Transition Town Tooting

Tag: Participation

  • TTT’s new series of practical & participative local ‘Carbon Conversations’ is running in November & December – you’re invited to take part!

    Carbon Conversations is back! Our new series of six free meetings in November & December in SW16 – organised by TTT’s Ben Cuddon. 

    The facilitated workshops enable individuals to explore the areas of our lives where we can reduce our own carbon emissions: travel, food, domestic energy, consumption and waste.

    A quote from a past participant:  
    “The beauty of Carbon Conversations is the 
    optimism, creativity and shared ideas” 

    During the six weekly sessions you’ll discuss in a supportive atmosphere all the practicalities of making your own ‘low-carbon lifestyle’ changes. Making these changes is never one size fits all. 

    Exploring your own situation, start point and preferences is so valuable and makes the series personal and practical. 

    The meetings are well structured with a mix of games, conversation, debate, activities and exercises.

    Click here for the flyer and here are the summary details:
    Venue: in SW16 between Mitcham Lane & Streatham Common Station 
    Timings: all meetings run from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm 
    Dates: six Thursdays from Nov 1st to Dec 6th, once a week
    Free: there is no fee to take part. The only cost is currently £14 for the workbook and learning materials, which TTT charges at cost. Sessions are led for free by TTT’s trained Carbon Conversations facilitators. 
    To join or ask any questions: contact Ben Cuddon by email here or TTT by mail here

    TTT has run over 12 series of Carbon Conversations since 2011. 
    On average participants are able to identfy how to reduce their own carbon footprints by a third – by over 4 tonnes of carbon.
    Wait a minute! 
    What does ‘four tonnes of carbon’ mean? 
    You may already be worried about shorthand & jargon. The way we facilitate the meetings means that you do not need to be an expert. 
    Although it’s a complex subject, we guarantee that by the end of the sessions you will learn useful new language and concepts and understand the practical elements of household carbon reduction.

    This series is a great place to start if you want to reduce your carbon footprint, meet some friendly and like-minded people and explore the topic as it affects you, rather than being lectured at!

    As a participant said: 

    “At the last session I don’t think anybody wanted to leave!”

     Join us to find out how to reduce heat loss from your home!

  • The fabulous OaKomotion! Carnival promenading in Furzedown: re-imagining, movement & change

    Ten days ago the fabulous OaKomotion! travelling Carnival promenaded all round Furzedown.

    The whole amazing sunny event was based on the sucess of the Furzedown Oak Community Project. 
    In the Project community artists and host groups adopted sections of the large American Oak felled locally. Then they created sculptures to give the oak a rich and longer life. Read all about the Project here!


    Oakomotion! started at 10:30 on Sunday 24th June outside Sprout Community Arts. As Fio Adamson says: 
    “As soon as Vince and the Never Wilbies started playing outside Sprout at 10.30 on Sunday morning I realised that music in the streets is all we need to complete the Furzedown dream.”
    Read about the whole carnival day in Fio’s report – read or download here.

    Tooting Community Garden hosted the last part of the day. Fio writes:
    “A secluded dream-place with bees buzzing, veggies growing and flowers greeting the sunshine.  The Bean Dragon made by myself and 80 others still lives and should live there for many years to come. Remember the Big Day Out 2016, Dahomey Road street party and the Foodival the same year? – yes,  you too probably chipped away then at the big piece of Oak and helped it on its way.”

    Here’s the oak Bean Dragon – part bench, all magic:

    Below there’s the new Community Garden table made with young refugees and asylum-seekers from the Tooting charity CARAS.
    It’s inscribed in many languages with messages of welcome, and all were invited to add more. When there was no more room on top it was the turn of the table legs to be decorated. Come and see the Dragon and the table any Sunday from 11-1 when the Garden is open to all.

    Really the whole day was about re-imagining, movement and change,
    from a felled tree to some beautiful living sculptures; 
    from all corners of Furzedown to our hidden but accessible oasis. 
    Thanks to Fio and all the OaKomotion! team.
    Here’s the dancing finale in the garden:

  • TTT’s new series of practical & participative local ‘Carbon Conversations’ is running in April and May

    Carbon Conversations is back! Our new series of six free meetings in April & May in SW16 – organised by TTT’s Ben Cuddon. The six facilitated workshops enable individuals to explore how they can reduce their personal carbon footprints. The meetings bring together small groups of local people to discuss the areas of our lives where we can reduce our own carbon emissions: travel, food, domestic energy, consumption and waste.

    A quote from a past participant: “The beauty of Carbon Conversations is the optimism, creativity and shared ideas”

    During the six weekly sessions you’ll discuss in a supportive atmosphere all the practicalities of making your own ‘low-carbon lifestyle’ changes. Making these changes is never one size fits all. 

    Exploring your own situation, start point and preferences is so valuable and makes the series personal and practical. 
    The meetings are well structured with a mix of games, activities and exercises.


    Click here for the flyer and see below for summary details:
    Venue: in SW16 near Streatham Common Station 
    Timings: all meetings run from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm 
    Dates: six Thursdays from April 19th to May 24th, one a week
    Free: there is no fee to take part. The only cost is currently £14 for the workbook and learning materials, which TTT charges at cost. Sessions are led for free by TTT’s trained Carbon Conversations facilitators. 

    TTT has run over 10 series of Carbon Conversations since 2011. 
    On average participants are able to identfy how to reduce their own carbon footprints by a third – by over 4 tonnes of carbon.
    Wait a minute! 
    What does ‘four tonnes of carbon’ mean? 
    You may already be worried about shorthand & jargon. The way we facilitate the meetings means that you do not need to be an expert. 
    Although it’s a complex subject, we guarantee that by the end of the sessions you will learn useful new language and concepts and understand the practical elements of household carbon reduction.

    This is a great place to start if you want to reduce your carbon footprint, meet some friendly and like-minded people and explore the topic as it affects you, rather than being lectured at!

    As a participant said: 

    “At the last session I don’t think anybody wanted to leave!”

     Join us to find out how to reduce heat loss from your home!  

  • A party marking the end of our Gardens of Refuge project year with asylum-seekers and refugees. Plus ‘Signs of Welcome’: to be continued in 2018.

    It’s the end of the project year for our partnership with the CARAS team and the refugees and asylum-seekers they serve.

    Of course we are going to do more all together in 2018, and we’re planning that now.

    Yesterday was the end-of-year CARAS Saturday Youth Club party, enjoyed by over 50 young people and volunteers. 

    It was a high-energy afternoon with continuous home-made food to keep us going.

     Alongside the ping pong and games:

    • we did more carpentry on the big pallet-table we’re making for the Tooting Community garden
    • we made lots of Christmas baubles as gifts
    • we made over 20 macramé knotted hanging planters, using offcuts of T shirts as the strings. We were thrilled to have Tooting spider plants and tradescantia from Share Community garden.
    • we finished the party with a gift game of choice and chance from the roll of the dice to select, give, and swap presents

    The youth club is always a wonderful few hours when lots is offered and appreciated – all at the same time. 

    So we’re sharing photos mixed together, like the day itself. Its impact and welcome always feels much more than the sum of all the separate activities spread over 3 or 4 hours.

    Signs of Welcome workshop
    Late in November we had the opportunity to facilitate a workshop at the Museum Of London. CARAS is included in the fascinating exhibition called The City is Ours. It’s on until 2nd January and all ages would enjoy the mix of imagination, facts and ideas about living in complex diverse city like London. It’s well worth visiting!

    We ran a short hands-on workshop for children and adults in which we made Signs of Welcome, inviting anyone – including refugees and asylum-seekers – to rest, enjoy, join in with what they find in London.

    Without a lot of theory or introduction, over 50 people drew and decorated their welcomes in many languages.     We used strips of recycled foamboard from the Work and Play Scrapstore in Earslfield. Just like using the re-purposed strips of T shirt to make hanging planters it was good to explain that the attractive materials were saved from waste.
    It was an energising and also thoughtful hour. Many of the Signs were taken home and some were given to us for a future exhibition we’re thinking about. We’ll do this workshop again in 2018 locally.        It seems to touch participants and encourage them to say what they feel – and it’s a good design challenge that produces lovely images.
    Thanks so much to everyone who has participated in & contributed to the Gardens of Refuge Project this year!
    We’re proud that includes a broad and diverse group of young people, adults and families from the asylum-seeking and refugee community; CARAS staff and volunteers; local partners including Share Community, The Scrapstore, The Sound Lounge Trust, South London Makerspace, Fulham Timber, Martin Speed Ltd; TTT and Tooting Community Garden volunteers and session facilitators.
    More to come in 2018 and get in contact if you would like to join in.

  • Leo’s Garden – a green gem in the heart of Tooting. Plus: valuing our local green spaces in London.

    Leo’s Garden, the highly-valued and hidden-away balcony garden at South Thames College in Tooting held a celebratory event this week. STC staff and friends marked two years on from its opening (see our 2015 blog report here) and did some autumn planting.

    This kind of local oasis is so relevant to a new study published this week by the Mayor of London, the National Trust and the Heritage Lottery Fund. It’s called Natural capital accounts for public green space in London & is intended to help shape future policy and decision-making. All the info here. In turn the report is relevant to the Tooting Bec & Broadway Neighbourhood Forum’s work on developing a local Neighbourhood Plan.  

    Back to Leo’s Garden:

    A sunny November day…

    The photo shows, from left to right: 
    Peter Mayhew-Smith, Principal of South Thames Colleges (STC) Group,  
    Rosemary Scott, (STC Branch UCU member),  
    Angie Birtill (STC UCU H&S Convenor),  
    Kate Turney (STC UCU Environment Convenor),  
    Jamie StevensonDirector of Business Centre STC.

    Named in memory of STC Facilities Officer ‘Leo’ Mumuney Olusanya, the garden is a great example of a green space that’s developed because people in the team had the vision and perseverance to create it. 

    Angie Birtill said at the opening: 
    > “We wanted a place where workers could rest and enjoy our own garden right above Tooting Broadway: an area badly lacking in green spaces.

    > We know this garden isn’t going to get rid of our stress all by itself, but it will always be a lovely place for people to recuperate when they can find time to do so.

    > We know that Leo’s Garden won’t do away with the toxic air we breathe daily in London. However plants in Leo’s garden help restore clean air while offering us a place to rest. The tests that the University and College Union, Greener Jobs Alliance and Furzedown Low Carbon Zone have carried out directly outside this Tooting site show that the levels of Nitrogen Dioxide are over twice the legal limit. We need to continue campaigning on this.”

    Angie recognised contributions by many people:   
    “Artura West, ACL lecturer carved us a beautiful plaque in his own time. Staff from Tooting have contributed plants and bulbs ever since it was opened and Carlos waters the plants and keeps the balcony clean for us. Alan (another brilliant Facilities officer) offered to make us planters for us on his weekends and gave us the valuable link to the sale of planters on the internet. David and Kamil put the planters together. 
    Thanks to Peter too for supporting the union’s request that the college buy the planters.”

    Leo’s Garden in 2015
    What other special gardens and surprising growing spaces are tucked away locally, and what are their contributions to wellbeing, pollination, air quality, nature, habitat and learning?
    1. Have you visited Tooting Community Garden? This Sunday 26th November at 1:00pm  we’re enjoying some of our own autumn and winter produce: harvested, juiced, sliced, dressed and cooked on the spot into great vegan taster dishes.
    2. Have you been to the Share Community garden which is open to visit within Springfield University Hospital?
    3. Have you seen the first community orchard in the borough? It’s not far from Southside. Contact by email here.
    4. There’s Bramford Community Garden, Putney Community Gardens, Doddington & Rollo Community Roof Garden, Growhampton, the ROSE Community Centre in Nine Elms and Paradise Co-operative near Wandsworth Common.
    5. There are many great school gardens locally.
    6. There are many allotments, plus home gardens on balconies, terraces and in backyards – all worth celebrating. See Pollinator Paths Wandsworth for shared stories from 2017.
    7. Have a look in passing at the growing boxes and vertical beds created with young people from the Tooting refugee and asylum charity CARAS by their office at the corner of Blakenham Road and Derinton Road. 
    8. See the Greater London National Park City project’s brand new map of green spaces across London. You’ll enjoy how London’s landscape looks without any buildings marked: 49.5% of London is green or blue!

    1. November update on our ‘Gardens of Refuge’ refugee & asylum project partnership with CARAS

      This time last year we were in the middle of the voting period for the Aviva Community Fund, where the Gardens of Refuge joint project with the Tooting charity CARAS won £10,000 – thanks to the votes of many friends near and far. 

      This time last year…the voting was hot!

      We’re nearing the end of 2017’s diverse activities with refugee and asylum-seeker beneficiaries. TTT has co-facilitated over 20 workshops in 2017 with the project…there’s two more to go before Xmas.

      Here’s an update of activities since the summer – and a view forwards as we plan for 2018. We’ve included notes about each of these: 

      1. Family Group
      2. Youth Club for unaccompanied young people
      3. Adults Group
      4. Stay With Love exhibition
      5. 2018 plans
      6. Would you like to contribute?

      1 Family Group
      With the CARAS team we co-facilitated a Family Activity Day over October half term in the Hall at All Saints, Tooting. 50 people joined in to meet and reconnect, do some fun creative activities for all ages and enjoy lunch cooked by members of the group.

       

      The big activity was carving pumpkins – and before that of course you have to get hands-on to scoop out the seeds. Any reluctance to get sticky hands was very quickly lost…in fact this stage became an activity of its own as hollowing-out took over and the children shared their new skills (none had ever done this before). Then: sketching and designing, cutting and admiring, collecting candles to take home: adults and children made short work of 20 pumpkins.

      We created more Signs of Welcome:
       

      These narrow strips of timber – some of them are the slats from discarded bed frames – are a design challenge where the artist develops what they want to say as a message, works out the fit, and paints directly or uses stencils. 

      The arttist can also tidy up an earlier sign…so it’s a collective project too.
      Thanks Jeni, Nikki, Chuck, Hannah, Isabel and more.
      We’re going to continue creating ‘Signs’ in other workshops with adults and children. The Signs evolved as a combination of our Community Garden crop markers and the welcoming words in many languages that decorate the four pallet-benches made by the Youth Club in July.



      2 Youth Club
      A rainy October afternoon saw us preparing outdoors at the Community Garden with members of the Youth Club who wanted to come along to an extra session. Some of us prepped the barbecue, some got the volcano kettle going, and some sawed down the selected plum trees we’d agreed early in the year needed thinning out. 
      The style was ‘everyone contributes to making the day work’. 

       

      Flying pumpkins

      After doing those jobs we shared out lots of pumpkins and got down to carving, which was hilarious, with great results – and the first time for almost all of us. 
      We lit candles and admired the collection while we ate our grilled sweet corn and baked sweet potatoes.

      We only left the garden well after dark at 6:30 pm: it was a day of surpises all round where the rain was simply ignored. 
      Thanks loads to Fiona, Jeni, Chuck, Hannah and Egle.

      3 Adults group
      Adults take part in ESOL classes at CARAS, and we’ve begun to explore how best to work together.
      As an experiment we ran an hour’s screenprinting session after the Monday ESOL class – thanks to Fiona and Chuck.

      We’re developing the idea of a series of short sessions like that – perhaps aimed at helping individuals make their own living spaces feel more like homes, or at making gifts…and more.
       

      4 ‘Stay With Love’ Exhibition finale
      We covered the exhibition & opening night in blog posts here and here.

      We offered an extra meeting and discussion time on the last weekend of the show at The Sound Lounge, inviting anyone to join us to look at the 2018 strategy for the partnership between CARAS and TTT. It was very fruitful to talk, and we helped the chat along with some board game-style pieces representing purpose, partners, activities. 

      We took everything down with the help of the Adult ESOL class – and for a little while the large Family Group mural painting was balanced outdoors in the sun on the main road. Many people stopped to ask about it. Maybe there’s another project there…?

      5 Planning for 2018’s partnership with CARAS
      Since September we’ve been exploring potential activities, facilitation roles, beneficiary groups, local relationships and of course the overall purpose of TTT and CARAS working together in 2018. 
      The overall purpose is to strengthen local social sustainability including the existing Tooting community and the refugee and asylum-seeker community.
      In outline the intention in 2018 is to focus on: 

      • beneficiary wellbeing 
      • making deeper links with other partners in Tooting by participating together on varied activities
      • self expression – including sharing the stories of CARAS refugees and asylum-seekers

      There are planned 2018 events to contribute to, alongside whatever schedule of workshops that we devise – for example there’s Refugee Week, Wandsworth Arts Fringe, BATCA Community Day…and of course the 2018 Tooting Foodival.
      There’s also the balance of need to assess across CARAS beneficiaries – for example we have done a lot with the Youth Club, and there are also many other partners who engage with them. However the CARAS Adult group has less provision…so we may shift the focus towards them. 
      We’re exploring funding – what do we need it for; what are likely sources?
      We’ll share more on the 2018 strategy soon.

      “What is your dream?”

      6 Would you like to contribute?
      Do get in contact by email or on Facebook if you would like to contribute to this partnership project either as an individual or a local partner group. 
      Over 35 people from TTT have done so, and we find it valuable, creative, challenging and fascinating. We’ve learned a lot.
      CARAS offers us a two-part volunteer training induction on understanding the current reality for refugees and asylum-seekers in the UK and on safeguarding.

    2. All welcome to the Pollinator Paths Wandsworth Project Celebration, Sat 11th November

      We’re very pleased to invite everyone who loves urban gardening with insects and other wildlife in mind to our free Pollinator Paths Wandsworth Project Harvest Celebration. This is a celebration sharing ideas, experience, fun, citizen science and community.

      Here’s the basic info about the project which has been running all year, linking together dozens of local gardeners and four community gardens in the borough and led by the London Sustainability Exchange.

      We’ll be thanking participants, sharing experience, enjoying workshops and other fun activities, networking and celebrating.

      We’re also welcoming anyone – gardener, community garden or other group – who might like to join a future project aimed at enhancing London’s green spaces and biodiversity.

      Project methods will always be accessible, encouraging people to grow pollinator-friendly plants in gardens, planters or balconies.

      Plenty for families, friends and neighbours of all ages to do:

      • Enjoy the ‘Your Local Insects Need Your Love’ workshop 
      • Marvel at ‘Worm Composting For Salads and Herbs Indoors’
      • Design and build Plastic Bottle Ladybird Houses to take home
      • Play ‘Match the Pollinators to their Plants’
      • Design and make Insect Badges to wear with pride
      • Gasp at the Pollinator Paths project map

      Date: Saturday 11th November 2017
      Venue: The Penfold Centre, 1 Neville Gill Close, SW18 4TJ. The venue is right in the middle of the borough, on the west side of Southside Shopping Centre facing King George’s Park.
      Timing: 1:00pm to 4:00pm

      Delicious snacks and drinks provided

      Download the Harvest Celebration invitation and venue map here 

      Free entry: please register online here

      For more info: contact us by email here

      All welcome!

    3. “Shazifim yerakim, gojeh sabz, jarareng, erik, janarek….” Tooting Community Garden’s plums

      Did you try the sour plums at the Foodival?

      ‘These sour plums are known as shazifim yerakim in Israel, gojeh sabz in Iran, jarareng in Lebanon, erik in Turkey, and janarek in Jordan.’

      These plums were saved after pruning the Greengage trees that grow in the tooting community garden as part of a pruning workshop. They were not ripe for eating but nothing goes to waste so Charles experimented with pickling the plums. They were certainly delightful at the Foodival. Something Unique.

      The pruning workshop was delivered by Ryan O’Kane from The Orchard Project and we were joined by people from other gardens that could benefit from advice on pruning fruit trees.

      Once we knew which trees were remaining then we needed to prune them  to provide space for air and better light to help them be healthy trees. Ideally this would be a vase shape but our particular trees are grown from ‘suckers’ – that is a  self propagating system connected to the main tree.

      While we all wanted to get going with the variety of exciting tools they had brought along it was important that first we decided what the aims of the pruning were. The trees have been allowed to grow a bit wild which makes them great as a habitat but the pruning would help to promote tree health and improved crop. The aims are not complementary and that made it difficult in the beginning to decide on a strategy.

      This is often something that we can struggle with any of our gardening aims. Balancing the needs of nature and the needs of humans are not always compatible and these decisions are hard. Particularly as a group who may have divergent views, or feel they do not know enough to choose a course of action. In the end we were able to agree a compromise with half reserved for habitat with some pruning for health and the other half would be cut back quite dramatically to get to a spacing that would promote fewer but stronger and more productive trees.

      There was also time to look at the Victoria plum and identify branches that we could prune to promote healthy and strong growth for the tree.

      While there were many people helping the plums are close together and it wasn’t practical to prune more than two trees in the area at a time. So there is still more work to do but we now have a strategy that should be maintainable in the future.

      It was a fantastic learning experience and if you have fruit trees in your own garden then check out https://www.theorchardproject.org.uk/about-us/ for more advice and opportunities for you to learn about caring for your fruit trees.

      Maybe you’re inspired to start a new orchard? This year our friend Martin Cobley has helped establish the first Community Orchard in Wandsworth Borough. Congratulations! If you want to visit, contact him at wendelsworthra@gmail.com

    4. Opening night of Stay With Love exhibition – we celebrated with poetry, music and good company!

      On October 3rd the opening night of the Stay With Love exhibition at The Sound Lounge in Tooting saw a very diverse group of 75 join in to celebrate the exhibition. There were teenagers, families and young children from the asylum-seeking and refugee community who are served by CARAS. There were many of the CARAS team of staff and volunteers, and lots of TTT volunteers. All have been contributing to the creative and expressive work that makes up the exhibiton.
      Plus there were friends old and new from the wider community – it was a great welcoming mix from many countries!

      Carrie was our MC for the night. She welcomed everyone and reminded us that the offer to ‘Stay With Love’ had been written in July on one of the pallet-benches made in the Youth Club. That’s a poignant invitation for a young refugee to make.
        
      We saw the delightful CARAS Youth Club short film: two minutes capturing the experience of sharing and value that many of us have enjoyed as volunteers over the past two and a half years. We’ll add a weblink asap.

      Hannah White, co-founder of the Sound Lounge, celebrated the work and good humour of the young people from CARAS who are doing certificated training as coffee baristas and as sound engineers at the café.

      We shared poems and prose linked to the experiences of living in and valuing a new place, of changing perceptions and of new languages and relationships. Here is a poem read and written  by Resina Chowdhury:

      Prayer

      To move away from a land

      We must break ourselves off it completely. 

      The split leaves a wound

      a loss of memory, huge and gaping

      which nothing material can fill. 


      O Mother of a false birth, 

      you were not ready for me. 

      Where was the milk to offer your baby, all drained of blood? 

      Dying, I was taken to where

      the milk was plentiful

      where there was blood to give, rich and warm

      and we survived, 

      more or less, weaned by another. 

      But cannot forget those who held us before. 


      What is the treatment for the loss of a culture? 

      To see oneself continue in history? 

      What can be said when the spirit is forgotten? 

      When a life is not nurtured

      because it is not understood? 

      Still we seek out a tongue that will define. 


      Mother

      Teach me who I am. 

      Give me knowledge to recover myself. 

      Give me understanding to fill the loss. 

      Give me strength to withstand hostility. 

      Give me love to endure.  


      We had live music of many kinds –

      Dermot and Gerri led half an hour where the children 
      used all the percussion instruments we could find. 
      They were the backing band for extempore songs with words taken from some of the CARAS participants’ statements about their heroes or ambitions.
      David sang about Cristiano Ronaldo, Carrie sang
      ‘I Want to Be a Dentist’, Emiliano drummed…all fantastic!
      Shonar Spiral from London played two gutsy songs.

      Fadhil Alfadly and Kaspar King from Iraq rapped in Arabic over iPhone tracks and live drumming. One of the children stayed on to accompany their songs: she was very composed.

      Dermot played a solo set as conversation continued until it was time to tidy up and head home after a lovely evening together.

      Please visit The Sound Lounge and enjoy the exhibition any time the café is open. There are two interactive pieces alongside the wide range of creative work done by the Youth Club, the Family Groups and the ESOL classes.
      There’s a comments book set up, you can take a CARAS or TTT leaflet and please get in touch with CARAS or TTT if you want to know more, or if you want to find out how to volunteer. 
      Please take a #StayWithLove sticker or two and ask your friends to visit!

    5. The Stay With Love exhibition is open and ready to visit. You can add your own views to the show.

      We’re thrilled that the Stay With Love exhibition has moved from concept to reality alongside our partners CARAS and The Sound Lounge. We experienced so much energy, creativity and patience from all the volunteers and staff involved in this experiment: Thank You!

      We hung the show on the 2nd October, and then the exhibition opening was brilliant last evening. Now the show is available to enjoy whenever The Sound Lounge is open, until October 29th.

      Drilling holes for hanging
      Suspending the figure drawings

      Two of the exhibition pieces ask for your views and ideas. 
      We hope you get there and add to When I Dream and Thread Your Story devised by CARAS and the adult group. Of course, you can enjoy the whole show with coffee or a sandwich served by young people from CARAS who are engaged in certificated work training at The Sound Lounge.

      ‘Thread Your Story’
      ‘When I Dream’

      The exhibition opening festivities yesterday included an afternoon family crafts workshop and then the main evening celebration – we’ll report on the celebration in the next blog post.

      Afternoon Family Crafts
      Straight from school, two dozen children & adults launched into an hour and a half’s making, all crowded around two long tables. It was a great scene and we admired their energy after a whole day in school. We offered two of our favourite and valuable projects. Both are related to the purpose and content of the creative work we have carried out alongside the refugees and aslyum-seekers from CARAS over the past two years in the Rooting in Tooting and Gardens of Refuge projects

      “Tooting’s insects need your love!”
      We looked at photos of some local garden insects (predators and prey; garden crop-friendly and also less desirable) and then made plastic bottle insect shelters for beneficial ladybirds and lacewings in the garden.
      With some clever planning, decorations onto the rolled-up corrugated cardboard could be protected from rain by being placed inside the bottle rather than stuck on the outside of the plastic (= design and technology for real).
      Families took their bottle-houses home to hang in the trees in their own gardens or neighbourhoods.

      She’s added a #StayWithLove sticker

      “Feel safe and breathe!”
      Secondly, we painted garden row markers with messages of welcome on them. That’s in the same spirit the CARAS Youth Club showed when they wrote inviting comments in many languages on the on four inscribed pallet-benches for the Tooting Twirl – one is in the show and two more are being used in the cafe.

      Children and adults devised messages – another design and planning challenge – which they painted on narrow wooden slats we’ve rescued from discarded bed frames – very neat recycling as the slats are strong and a perfect size. The artists donated all the painted markers to the Tooting Community Garden, which we really appreciate.

      All the new markers, laid out on one of the benches

      More soon on the evening opening celebrations….