Growing with Nature!

Last month Green Minds along with Food Plymouth and Plymouth Octopus Project (POP) ran a ‘Growing with Nature’ Networking Event at Central Park. It was a great opportunity to bring together groups and individuals across the city, learning about the fantastic gardening and rewilding projects that are helping both wildlife and people.

Feedback showed everyone was keen to have more networking events, with opportunities for skill sharing, promoting volunteering opportunities, advice on funding projects and visiting places across the city.

We are excited to announce our next Growing with Nature Networking Event will take place on Wednesday 21^st September 2022, 5:30pm – 7:30pm, at the Snapdragons site in Victoria Park. Booking details can be found here.

Ahead of this event, The Data Place still need your help to connect people across the city! Click here to add your project details (feel free to email Martin at martin@thedata.place if you have any questions) which will help build a map rewilding action and opportunities across Plymouth.

Scroll down for advice on funding, volunteering and more!

Are you looking for volunteers or volunteering opportunities?

Our Plymouth is a city wide platform for volunteer recruitment. If you are looking for an opportunity, it has a great variety to choose from. If you need volunteers for an organisation, it can help with recruitment, match and help make introductions: https://ourplymouth.co.uk/

Are you looking for ways to fund your activities?

Plymouth Octopus Project (POP) has a couple of schemes you may be interested in:

250 a POP: Are you a member group or organisation with an unexpected expense? Or are you a potential POP Collective wanting to run a small test, or get together? You can ask POP to cover up to £250 of your expenses, once every 6 months. All you need to do is submit two letters of support and a simple expense claim. Click here for more details.

POP Collectives is focussed on building collaboration and relationships by doing something together fuelled by £5,000. This combination of doing and working together is important. What it means is that we primarily focus on the collaboration, and secondary is the work you do – because we know everyone will always do amazing things. Our focus is to put more amazing things together to see if it multiplies your impact. Click here for more details.

The Tree Council have recently announced their 'Branching Out' fund to support groups planting trees. Click here to find out more.

While you’re waiting for our next event, why not check out these resources?

• Plymouth Rewilding Network: https://greenmindsplymouth.com/rewilding-network

• Green Minds Knowledge Hub: https://greenmindsplymouth.com/knowledge-hub
  
  
• Established in 2010, Food Plymouth is a pioneering member of the 80+ strong Sustainable Food Places movement: www.sustainablefoodplaces.org

• Food Plymouth Action Plan: https://foodplymouth.org/actions/

• Generous Earth Composting Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/459179245262670

• Growing Community Abundance was a project set up to mentor and encourage community growers across the city of Plymouth. This short film shows a Growing Community Abundance event which took place about half way through the project: https://vimeo.com/367084561. Click here to join the Facebook Group. There’ll be many events this summer – contact Tess Wilmot at digfordevonport@hotmail.co.uk for more details.
  
  
• Usually All Ways Apples is a large community event at Devonport Guildhall but in 2020 and again in 2021 because of COVID pandemic restrictions, we went on tour, visiting orchards around the city and making lots of juice with the communities who care for these special places: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIyM45SXJ_0. Click here to find out more.
  
  
• Community Explorers was about celebrating and rebuilding connections with the Tamar Valley and local food growing there. It included the purchase of special Tamar Valley varieties of cherry trees to plant in Plymouth: https://vimeo.com/384725078/e5235fcca7

• Plymouth Octopus Project (POP): https://www.plymouthoctopus.org/