Tag community projects

Brighton and Hove residents club together to house migrants

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I’ve written an article for the New Internationalist about Thousand 4 £1000, a project to crowdfund housing for vulnerable migrants in Brighton.

Started by Brighton Migrant Solidarity, Thousand 4 £1000 is a project of Brighton Migrant Solidarity is a community response to the enforced homelessness faced by some migrants who have no stable immigration status. The aim is to get 1000 people (or more!) to donate £1 a month in order to rent a house and provide a small income – a way of showing people that the community welcomes them.

Find out more about Thousand 4 £1000 here at the Brighton Migrant Solidarity website.

Read the full article on the New Internationalist website here.

Solar buses, Cornish language, post referendum racism and crowdfunded housing for migrants

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I’ve been a bit rubbish about updating this blog with my writing lately so here’s a quick roundup:

From the last two issues of New Internationalist: The response to racism after the UK’s European Union referendum (September) and the fight to save the Cornish language after government cuts (October).

For Positive News I wrote about the Thousand 4 £1000 project, crowdfunded housing for migrants in Brighton who have no other means of support.

This week the Guardian Sustainable Business network published my article about The Big Lemon bus company and Brighton Energy Coop’s plan to bring electric buses to the streets of Brighton and Hove, powered by solar energy generated at the Big Lemon depot.

Solidarity fridges from Frome to Dubai

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4689I wrote an article for the Guardian’s Sustainable Business network about ‘solidarity fridges’ around the world. I visited Frome in Somerset to check out their community fridge which holds donations of surplus food from individuals and businesses. Anyone can come and take the food between 8am and 8pm every day.

The Frome project was inspired by solidarity fridges in Spain, where there are now eight. I also spoke to some people in Dubai who had started a similar scheme, mainly for providing construction workers with cold drinks and fruit.

Read the full article here at the Guardian website.

The new Transition Free Press has landed

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Since the beginning of 2014 I have been working as the News & Sport editor of Transition Free Press, a quarterly newspaper working alongside the Transition movement and covering stories of community resilience and topics such as climate change, energy, food, sport and the arts.Subscribe to Transition Free Press

We have been beavering away on the Spring/Summer issue over the past few months and this week the new issue arrived back from the printers. Stories include, the relaunch of the Totnes Pound, a Welsh cafe using waste for for tasty meals, a boost for community energy and a campaign to protect the surfing waves of Cornwall.

The full paper is online here on ISSUU and to get it in your hands, check out our list of distributors here on the Transition Free Press website.

Do you know your neighbours?

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I have recently made a new podcast for New Internationalist on the FAN network…

Nearly two years ago my partner persuaded me to go with him to a FAN meeting in Cardiff. He had stumbled across the group through work but had become hooked. I wasn’t keen to give up some of my Saturday morning but decided to give it a go eventually and was glad I did.

Friends And Neighbours (FAN) groups began as a network of people making a difference through the power of conversation. When fear and anger towards the ‘stranger’ next door is often promoted by politicians and the mainstream media, FAN successful brings people together, not through some kind of top-down ‘cohesion’ exercise but through community run groups which just ask people to talk on a subject for five minutes. Nothing more.

Although FAN began in Cardiff, the idea has now spread as far as Pakistan, all with the same structure and principles. For this podcast I spoke to FAN fans in England, Wales and Pakistan.

New Blog: Take Root

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I’ve started a new blog called Take Root all about grassroots campaigns and community projects in Cardiff. Hopefully it will grow to be a good place to find out about what’s going on in Cardiff and how to get involved as well as a place for discussion and interaction.

It’s early days still so any feedback welcome and if anyone wants to contribute in any way just let me know.