Embedded Files
We Can Grow - a partnership for Islington communities
We Can Grow - a partnership for Islington communities
The We Can Grow Project is the third step in a continuum of community engagement, community learning and social action that began in 2010 with the Octopus' Wild Places Project.
The We Can Grow Project is the third step in a continuum of community engagement, community learning and social action that began in 2010 with the Octopus' Wild Places Project.
The Wild Places Project ran between 2010 and 2012. It was funded by the National Lottery Access to Nature Programme, and informed by compelling research that people, especially children, were suffering from ‘Nature Deficit Disorder’ as a result of a loss of or limited access to nature
The Wild Places Project ran between 2010 and 2012. It was funded by the National Lottery Access to Nature Programme, and informed by compelling research that people, especially children, were suffering from ‘Nature Deficit Disorder’ as a result of a loss of or limited access to nature
In developing Wild Places Octopus created four new community wildlife gardens in areas of serious deprivation in Islington, supported by an extensive programme of education and outdoor activity to raise the Environmental Literacy of our local communities.
So successful was that project that Islington Council partnered with us in its successor project Urban Wild Places (2013-16), which focussed on connecting the hardest to reach and most deprived families and individuals within the borough to their green spaces, and parks.
A wealth of research identified in the evaluation of Urban Wild Places and borne out by our own findings highlights the benefits and positive impact on people’s health and wellbeing associated with gardens, gardening, being outdoors and accessing nature.
A wealth of research identified in the evaluation of Urban Wild Places and borne out by our own findings highlights the benefits and positive impact on people’s health and wellbeing associated with gardens, gardening, being outdoors and accessing nature.
The final development in this continuum of development addressed the issue that those living in dense social housing estates in Islington were under-represented in the participants of both these projects. Given that residents of such estates are often among the most socially deprived in the borough Octopus, through the We Can Grow project (Oct 2016 – Mar 2020) has become an integral player in the effective partnership between the voluntary sector and Islington’s Homes and Communities and Public Realm departments in the fight against social deprivation and poverty.
The National Lottery Reaching Communities Fund focused on funding projects that help people and communities most in need, which must be demonstrable. The focus on social housing estates in We Can Grow has enabled us to meet the Reaching Communities outcomes of i) stronger communities, with more active citizens working together to tackle their problems, ii) improved urban environments, which communities are better able to access and enjoy and iii) healthier and more active people and communities.
We Can Grow has galvanized community action to develop and enhance underused / unloved green spaces on estates through ‘pop up’ environmental and food growing activities. At the heart of the project has been our Community Plant Nursery, initially established as a ‘Pop up’ facility on the Andover Estate in the north of the borough, the Plant Nursery quickly became established as a place where people could come to actively participate in community growing, especially of food, learn new skills and share in the produce grown. In November 2017 it was closed as the space had been earmarked for new building on the estate.
A new site was sought and identified and in late 2018 our new Community Plant Nursery was established on the Tufnell Park Estate with an official opening by the Mayor of Islington on December 8th 2018. As well as offering a place for people of all ages to learn how to grow food, it has offered the opportunity for people to become regular volunteers, to gain skills to equip them to establish and lead social action and community growing in their own communities.
Andover Pop Up Plant Nursery
Tufnell Park Plant Nursery
The We Can Grow overall project target was to engage 1350 local people.
The We Can Grow overall project target was to engage 1350 local people.
The total number of people engaged over the lifetime of the project was 3,284 (adults, children and young people) far exceeding our expectations.
The total number of people engaged over the lifetime of the project was 3,284 (adults, children and young people) far exceeding our expectations.
Our approach throughout the project has been to monitor, measure, assess and evaluate impact and change using a variety of qualitative and quantitative tools to enable us to do this in the most effective ways for our participants.
We developed a Theory of Change Evaluation Framework for the project ensuring that we had an evidence-based approach in collecting and collating both qualitative and quantitative data.
This website offers our comprehensive evaluation of Urban Wild Place, We Can Grow, using a highly innovative technique entitled Connections and Network Mapping which illustrates how the connections and relationships between the projects, groups and organisations and partners have been created over the life time of the project. It also demonstrates how the connections have deepened and extended as the project progressed; embedding change and sustainability as a project legacy.
The Connections and Network Mapping site contains stories, testimonials, photos and videos showing how the activities developed, how we engaged the community to reflect what they wanted, a description and impact of the activity and the sustainability. The stories provide visual evidence of how the project has benefited local residents, the new skills that they have learned and the value in bringing the communities together to learn about food and growing.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse