in another we did more screenprinting using local photos of Tooting scenes. That day one or two lads were on still in their first few days in England…others translated and helped them join in.

    What else?
    We’ve embarked on measuring and preparing timber for some of the outdoor planter construction projects that will turn into flourishing gardens in the spring.

    In December we did a mighty evening session printing 70 cloth bags with nearly 30 young people and volunters, again using local leaves as stencils.  These bags went home as presents over the holiday season, and many others were exchanged for a donation to CARAS.

    The Youth Club designed and printed many different bags!

    Working with the After-School Clubs
    In November and December we joined the clubs, in four age groups from 4 to 11 yrs old. We designed and screenprinted cloth bags with each child, using local leaves as the stencils (..’rooting in Tooting’..!)

    The children were great – and hats off to their energy to join in until 7:30 on mostly wet Monday evenings after full days at school.

    What’s next?
    We continue with the plans and preparation for building flower and vegetable beds, and we’re developing a new strand: designing and making a mural for the site. We have the Women’s Group and family groups to meet. We’ll be planting, growing and harvesting with the 2016 Tooting Foodival in mind.
    The reality is that our project approach has to be very flexible and responsive…we’re learning about the best approaches, all the time.
    In parallel the participants have other activities – for example the Youth Club have support for their college studies and they cook and enjoy meals together. They are taking part in games and training to explore stress, sleeping well, and keeping fit – all those as part of CARAS’ own Happy Future Project.

    Who is supporting Rooting in Tooting?
    People like you! We’re all keen to learn and contribute to alleviating a global challenge that we can work with on our doorstep – thanks so much to all who have volunteered so far.
    In the spirit of flexibility and responding to change, we’re a group of a dozen – some of us do a lot of other things with TTT, some join just this project. We’re never all there at once; some do more time and some do less and we have a mix of skills.
    This has worked out well so far – and if you are reading this and feel you would like to contribute, please get in touch with Charles or Jenny by email at transitiontowntooting@gmail.com

    We’re very grateful for funding and materials from the Royal Horticultural Society’s ‘Greening Grey Britain’ campaign and from the Sir Walter St John Educational Charity.
    Further support is welcome!
    Thanks to all – Charles