Local Food Initiatives

We are supporting the development of new local food growing and marketing projects, such as Burnley Food Links, East London Food Access, and local Transition Towns groups. This work includes promoting partnership working with other local food providers and undertaking financial management. Our contributions to their activities include project definition, the setting up of book-keeping and financial systems, research into the state of local food provision and the development of evaluation frameworks. Education

Support and Consultancy

We are currently supporting the establishment of the Northern School of Permaculture which provides training in Permaculture Design. Recently we have been working with Grow Gaia (Manchester) and other associates. Projects have included the Longford Park Community Engagement programme and Manley Park Primary School in Manchester. At Manley Park we designed and implemented an outdoor learning programme that integrates real-life learning, memorable outdoor experiences and pupil-centred grounds development, using the permaculture approach. The programme demonstrates the importance of nature and raises issues such as sustainable food production, in parallel to meeting the specific requirements of the National Curriculum and supporting teaching staff to gain the skills and confidence to lead outdoor learning in the future. We have also provided consultancy to Manchester College (Brownlea Road campus) for the use of their outdoor facilities for vocational training. Capacity Building and Community Enterprise Workshops

With the Northern School of Permaculture's bioregional project we have run a conference on creating sustainable futures in Manchester in 2015. We have run a series of workshops on open source methods and open data at various locations in Lancashire.. More on Capacity Building

Brownlea Road Campus

Ecological design for new campus.

Voices from the Mills

Eagley Mill, Bolton, Lancs

The Voices from the Mills project is based in Bolton, a town with a rich industrial heritage, particularly in the cotton industry. The project has involved young people who interviewed former workers in Bolton's cotton mills between 1939 and 1989.

The wider community benefits of the project include:

1. the preservation of the memories of the working lives of the former mill workers;
2. enabling those mill workers to make a contribution to public knowledge from their experience;
3. a public acknowledgement and tribute to the mill workers and of the contribution they all made to Bolton's social and economic development;
4. a resource for schools and the community of the valuable contribution the mill workers made to the industrial heritage of Bolton;
5. being able to act as a bridge between the young and old people, helping to overcome the generational divide.

Events

See here