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Espression - Interactive Art Studio & CafƩ

espression - interactive art studio & cafć©

Kent

Welcome to our Espression Arts Family, make yourself at home whilst I pop the kettle on. How are you today? Espression Arts is a creative community led by Me, Catherine, the founder, the glue behind our special, arty enterprise. I live in a small village partner to a very patient Daddy Jean who puts up with the hours of work and energy we give to projects and our clients. I am Mummy to my two beautiful children, Melodie 7, and Jerome 11, who are often with me on projects and at events, along with Daisy Dog who sometimes comes along too! I grew up with a creative and hard-working family, My dedication, work ethic, and focus for things I believe in, I get from them. My Mum who now lives with Parkinson’s in an annex in our garden spends her spare time when she isn’t bowling in the village as one of Espression Arts many creative volunteers. If I am not working I am found snuggling on the sofa watching films with a gin and tonic! Whilst studying Visual Arts at Goldsmiths University London I enjoyed spending my spare time getting to know the local community, working in pubs, and helping with play schemes. Since then, I spent 25 years developing my community facilitation and project management skills starting in youth work management working for an environmental charity in Southeast London. In 2009 we left the big city and started our Pottery Painting Community Journey in the historic town of Canterbury, opening our interactive arts café. This is where our family grew with everyone who loved pottery painting as much as we did! Sadly, the interactive arts café, closed at the end of 2020 during the Covid19 Pandemic, but we are still going strong! We continue sharing arts and wellbeing experiences with others! Happily our Espression Arts Family is just getting bigger and bigger as a result. In 2017, our family business became not for profit and became a Social Enterprise which has helped us to take profits from sales of our ceramic products, parties, and workshops, combined with successful grant applications, and deliver some of the best community projects in Kent. I am proud of our position in the local community feel respected for both business and charitable, endeavours, before the pandemic we were awarded Kent Messenger Best Creative Volunteer Project for both Canterbury and all of Kent, we were even finalists for Kent Dementia Friendly Awards. We under-promise and over-deliver with passion for people and give everyone the opportunity to experience art. There are many ways you could support our creative family! Community Arts In Kent If you would like us to chat with you more about what we can deliver for your community, group, or organisation please get in touch, to read more about the benefits of Arts and Wellbeing click here. Apply to be a Creative Volunteer If you would like to become one of our creative family by applying to become a Creative Volunteer we have many different roles which are flexible to you, your interests, skills or needs, then please get in touch here. Buy a Kit, a workshop, a party or invite us to your event! Have you heard the saying that when someone buys from a small business the owner does a happy dance? This also works for small social enterprise businesses like ours we want to reach as many people with creativity as possible. We also want our volunteers to have as many different experiences as possible! Contact Catherine@espression.co.uk for more details or jump over to our shop!

Hammersmith Community Gardens Association

hammersmith community gardens association

London

Hammersmith Community Gardens Association is a local environmental charity set up in 1984. We manage four community gardens in Hammersmith and Fulham. HCGA has a range of projects which include conservation training schemes, volunteer gardening sessions, health and wellbeing projects, environmental playschemes and environmental education in local schools. We assist local groups in the design, plan and management of their green spaces. We promote environmental sustainability within the borough and manage our sites to maximise biodiversity and encourage wildlife. To reflect the expansion of our working to neighbouring boroughs in 2016 the charity adopted the working name of Healthy Community Gardening Activities (HCGA) The gardens are used as an educational resource by local schools, a site for volunteer gardening groups and in the holidays there are environmental play activities. As well as creating space for people the sites have also been designed to encourage wildlife. We run the community food growing area in Normand Park and work with local ‘Friends of’ groups to manage and promote their sites. In Westminster we run weekly gardening sessions in Queens Park Gardens, Westbourne Park and Penfold Street Hub. We support the Fisherton growing project with regular gardening sessions as well as by providing plants. In Westminster and The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea we deliver short Adult Education courses around gardening and herbal activities as well as a programme of walks. HCGA has a team of school gardeners who deliver environmental education sessions in schools on a weekly basis in three boroughs. These include formal curriculum-linked activities as well as lunchtime and after school clubs. We can also guide groups on how to make their premises more environmentally friendly and give technical growing advice. For more information about booking an educational visit for your group or for a member of our team to come to your site please contact us. Through the Grow Well project we work with local people across the Hammersmith and Fulham borough to provide therapeutic gardening sessions for people who need a bit of extra support hopefully leading to participation in our regular volunteering sessions. The Get Out There! project offers local unemployed or socially isolated people the opportunity to learn new skills in basic environmental management such as habitat conservation, tool use and wildlife identification. Participants get the opportunity to visit and work on a range of different habitats across London as well as local sites in Hammersmith and Fulham. We also run a Men in Sheds programme at Godolphin Gardens for socially-isolated men. Our Volunteers maintain our gardens and contribute hundreds of hours of their time each year. Many of them have physical or mental health problems which prevent them from working in paid employment. We also host around 20 companies each year on corporate volunteering work days. As well as completing several physical tasks the companies make a donation to HCGA which covers staff time and materials. This is extremely valuable to us as it then funds the upkeep of the gardens.