BARRACKS LANE COMMUNITY GARDEN

Grant to Barracks Lane Community Garden

We will use this grant to host a Jubilee Joy event on Sunday 5th June. The garden will offer a number of free nature focused creative activities for the local community to take part in to celebrate the Jubilee. We hope that the diverse offer of ....more

We will use this grant to host a Jubilee Joy event on Sunday 5th June. The garden will offer a number of free nature focused creative activities for the local community to take part in to celebrate the Jubilee. We hope that the diverse offer of these free activities/workshops will increase the garden’s engagement with our wider local community, and bring different communities together, to celebrate the Jubilee. The garden currently runs a Wellbeing through Song group. This group will perform at Joy for Jubilee and there will also be the opportunity for the local community to take part in a Jubilee Workshop led by the groups singing facilitator. This will see the singing group have exposure to a new audience and will encourage new participants to join the regular Saturday group. The garden has recently started collaborating with Oxford Brookes University Poetry Centre. Students and staff from the centre will run two workshops. There will be a poetry and movement workshop, designed for young people, and wellbeing and poetry: haiku inspired by the garden workshop, open to all. This collaboration should see new users come to the garden via the links with Oxford Brookes. Our younger community attendees will be able to take part in crown making using materials found in the garden, feathers, and tissue paper. This workshop will be led by our Community Engagement Gardener. There will be the opportunity for attendees to decorate their own jute bag, using nature and Jubilee Joy as inspiration. There will be a posy/wall hanging making workshop whereby members of the local community can make a seasonal posy or dried flower wall hanging to take home with them. This workshop will be led by a local floral artist. There will be the opportunity for everyone to make some Hapa Zome bunting which uses cotton and leaves. This punting will be hung in the garden to celebrate the Jubilee and then participants can take it home. This workshop will be run by one of the garden’s trustees. The garden will give attendees the opportunity to make their own pizzas throughout the day. Side salads will be on offer showcasing the produce that has been grown in the garden by volunteers. The garden’s secretary will DJ between the live workshops/performances, show casing music from the last 70 years. The posy/wall-hanging workshop and Hapa Zone bunting making are new activities for the garden. We wanted to offer these activities as posy’s and bunting are a definite nod to a Jubilee celebration, whilst keeping the nature focus. If these activities are successful we will look to including them in our events later in the year. We will record aspects of the event and the workshops as a short film so that it can be kept as a legacy resource on our website and shared via our social media and newsletter. On the day participants will be asked to complete a short survey. This data will be used to write a detailed report which will cover where attendees have come from, strengths of the days and any areas for improvement.

This project will help address the need of members of our community who feel lonely or isolated. There will be two strands to this project. Community members can take part in both, just one, or drop-in and out of both as they wish. 1) Gardening for ....more

This project will help address the need of members of our community who feel lonely or isolated. There will be two strands to this project. Community members can take part in both, just one, or drop-in and out of both as they wish. 1) Gardening for Wellbeing - We will create the opportunity for the local community to come to the garden one Sunday (10am – 4pm) a month from January – October to take part in gardening activities, focused around growing seasonal organic fruits and vegetables. We will provide lunch and refreshments. The Community Engagement Gardeners will run several workshops throughout the project to provide those attending with skills that they can use at home. E.g. Growing Food in Containers and on Balconies, home composting, and fermentation 2) Singing for Wellbeing – We will create the opportunity for members of the local community to come to the garden to sing once a month on a weekend (10.30am-12.30pm), facilitated by a Singing Leader from January - October. This singing project will follow on from our successful eight week Singing and Sharing project which was funded by the National Lottery Community Fund. The focus of these sessions will be on singing for wellbeing in nature, however, there will also be the opportunity to take part in spoken word and art based workshops.

This project will offer sessions of singing classes for participants who are experiencing loneliness and isolation. The project will conclude with a celebratory event which will host approximately 150 people and reach 1500 online through social ....more

This project will offer sessions of singing classes for participants who are experiencing loneliness and isolation. The project will conclude with a celebratory event which will host approximately 150 people and reach 1500 online through social media. The project is aimed at bringing community members together for a shared experience.

The funding will be used to open up the community garden to local residents and run gardening activities for vulnerable families and groups. The project aims to provide a safe space to improve people’s health and wellbeing.

The project will use funding to provide groups for young people from different cultural backgrounds and asylum seekers who face barriers to mainstream services. The project aims to develop an existing community garden to plan its next phase of ....more

The project will use funding to provide groups for young people from different cultural backgrounds and asylum seekers who face barriers to mainstream services. The project aims to develop an existing community garden to plan its next phase of physical development by overseeing its future maintenance and take responsibility for running community events during the year.

We will spend the grant in the following ways: Regular horticultural assistance at each Tuesday session, working alongside the teacher and a volunteer, to guide the work in the garden to positive outcomes and help the students with vocabulary and ....more

We will spend the grant in the following ways: Regular horticultural assistance at each Tuesday session, working alongside the teacher and a volunteer, to guide the work in the garden to positive outcomes and help the students with vocabulary and learning Occasional trips out to local sites of garden and wildlife interest - the University Arboretum, The Oxford Botanic Garden, Whytham Woods, Kew Gardens. Occasional workshops with local artists: Drawing from Nature; Photography from Nature; Storytelling from Nature Cooking and food preparation workshops, using food grown and harvested in the garden, supplemented with bought-in food Wildlife workshops looking at the wildlife in the garden and how we can protect it Materials and tools for the horticultural and wildlife work - gardening gloves for each student, seeds and seedlings, bird food and materials for making bird feeders.

The project aims to improve the organisations facilities and volunteering programme, allowing more people to take part in developing community activities and providing a place for groups to use.