Transition Town Tooting

Tag: Participation

  • Right to Grow in Wandsworth!

    Right to Grow in Wandsworth!

    What is a Right to Grow?

    We’re calling on Wandsworth Council to make it easier for local communities to turn unused public land into productive, biodiverse and welcoming spaces.

    The Right to Grow petition asks Wandsworth Council to:

    • identify council-owned land that could be used for community growing;
    • make suitable land available to community organisations through simple, free licences;
    • consider allowing communities to grow on sites awaiting development, on a temporary basis; and
    • support the wider campaign for a national Right to Grow.

    The basic idea is pretty simple: if a patch of public land is sitting unused, why not let local people make something brilliant out of it for their local neighbourhood.

    Sign the petition and support a Right to Grow in Wandsworth.

    From plot to possibility

    But first, we need to know where those possibilities are. That’s where Plot to Possibility comes in. We’re creating a map to help us spot the spaces around Wandsworth that could become something more.

    Spotted an unused space?

    Have you noticed an unused or underused space in Wandsworth that could be transformed into a community garden, food-growing area or space for nature?

    Let us know! We’re creating an open-source map of potential sites to help us scout out opportunities for nature recovery and community food growing across the borough.

    Send us the location and a few details about the site via the following form. Every space could be an opportunity to grow something. 

    Right to Grow meets Sustainable September

    September is Wandsworth Sustainable September, a month celebrating the brilliant sustainability work happening across the borough, from community gardening and growing to repair cafés, nature activities and harvest events.

    We have been taking our Plot to Possibility activities out to events across Wandsworth, to get people re-imagining unused spaces. On Saturday 12th we were at St Mary’s Church, along side Beautify Balham. On Sunday 13th we had a table at Paradise Cooperative’s Harvest festival.

    Coming up we will be at the Southfields Harvest Festival and Fishponds Harvest Festival, both on the 26th of September, followed by the Big Green Day of Action at the Woodfield Pavillion on the 3rd of October. Come say hi, take part in Plot to Possibility, and start mapping potential growing spaces in your neighbourhood! For details see below…

    Southfields Harvest Festival 
    Saturday 26 September | 12–2pm (see HERE)

    Fishponds Garden Harvest
    Saturday 26 September | 3–5pm (see HERE)

    Woodfield Pavilion Day Of Climate Action
    Saturday 3 October | 11am-2pm (see HERE)

    We’re also looking for more local events to join! If you’re organising a community, gardening, food or environmental event and would like us to come along, get in touch at dpateln@gmail.com.

  • Sewing & Sanctuary Update (Spring 2024)

    Sewing & Sanctuary Update (Spring 2024)

    We have now reached our second anniversary and the sewing group is going from strength to strength with around 20 regular members. Last year we featured in two short Oxfam films marking Refugee Week and Secondhand September.  Also marking the latter, we ran a sashiko denim patch workshop for 30 Oxfam shop managers and staff, in Mushkil Aasaan and secondly, we ran a repair and upcycling workshop, on the Oxfam shop floor.

    During the year we had two takeovers of the shop window, when we exhibited our handiwork to the shoppers of Tooting. The second of these was the culmination of a project ‘Different Ways to feel London is your Home’. This fantastic project was suggested and managed by our wonderful facilitator Patricia who brought her flair, skills and colourful creativity all the way from Columbia.  Acknowledging that many of us were originally from different countries or other parts of the UK, we celebrated this by making items for the home collaboratively, using recycled materials and including colours, symbols, fabrics or techniques from our various homes and cultures.

    The finished furnishings included a hammock made using crocheted strips of waste tee-shirts, a plaited rug made from sari falls recalling rangoli designs, a bed set using techniques from Afghanistan and labelled ‘dreaming of a better life in London’ and a fabric tea service recalling conversations over tea in Paris. As we made these items, various members of the group stood up and shared their memories of childhood, home and families and this was very moving.

    We completed our beautiful ‘Sewing and Sanctuary’ banner with each letter created by a different member of the group using a variety of techniques and all from repurposed materials of course! You may have seen it on display at Tooting Can or one of our other events. 

    We took it along to a meeting organised by Wandsworth Welcomes Refugees involving a number of local community sewing groups where we met a team from Liberty. This led to two visits (including some of our group members) to the Design Studio at Liberty. We have also made connections with a local fashion entrepreneur, Sakina O’Neill of Re-Runn and with the Royal College of Art who included us in their stakeholder engagement focus groups as part of their research into creating a regenerative fashion hub in Wandsworth. 

    Over the past year we have continued to produce work for other charities, some of our knitters producing chicks for Trinity Hospice’s annual fundraiser and we made textile picture postcards for Sprout Art’s postcard sale. As I write this, Oxfam Tooting is temporarily closed  for refurbishment but we continue to meet and in the future we have plans to sell some of our work in the Oxfam shop. Watch this space!

  • Travel into Tooting’s Future this Autumn!

    Travel into Tooting’s Future this Autumn!

    We are thrilled to bring Town Anywhere – a large-scale community visioning experience to Tooting.

    On Monday 21st October (9.30 – 4) this free event will bring people together to explore the future of our vibrant Tooting community.

    Town Anywhere is an extraordinary exercise. It invites us to step into the future, to reimagine and rebuild the world, and then to inhabit it. One of the most magical things I’ve ever been part of. Give your imagination a treat.

    Rob Hopkins, Transition Network
    Click HERE to reserve your place!

    ‘Town Anywhere’ brings a wide cross section of up to 200 people together in person for one day to imagine, build and then inhabit a positive vision of how the place they share could develop in the future.  First seeded and developed by artists Ruth Ben-Tovim and Lucy Neal at Transition Town Conferences over 10 years ago, the ‘Town Anywhere’ process has now been staged in towns and cities in the UK, worldwide online; in Europe and most recently in Hull Minster with 240 people.

    Get a taster by watching this fantastic short film of Town Anywhere in Hull. 

    Town Anywhere – Hull 2023

    ‘Town Anywhere’ brings the future to life through time travel, visioning, actual making and co-creating then coming back ‘home’ to harvest the learning. Outcomes include a tenant’s charter, a town centre ‘opening’ and a celebratory shared meal.  The process safely, constructively and playfully opens up inspirational thinking in communities about positive futures.

    This free, accessible and enjoyable visioning process has been proven to generate ideas and principles for developing not only a Town’s Governance and Community Decision Making Processes but also practical ideas for Community Finance; Health and Wellbeing; Food; Communications; Celebrations and Culture; Streets; Open Spaces; Goods and Services. 

    A short ‘day after’ event is held to gather key attendees; local policy makers and community players to capture the energy of what has been collectively imagined, to build on real possibilities for partnerships and shared initiatives.

    Can we learn anything from visiting the future? How we see the world is often rigid and complicated by our present day circumstances. Clearly there’s an urgent need to rethink how we might co-exist if we’re going to occupy the planet and, certainly in Hull Minster, there was a real interest in what a positive future might look like. … There’s no reason why, with the right people in the room, we can’t put ourselves on a corrective course.

    Dave Windass (Hull 2023 participant)

    Interested in getting more involved in our Tooting Town Anywhere?  Know of other people who should be there? We’d love to hear from you!

    Contact us at transitiontowntooting@gmail.com

    Funding for the project was received from The National Lottery Community Fund, distributed by Transition. Thanks to National Lottery players for making this possible.  Look for more information about Transition Together at https://transitiontogether.org.uk/

    Twitter: @TransitionTog & @TNLComFund

    Facebook: @TransitionTog & @TNLCommunityFund

    Instagram: @transition_together & @TNLCommunityFund

  • Living with the climate crisis / carbon conversations

    Living with the climate crisis / carbon conversations

    Would you like to join local residents for a programme of facilitated workshops exploring our responses to the climate crisis -personally and collectively?

    Living with the climate crisis is a programme of workshops which offer a mix of psychologically-based groupwork and experiential learning which support people in managing their feelings, experiences and actions towards this complex issue. 

    Anxiety, distress, burnout and despair are common responses to struggling with climate change. The workshops provide a space for people to talk, to share, to express what they feel and to reflect, but they also offer tools, ideas and skills for action. They focus on:

    • support and understanding
    • communication
    • finding pathways to carbon reduction and community and political action

    The programme was designed by the same team who designed Carbon Conversations, which we ran in Tooting for several years – you can read more here.

    We will be running a programme of these workshops in the Tooting area during June and July 2023.

    If you are interested in taking part please email Ben Cuddon to learn more: bencuddon@gmail.com

  • #createfoodival

    There’s a lot to share about all that’s happening at the Tooting Foodival on 14th September, so we’ll cover all of these in separate blog posts.

    We hope you enjoy the info about our creative offer for adults and young people. All invited to our base in the large yard part way down Hereward Road.

    Here’s your invitation 
    to a diverse 6 hours of creativity:

    Our schedule:

    11:00-12:30 We’ll be micro-observing with Annie, Nikki & Chuck using magnifying glasses and a microscope, drawing and creating the first small worlds which we’ll post on Instagram with the hashtag #createfoodival. We started with posting a first example today – have a look.
    We can’t wait to encourage visitors to be drawn to nature!
    We’ll continue these activities all day in parallel with the timed special sessions below.

    12:30-1:30 We welcome May Webber from the UK national charity Butterfly Conservation
    May will bring specimens of insects for us to explore with the help of her expertise and enthusiasm. With May and Nicola we’ll draw and realise that what’s good for insects in London is also good for people.
    MAYBE we will be able to run moth-trapping locally on Friday night, and bring the catch in unharmed to observe and draw.

    1:30-3:00 Nikki and Matt will be creating Microbrellas – our spin-off from this spring’s Jellybrella project which created big jellyfish-sculptures using scrap umbrellas and linked sea life with ocean plastics.

    Making beautiful detailed microbrellas also aims to highlight how minute nano-plastics in the oceans are as damaging pollution challenge as large-scale waste.

    We may have a visit from Jasmine the Mermaid and her stop ocean plastics campaign!

    3:00-4:30 Paul will lead us to create easy-to-use small home planters out of re-purposed materials. You can take these home and keep growing fresh food this autumn.

    All day Think Outside will join us in the creative yard with excellent outdoor learning activities complementary to #createfoodival – thanks for joining us, Beata & Think Outside

    We’ll display what you make on this inspiring sea turtle table made by Jamie Pattinson – it’s a wonderful object with a plastic waste message.

    The #createfoodival facilitators look forward 
    to seeing you on the 14th from 11:00 to 5:00. 
    And there’s all the rest 
    of the Foodival to enjoy, too!

  • Growing Community across London – Part 2

    Our previous blog post describes Growing Community Part 1 – and to recap in the last week of July our long-planned collaboration between Ravenstone School and Tooting Community Garden offered two interlinked local ‘Growing Community in the Heart of the City’ workshops as part of The Mayor of London’s National Park City Festival

    The common green thread running through both events was celebrating city growing and the outdoors, creating an environment which is good for ourselves, for the community and for nature.

    Blog post Part 1 describes the Ravenstone School event on July 22.
    Here we’re sharing what we did together in the second of the two events, the Tooting Community Garden open day on July 28th.

    The garden team of a dozen volunteers met early (no Sunday lie-ins) to put up signs, hang our TTT bunting, set up activities and then provide a warm welcome and an invitation to join in the day in any way people wished. We wanted to demonstrate that being outdoors together is accessible and enjoyable.

    Over 80 people came along on a Sunday with an on-off forecast for rain. We decided to not put up gazebos, and we were all rewarded with a lovely afternoon.

    The welcome table gave a focus for saying hello and having a chance to talk with visitors who either explored the garden, relaxed or joined one of our fun and practical activity workshops:

    1. Creating vertical wall planters with Paul: sharing environmental, DIY, creativity and urban growing benefits.

    2. Being guided by Sharon to select plants and re-purposed containers to take home – building growing skills and wellbeing.

    3. Joining Jane’s ‘Drawn to Nature’ drawing workshop: enjoying taking time to observe and be present, with wellbeing and drawing practice benefits.

    4. Annie’s creative workshops in the family zone: sharing benefits of creating together in unusual ways across generations or with people new to you and learning fun techniques to take home.

    Feedback from visitors included:
    ‘A lovely place, and lovely people’ ‘A lovely celebration of nature and community spirit’ ‘The day was beautiful, well thought-out and sustainable’ ‘A nice peaceful day and a great community feel’ ‘Loved the community feeling and how positive and welcoming everyone has been’ ‘What a lovely garden, and such friendly people. We’ll be back’

    Our own responses to the day?
    It was very affirming for the Community Garden team to welcome so many people who enjoyed what we offered together. Sundays in the Garden are fun and informal, and it was a good challenge to do something different, facilitating an engaging and outward-looking day.
    Plus, it was our 8th birthday as a garden project since being generously offered use of the land by Naseem Aboobaker.  

    Many volunteers have opened the Garden space on over 400 Sundays. 
    That’s worth celebrating!

    Thanks to all the volunteers: Amanda, Annie, Chuck, Deb, Jane, Kay, Keith, Paul, Ryan, Sharon & Tom. A big shout out to our new friends and qualified first aiders Alice & Charlie who joined us on the day to provide that cover – thankfully they had no cause to leap into action. Kudos to photographer Bryony Williams for images used here (plus more for another time) and to Kay and Chuck for other pictures in this blog.

    Everyone is welcome to join us at the Community Garden every Sunday from 11:00 to 1:00 (sometimes later into the afternoon). No experience necessary and we share any updates or changes on our Tooting Community Garden Facebook and Instagram pages.

    The annual Tooting Foodival – our twelfth! – is TTT’s next big community event! It’s taking place on Saturday 14th September and we hope to see you there – it’s going to be great!

  • Growing Community in the Heart of the City: two linked local events offered as part of The Mayor of London’s National Park City Festival

    ‘Growing Communities in the Heart of the City’ is this weekend in the Tooting Community Garden!
    We’ll be running our free open day on Sunday 28th July from 12:00-4:00 to celebrate the National Park City Festival and also our 8th birthday (we’ve opened the garden on around 400 Sundays!)

     

    What will we be doing on Sunday?

    • Welcoming everyone to come along and enjoy the space – no need to book.
    • Bring a picnic, and we’ll provide activities, green space, shade and plenty of cool water!
    • We’re offering a particular welcome to families with young children or babies – come and have some outdoor time in a safe and welcoming place.
    • We’ll have a range of fun garden-themed activities for families and young children.
    • We’re also offering three timed workshops, just drop in:
      • 12:30 – 1:30, learn about making vertical wall planters so you can garden anywhere with very little space
      • 1:00 – 2:00, learn about selecting and taking care of plants, and choose some to pot up and take home
      • 2:30 – 3:30, be ‘Drawn to Nature’ and join our plant life drawing workshop for adults and teenager
    • Of course you can simply come along and enjoy being in the garden – so do bring a blanket to sit on and a picnic.
    All welcome!
    You can follow Tooting Community Garden on Facebook and Instagram – join us!
     

    We’re celebrating city growing and the outdoors, creating an environment which is good for ourselves, for the community and for nature.

    We also facilitate other community programmes in the Community Garden. 
    For six years we have run outdoor learning with Gatton School and garden and wellbeing activities with the beneficiaries at CARAS the Tooting charity working with asylum-seekers and refugees.  

    We’re proud to be able to offer to share the space with everyone locally and also very grateful to Naseem Aboobaker of Mushkil Aasaan for the free use of her land to create this community garden during these years.


    At the end of July it’s The Mayor of London’s National Park City Festival. The Festival is city-wide and celebrates London becoming the first urban national park in the world, with three objectives: making London greener, healthier and wilder. 

    On July 22 and July 28 we are offering two free events that we have developed along with Ravenstone School. 
    The events are called Growing Community in the Heart of the City…Parts 1 and 2.
    Links to both the events:
    Part 1 is on Monday 22nd July at Ravenstone School. For details please click here. 
    Part 2 is on Sunday 28th July at Tooting Community Garden. Please click here for details. 
    Here’s a thumbnail of the Community Garden poster.
    You can download it by clicking here. The day is also the Garden’s 8th birthday!
    Both these events are going to be participative and fun. 
    At each, you can simply come along and enjoy the atmosphere, or come for some of the timed workshops. No need to book.
    There’s similar but different things happening at each event: you are very welcome to come to both!
    For example in the Ravenstone School workshop on 22nd July, we’ll make wall planters using re-purposed pallets and we’ll show participants how to establish and care for plants you can take home in containers. You can find out about The Wild Place For Nature that’s being created at the school
    At the Community Garden on the 28th July we’ll be making vertical planters using saved-from-waste textile and learning about planting and looking after plants you can take home. 
    Plus: come and be drawn to nature in our outdoor plant life-drawing workshop.
    Of course you can simply chill out in the lovely garden – and we are offering a particular welcome to families with babies or young children who may love to be out in our city oasis.
    The common green thread running through both events is celebrating city growing and the outdoors, creating an environment which is good for ourselves, for the community and for nature.
    Lots more information to come about all the content of both events. Check the links above for outline details and timings.
    Would you like to volunteer? Get in touch and let’s chat!

    Save the dates and we look forward to welcoming you.

  • Jellybrella creative workshop takes off on May 11th

    We’re thrilled to be running the Jellybrella creative workshop in a fortnight as part of Wandsworth Arts Fringe.
    Free and for all ages: all welcome to join us!

    We’re holding the Jellybrella workshop from 10:00 to 4:00 on Saturday May 11 in Furzedown at Sprout Community Arts.
    Bring an umbrella or two if you can – perhaps you can re-make a neglected one or celebrate your favourite loved brolly.

    We’ll get straight into making led by Nikki and Chuck, and at intervals our storyteller David will move us with tales of lost & found umbrellas & living with less waste. He’ll be helping us be imaginative and thoughtful about the links between being artists for the day and taking care of the health and wellbeing of our neighbours, community and city.
    We’ll finish with a parade right outside Sprout – and if it rains, there’s no problem as we’ll have Jellybrellas.

    To  book workshop places – don’t hesitate to bring the family – please visit Transition Town Tooting & Jellybrella event pages on Facebook here and send us a message.

    A bucket of donated brollies  – each of them waiting to be transformed by you into a Jellybrella.
    Come on May 11th to our creative workshop and find out the difference!

     

    We’re very grateful to Wandsworth Grants Fund and the Wandsworth Arts Fringe team for supporting Jellybrella.
    That’s all the May 11th workshop details; please read on for more of what we have learned so far while doing the Jellybrella project.


    Why transform umbrellas into Jellybrellas?  
    When we developed this idea in November last year we felt that re-purposing umbrellas would strike a chord. Umbrellas are practical and give us shelter, make us beautiful and fashionable, play roles in literature, style, faith and celebration, can make us private and isolated when we navigate a busy pavement in the rain. They are often discarded (look around in pubs and cafes – you are never far from a lost umbrella) – or maybe they are kept in a cupboard at home, perhaps neglected or superseded. We love them when they do their job…what value could they have at other times? All these values and relationships are rewarding to explore.

    Linking with local and global waste
    In the workshop we make the link with waste, plastics pollution in the oceans and the circular economy. Creating a Jellybrella makes those big challenges real as choices right here in Tooting.

    The similarity with a wonderful ocean jellyfish is obvious when our creations are in motion. Every item we use in the workshops is re-purposed – from many sources, from participant donations and in particular from two community partners, Wandsworth Oasis and Work & Play Scrapstore. Thank you so much for the support!

    Creativity and adventure 
    Making a Jellybrella is adventurous – maybe you like to have a plan and have a vision for what you want to create, or maybe you add materials until the right moment emerges to call it finished. Maybe you work solo or in a group…maybe adding to someone else’s creation. Experiencing them as sculptures, they can be static, folded up and rolled loosely or tightly; when opened they invite movement and expansive gestures. Take a look at a broken umbrella – simple and ingenious construction…what does it remind you of now?

    Wellbeing 
    Making together – ‘thinking with your hands’ – is beneficial and positive as a small group or community experience – and solo. Sometimes we need an opportunity like this workshop to encourage us…

    Think of all the links between being creative together and the Five Ways to Wellbeing:
    Connect, Be Active, Take Notice, Learn, Give.
    There’s a good description on the Mind website here.


    Come and explore all of the features of making a Jellybrella!
    Jellybrella workshops we have done so far with adult and family groups have revealed many fascinating aspects of the umbrellas we take for granted.  We’ll share more on the adult workshops carried out with seniors and with people experiencing sight loss or dementia.

    “People don’t know that we need Jellybrella but 
    afterwards we’ll wonder how we lived without!”

  • Donate and transform your old or broken umbrellas into a Jellybrella!

    Our Jellybrella participatory arts project reuses waste to celebrate creativity, diversity and sustainability. The main event is a free family day on May 11th at Sprout Community Arts in Furzedown, offered as part of the Wandsworth Arts Fringe. More info here.

    Donated at TTT’s ACE

    The raw materials we’re using are all saved from scrap, and the key thing we need is lots of umbrellas! 
    Maybe some of the lost umbrellas of Tooting which gather wasted and folorn in corners of pubs and cafes?
    Maybe an old or broken brolly of yours? 
    Maybe one you find in the road?
    You can donate in many ways to the Jellybrella project: your golfing or fishing brollies, pretty parasols, or classic old school British black rolled-up umbrellas.

    Where to donate a brolly in March & April:

    • Bring to the Tooting Community Garden any Sunday between 11:00 & 1:00. We’re at 5 North Drive SW16 1RN
    • Bring to any other TTT meeting – for example the Open Monthly Meeting on Tues 12th. Details on TTT events calendar.
    • Leave them for us at the Work & Play Scrapstore
    • Leave them for us at any of 3 Wandsworth Oasis charity shops – at Amen Corner, at 40-42 Trinity Road or at 127 Mitcham Lane
    • Leave them for us at the South London Makerspace in Herne Hill

    Thank you to partners and friends and well-wishers for contributing!
    And of course all welcome in May to the Jellybrella experience.

    Found in the street, still beautiful
    Donated by the Oasis Shop Trinity Rd

     
    What we’re doing right now is facilitating Jellybrella workshops with diverse adult groups. This week we worked with a group of adults with sight loss at the Balham Resource Centre of the Thomas Pocklington Trust. It was fascinating – we’ve posted the full story on TTT’s facebook page, and here’s a couple of snapshots from the workshop:

     





  • Jellybrella: TTT’s creative project for spring 2019

    In Spring 2019 TTT is inviting everyone to join in with Jellybrella, our free and participatory community arts sustainabity project reusing waste to celebrate creativity, diversity, welcoming, wellbeing and making alongside others.  
    We’ll be popping up in February, March, April & May. All invited!

    It’s early days to be sharing this, but we’ve started to share info on Jellybrella so it’s an opportunity to tell the full story on the blog. Yesterday we created an Instagram account – have a look.
    Thanks loads to David Pitt for donating time to create our logo!
    We’re proud that the May 11th event will be part of the Wandsworth Arts Fringe. It will be a free family creative workshop for adults & children where we’ll use scrap materials to create exciting sculptures. 
    Specifically we’ll be transforming the lost and found umbrellas of Tooting, getting together to enjoy some community making –  we’ll all become artists making our community beautiful with stories & hands-on making together.
    Why umbrellas? We’ve realised they are everywhere – in pubs, stations, public spaces; left behind, lost, broken…or maybe usable.
     
    Umbrellas represent shelter, put you into your own little umbrella-world and we use them to express ourselves, to look and feel good. They are so diverse…and that’s before we have decorated them.
    Why Jellybrella? Think umbrellas transformed into jellyfish: we’ll re-use waste materials to make giant sea creatures, sea flowers & jellyfish.
    Before the public event on May 11th we’re also doing a series of workshops with diverse local adult groups. Those will be differently-facilitated from the family day – an adult group’s response to creating with umbrellas will be different if, for example, they are visually impaired or a dementia group. Please get in contact here to chat if you are part of an adult group that may be interested to host a workshop.
    Whatever the setting, in the workshops neglected umbrellas will come alive with their trailing tentacles of many colours. Or make your Jellybrella into a message or poem with a cascade of words.  As proud makers we’ll parade them – the test ones we’ve made are great in motion. If it rains on our parade…we’ll have our Jellybrellas!
    There will also be a storyteller who will move us with tales of lost & found umbrellas & living with less waste, helping us all be artists taking care of the health and wellbeing of our neighbours, community and city.
    All materials will be provided – if you like please bring your own favourite or neglected umbrella (surprise us!) to transform into a Jellybrella.
    The venue in May will be Sprout Community Arts in Furzedown and we have 3 other key partners. Young people from CARAS are aiming to co-facilitate and we’re looking forward to fabulous materials from the Work & Play Scrapstore and from Wandsworth Oasis – thanks for all this community support!
    We are also very grateful for the support of the award of a Wandsworth Arts Fringe Grant. That’s great to make the project happen and to put it on the map, and having the funds enables local artists to maintain their own livelihoods. 
    “People don’t know that we need Jellybrella but afterwards we’ll wonder how we lived without!”