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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.

Eucan Community Interest Company

eucan community interest company

London

EuCAN is a Community Interest Company (CIC) working in the UK and other countries of Europe to involve more people and communities in the conservation management of their local environment, by providing training and practical experience for young graduates, potential volunteers and therapeutic groups, in nature conservation and in sustainable land management and food production enterprises. EuCAN CIC started life in 2007 as the European Conservation Action Network, a project linked to The Kingcombe Centre in west Dorset, and funded entirely by the Leonardo da Vinci strand of the EU Lifelong Learning Programme. Since 2007, The European Conservation Action Network has set up 23 different two-week placements and enabled nearly 300 volunteers to visit 11 partner organisations in the EU. In 2011, when The Kingcombe Trust was wound up, EuCAN became established as an independent Community Interest Company through which, in addition to promoting placements with our other EU partners, we have organised several conservation projects in Dorset and Somerset, are undertaking an increasing number of habitat management contracts using professionals and trainees working together, and have run training courses each year in botanical and lepidoptera identification and ecology, bumblebee conservation and id and other subjects. The CIC now acts as a hub for the wide network of volunteers, organisations and other contacts that EuCAN has cultivated since 2007. Have a look at our Flickr site to get an idea of the range of activities we have been involved with!