Islington Wildlife

Spring Networking Event

Thursday, 23rd February, 5-8pm

Finsbury Library Hall, 245 St John Street, EC1V 4NB

This networking event is open to people who are planning to start or expand a community food-growing space in 2012. It will be an opportunity to hear from successful growing projects, take part in workshops and meet like-minded people over delicious food and drink.

The event will include workshops on:

● Starting a food-growing project

● Growing in containers and small spaces

● Growing to sell

The event is free to Capital Growth members.

Otherwise there is a charge of £10 per person (includes delicious food). For more info and to book go to http://www.capitalgrowth.org/events/networkingevents/.

Grow for gold

To commemorate the Olympic year, Capital Growth has launched “Grow for Gold” to encourage and support community groups who want to start a food growing space in 2012. Support includes training, events, monthly competitions and much more and is designed to help people start their food growing space in time for the Olympics and Paralympic Games, when the Grow for Gold competition will be judged. The final winners will win additional prizes from Capital Growth sponsors.

To celebrate the launch of Grow for Gold, we are giving away five cash prizes, each representing the popular Olympic running events (£1500, £800, £400, £200 £100), to community groups and schools who want to start a community food-growing space this year, plus the chance to win training and vouchers to help you get growing ! To find out more visit Capital Growth.

Cast your vote now and help Freightliners Farm

Freightliners Farm have been shortlisted to recieve a green grant for £10,000 for a bee club.

To find out more and vote please visit green giving.

Capital Growth Funding

The Capital Growth Funding programme is administered by Capital Growth at London Food Link. It is intended to enable Londoners to benefit from a higher availability of affordable local food by maximising the use of land for food growing activities across the London area. Funding is available to help community groups develop new food growing schemes that will be sustainable and of benefit to communities in London. In particular, the scheme is eager to fund training and skills support to develop new sustainable projects. Projects should be focused on bringing more food to market in London, and be involved with a new food-growing space (not established before 1st January 2009) or an extension of a current food-growing project. It should be for wider community benefit, not solely for private or commercial gain. The next grant funding round has now opened and will close on 16th January 2012. The maximum grant available is £1,500.

The Brushwood Sculpture Workshop

The Wild Places Project and the Islington Ecology Centre hosted a Brushwood Sculpture Workshop on 24 October led by Wild Places Artist in Residence Marilyn Collins.

Children from three local playschemes came together to make some eye catching sculptures made out of brushwood which are firmly they collected from around the Ecology Centre. Marilyn Collins explained to the children the concepts of sculpture making and encouraged the children to think of ideas of what they should make.

They were all full of energy and loved being outdoors. They collected the materials from the surrounding Gillespie Park and worked in mini teams. There was even a competition to see who could get the biggest sticks and branches!

There were two sessions one in the morning and one in the afternoon. The morning session included 14 children from Sunshine Kidz Zone from Hornsey Rise. They made a large birds nest. The afternoon session included 5 children from Whittington Park Playscheme and 12 children from Caxton House wild places out of school club. They made a tall and sturdy sculpture of a horse, (some called it a giraffe)

Whilst the sculptures were being made the Ecology centre also had some mini activities like habitat making, making dragonflies from willow and making a birds nest. These were all made from recycled material and showed the importance of creating safe environments for wildlife as well as being resourceful with household materials.

Wild Places is an exciting project run by the Octopus Community Network, supported by Islington Council and funded by Natural England as part of its Access to Nature programme, from the Big Lottery Fund’s Changing Spaces programme.

Wild Places offers people of all ages from every community in Islington the chance to discover or re-awaken the joy of exploring the natural world

For further information about the Wild Places Project and The Octopus Community Network please call the Wild Places Team on 0207 263 7095 or visit www.octopuscommunities.org.uk

The Wild Places Team