Transition Town Tooting

Tag: Rooting in Tooting

  • 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

  • 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!

  • Growing Tooting finale – the 8th weekend of TTT’s local grow-your-own classes completes the series

    In the final local growing sessions in Balham, Tooting and Wandsworth we celebrated progress and looked at what comes next now the programme is complete. 

    We discussed harvesting and preparing food (and bringing any surpluses to the Tooting Foodival), and asked about what the participants might need next in their growing journey. 
    Suggestions so far: ‘local gardeners’ question time’, a Facebook group, occasional meetings, visiting each others’ growing spaces.

    Plus, local community gardens including Tooting Community Garden and Wendelsworth Community Garden can offer support.

    Exploring the herb bed
    With the Balham group, Rose identified plants and explained how the herb bed at Tooting Community Garden is managed, in particular how foliage is cut and left lying to suppress weeds and help prepare the ground for sowing – and the group raised a glass to celebrate.
    Fresh produce laid out on the Eatwell pie chart
    With the Tooting group, Belinda took us through the new Public Health England Eatwell Guide. The Guide illustrates how to achieve eating a healthy dietary balance of good food – including what we can grow in our gardens.
    Our 8th Growing Tooting Handout is available for all: please click here. To see all 8 handouts, and to read each fortnightly blog post, click on GROWING TOOTING in the quick links above.  
    Hats off to Martin for writing the handouts and facilitating the delivery of Growing Tooting so brilliantly! And to the others who co-facilitated: Eleanor, Belinda, Rose, Jeni and more.

    In summary the Growing Tooting series of 30 local workshops reached 24 people who came to each session, another 24 who came to some of each local series, and another two dozen who are interested for another time.  70+ people are connected in a new way to local growing and each other. 


    There’s an evaluation under way, and we’ll share the results.

    There’s been a second major part of Growing Tooting’s activities. As agreed with the Wandsworth Big Society Fund who gave us financial support for the whole programme, we also supported local gardeners with the development of growing spaces. We’ve been working with six gardens. Please see our blog post from March for more info.

    Two examples include:
    Ravenstone Primary School. The school garden’s layout and access has been improved so children do not get so muddy on wet ground before returning to their next class.
    The school Gardening Club has been encouraged and enthused by Mary, Barbara and Richard.
    The garden has extended its reach to link with the teaching at the school, school events such as the Summer Fair and the parent body and wider community networks.
    Talking of community links, Thomas from Ravenstone pushed a planted-up wheelbarrow in TTT’s #TourdeTooting extravaganza ten days ago.

    CARAS Women’s Drop-in Group. TTT already work with CARAS on TTT’s Rooting in Tooting project. Growing Tooting support helped us work with a new group of CARAS service users, 12 to 18 adult refugee women who attend a weekly class devoted to english language and to participation together exploring new skills. A programme of seven facilitated sessions saw the women planting at their drop-in site, exploring favourite foods and recipes, and learning about sprouting seeds and grains at home. 
    Many thanks to Silvia, Fio, Jane, Lucy, Hilary, Rosalind, Jeni and more who helped to run these classes, and to many friends who donated plants, including Martin, Jane, Deb, Fio, Chuck, and Brockwell Park Community Greenhouses.

    Finally – do get in touch with us at TTT to explore how to start or keep on Growing Tooting (and Balham and Wandsworth). 
    Thanks all for taking part!
    – Chuck 

  • 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

  • Exploring facilitation choices for our ‘Rooting in Tooting’ project with asylum-seekers and refugees

    Our new ‘Rooting in Tooting’ project has been developed with the Tooting charity CARAS (Community Action for Refugees and Asylum-Seekers). We’ve written two posts so far, please scroll down this blog to read them. You’ll see that our pilot project in May and June was enjoyable and positive. 

    For Those in Peril on the Sea – Hew Locke

    Quiz question A: what percentage of the migrants who have come to Europe so far in 2015 have reached Calais? 1%, 4%, 8%, 15%? Answer is at the end of the post.

    On Sept 1st, 11 of us gathered at CARAS for an orientation hosted by the charity team. 
    Against a background of dramatic media coverage, our intention was to understand just a bit more about the ‘whys, whats and hows’ for refugees and asylum-seekers, and the experiences of the young people and families with whom CARAS works.

    We know a lot about the activities we are going to do offer: growing and gardening and improving biodiversity at the CARAS office, creative projects, telling the Rooting in Tooting story over the next year, and exploring low-carbon living. 
    We’re not familiar with the reality of life for refugees now. 

    • How should we offer activities so that they are meaningful to participants, and so that we share them in an appropriate way? 
    Rug People – Paloma Varga Weisz

    A 2-hour discussion on this topic had to be very selective, and we take our TTT hats off to Eleanor and Molly as guides. 
    Thank you for your preparation and care, and thoughtful, challenging comments.

      Quiz question B: What was the country of origin for the largest number of unaccompanied children entering the UK so far in 2015?  
      Afghanistan; Eritrea; Albania; Syria? Answer is at the end of the post.

      Three of the topics that we discussed:

      1. Refugees and asylum-seekers have been repeatedly processed and questioned…of course those are the steps for coming to an agreement about official leave to stay in the UK. 

      • To balance that experience in our activities: we’ll ask for and trust that individuals have skills and that they can teach each other; we’ll tackle things together rather than directing.We’ll let participants volunteer what they want to tell us.
      The Folkestone Mermaid – Cornelia Parker

      2. Unaccompanied teenagers are resilient and ambitious, not passive. They have crossed many countries (at CARAS 18 home countries are represented), and weathered many setbacks (the ones that make it). Asked in youth club discussions about their ideal futures, they want to give something back – for example become a teacher, or a pharmacist. “In many ways they are the alpha children of the world”, and they deserve respect. 

      • We’re encouraged not to shy away from new vocabulary that can be stretching and thought-provoking. We’ll explain specialist and unfamiliar language.

      3. What is going well in the UK for refugees? The UK system sees teenage unaccompanied asylum seekers as ‘children first’ and provides a range of services to support them, so that as far as possible they can experience life like other teenagers locally – with everyday choices, opportunities, and challenges. 

      Public Works – Folkestonomy

      These approaches are role models for other countries.

      • We’ll try and reflect the atmosphere in the youth club, which “feels like a group of people having a nice time together”.   We’ll encourage putting down roots.

      All the photos are taken at Folkestone Sculpture Triennial shows 2008-2014, which included themes of dislocation and distant travel in the setting of a derelict Channel port railhead. 
      And the two quiz answers? Question A: 1%. Question B: Albania.

      Please contact TTT if you would like to discuss or contribute to this project. – Charles

    • 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.

    • Young people’s garden project leads to Rooting in Tooting

      If you’ve walked past the Derinton Community Centre in Tooting recently, you may have noticed vibrant yellow planters bursting with colourful flowers, where rubbish used to reside, and young people sitting on bright benches doing their homework.

      Those young people, who attend the CARAS youth club on the site, worked with a team from Transition Town Tooting to build the planters and the benches and paint them over a number of weeks. They sowed seeds early on in the project and also chose plants that now grow there, during a visit to Share Community Garden

      The project came about after the youth club made a visit to Tooting Community Garden.  This led to the idea of the teenagers creating an urban garden on-site over eight weekly Saturday sessions.

      “Before this, I didn’t know how to plant and grow plants, but I learned how, and I enjoyed making the planter too”, said Waseem, one of the young people who transformed the space.

      CARAS (previously Klevis Kola) is a community based organisation working with refugees and asylum seekers.  The gardening project was developed with the young people, encouraging teamwork and communication, developing and practicing new skills and meeting new people in the wider community.

      Jenny Teasdale, who coordinated Transition Town Tooting’s involvement said,

      “Working with these young people over the last couple of months has been wonderful. Together, we imagined the possibilities of an urban garden, creating a mood board of ideas, and then we made some of those ideas a reality.

      Everyone planted seeds in the first few weeks and the kids tended them throughout, watching sunflowers, beans and salad leaves growing, ready to be planted out in the final weeks. With wooden materials from the community garden, the kids cut, assembled and painted planters and benches – making design decisions on the fly and developing new skills along the way. As a group, we decided what plants to grow and where to site what we built.

      I know I wasn’t the only person sad to see the project come to an end, having enjoyed every second of the process. At the same time, we are all really happy to see the transformation in just two short months.”

      CARAS Youth Coordinator, Molly Abraham spoke about the project,

      “The gardening project with TTT has been a fantastic opportunity for young people who attend CARAS to gain skills, share knowledge and create something we are all extremely proud of.  It’s been amazing to watch the group grow in confidence as they became proficient with drills, saws and secateurs, and to relax into sharing stories of growing in their home countries.  Working with the wonderful team from TTT has been a real pleasure for all of us and we are excited to be able to develop the work, and the friendships, over the coming year.”

      “We painted the pallet planter and the yellow planter, and I sowed flowers and beans. They’re still growing”, said Hafso, shown here painting.

      Spurred on by the development of the space and the enthusiasm of the youth group, we are delighted to announce that CARAS and Transition Town Tooting are now working in partnership with the RHS over the next year, running monthly sessions with the youth club and adults at CARAS.

      The new project is called Rooting in Tooting, and is part of the RHS’s Greening Grey Britain scheme. We’ll be developing more flourishing, attractive growing ideas that will transform the site.  This practical, experiential project is just one of the ways CARAS is helping newly-arrived people to integrate into the vibrant community of Tooting.

      Chris Young from the RHS led a session with the youth group last Saturday:

      “I was very excited to make my first practical visit to the CARAS youth club, and had a great afternoon working with the youth club members and volunteers. We started by talking about our project to grow plants in various spaces surrounding the centre and then looked at propagating some herbs that could be used later on.
       
      I gave a quick demonstration of how to take cuttings from the plants I’d brought and then everyone got stuck in and had a go.We finished up by extracting seeds from dry seed heads and sorting them into origami seed packets we’d made earlier.

      Everybody was incredibly helpful, enthusiastic and welcoming. I was also impressed that some of the young people knew the plants I brought and told me about how and where they grow in their home countries.Fingers crossed that the cuttings root!
       
      Looking forward to my next visit for the community fun day on Saturday where we’ll set up stand for the project .”

      We’ll be promoting the new project at the CARAS Family Fun Day on Saturday, 22nd August.