Open House

Jul 2, 2010 by Jenny    No Comments    Posted under: change cycling, do, film, footsteps, frock swap, global footsteps, ideas, open house, screening, sustainability, swap shop

We had a really lovely ‘Open House’ event last night at FootSteps. It was great to show people around and learn more about what they do and their interests. We told them a little bit about what we do and heard their thoughts and ideas on what we could do with the building and as a charity!

Here are some of the ideas, suggestions and comments we had and I’ve tried to feedback a little:

Clarify the focus of your charity and its aims and mission; prepare an elevator pitch

This is so important and something we recognise we need to address. How about: ‘We connect people at a grass roots level… We do this through a variety of events, clubs and activities that all aim to bring people together in ways that are enjoyable and positive for the environment and society.

Offer the space to existing local charities to use for their meetings and so on

We are very keen to do this and hope local like-minded organisations come along and use our space for meetings and events. Word of mouth is very powerful as is networking through events like this. We are trying to network as best we can through things like Transition Cheltenham and we hope our events create a buzz around the charity… please spread the word!

Charge users a nominal fee [to use the space at FootSteps]

We do intend to charge a small fee to hire out our space once it is in a nice usable state. We also have an option for organisations to be members of Global Footsteps, which would give them discounts on hiring spaces etc, as well as in the shop/cafe.

Screen environmental and educational films

We are very keen to do this and are working out a way to do this without breaking license laws, if anyone has any suggestions please get in touch!

Could you benefit from using Community Service people for labouring?

I’m sure we could, we are desperately in need of someone to help co-ordinate the manual work that we need to do, someone with DIY skills who wants to get their teeth into a worthwhile project, do you know anyone?

Contact the Eco-housing set up in Stroud, about their ecological building experience

Thanks for this suggestion, I looked them up and the co-housing project sounds brilliant, perhaps we’ll invite them up to FootSteps to give a talk and some advice. Follow this weblink for more: http://www.cohousing.org.uk/springhill-cohousing

Focus on Poverty in Cheltenham + Gloucester(shire)

We recognise the huge social and economic inequalities that exist here and would love to do something practical to address this as well as spread awareness of this problem.

Run day trips / weekend trips for people on modest income

This feeds in to the above and is a great idea, who wants to come help us to make this happen? Where shall we go?!

Use the space for various craft-making classes

Yes please! If you want to start something up please get in touch!

More language classes

We have a history of providing language classes and want to resurrect it, we already have people who can teach French, Russian, Tamil and Bengali in our membership. If there is a demand for lessons then I’m sure we can get them going.

Bike repair clinics, maybe located at Friends Meeting House

Another great idea, we have a few people who I think could offer this, I know that I could do with learning a bit more myself! One of our members has even written books on Cycle craft!

Frock Swap

Simple but really great idea, thanks for this, whoever wrote it down are you up for helping to organise and run a Frock Swap event?!

Have a low cost meal night – meal and a drink for a fiver

Great idea this, the shop floor is a nice cosy spot to have a meal and we have the facilities downstairs for people to join together to cook it. Any budding chefs fancy it?!

Thanks again to everyone who came last night and contributed your ideas, you’ve seen the resources we have, but the most important resource we have is YOU! Please get in touch if you want to help us to bring people together by the grass roots! Email binfo@global-footsteps.org to get involved!

Can you host students from China this summer?

May 28, 2010 by Jenny    No Comments    Posted under: cheltenham, english, environmental education, global footsteps, global ventures, gloucestershire, hosting, Twinning, Weihai

I’d like to draw your attention to a request in the Cheltenham Weihai Link newsletter. I hope you can help.

Students from Weihai

In July two groups of young people from Weihai will be coming to Cheltenham to study on the summer English Language courses at Gloucestershire college. The College are short of families to host in the Cheltenham area and ask that if anyone would be interested in having some Weihai students please contact Wendy Clark at GlosColl on 01242 532007 or Annette Wight, 01242 264311 (Annette.Wight@cheltenham.gov.uk) for a form. The first group will be here from 11 July for 3 weeks and the second group from 19 July for 2 weeks.

If you can offer any accomodation that would be great. We are keen to build our links with Weihai over the next few years, hopefully if we can host one or two students it will help us to build this relationship.

Alison and Glenn meet up with like minded organisations in Torun

May 27, 2010 by Jenny    No Comments    Posted under: AIESEC, Barbaka, environmental education, global footsteps, global ventures, linking, peace, Pracownia Zrównoważonego Rozwoju, Rowerowy Torun, sustainability, Tilia, Torun

As part of a holiday in Poland, Morgan (Woodland) and I met up with Glenn “Our man in Torun” and over a 3 day period (9-11 May) met up with representatives from 4 different organisations with a view to them participating in the Cadca conference, and identified a possible 5th organisation. A productive time.

Our first call was to the forest school in the Barbarka Forest near Torun, an organisation previously identified and visited by Howard (www.szkola-lesna.torun.pl/wbrindex.php?id=102).

At an extremely productive meeting we met Monika Krause, who works there, and Zbignew from the environmental NGO Tilia, who help to fund the project (www.tilia.org.pl/).

They were extremely interested in attending the conference, and have subsequently booked, without requesting any subsidy. They run an environmental centre deep in the Barbarka forest (12km north of Torun). They educate school children about nature and have a really good set up (funded by EU support from Iceland, Norway, etc). During the week they educate school children and then at weekends members of the public and tourists swarm to the place for pleasure (there are many trails, a lake, mini golf, tree assault course, etc). So although there is tourism, with its impact on the environment they are primarily an educational and environmental organisation, and share our ethos on sustainability.

They have a hostel and hotel which would actually be a perfect location for a future Global Footsteps conference with a large room catering up to 150 people. They are looking for similar minded NGOs to link up with…and so they would be very beneficial to join the GF network.

As we returned to Torun, we came across a poster advertising a picnic and barbeque the previous day in aid of Fair Trade day. Some detective work on the computer on our return to the hostel revealed a website which seemed to have information about various environmental activities throughout Torun (www.ekologiczny.torun.pl).

It also included a map and addresses of other environmental NGOs, so we got emailing, and managed to set up two more meetings at short notice.

Rowerowy Torun is a cycling campaigning and capacity building group (www.rowerowytorun.com.pl/).

We met Joanna (nickname Asia) and Pawel in their run-down offices, and gave them the presentation and explained about Global Footsteps. Joanna explained that they are quite a new organisation, about 4 years old. They are working on the council to improve the cycling infrastructure in Torun, and they want to improve the image of cycling as a means of transport, once the infrastructure is improved. She said In Poland it is only quite recently that cars have become affordable for many people – and everybody wants one. Although they are quite well known in the city – they have a regular critical mass cycle ride – she feels that people don’t understand why there is a need for an organisation for assisting cycling. They are a very grassroots organisation – I think they only have volunteers, although they had some funding for a specific project to advise the council on cycle lanes etc. They have just got a rickshaw bike which they use to generate electricity for their sound system on the critical mass. We told them about Dennis’s adventure cycling from Torun to Cheltenham on a similar machine. Like Barbarka, they understand the sustainability agenda. They are circulating details about the conference to their members, and are keen to be represented, but would certainly need some funding if they were to come. I would certainly recommend that they would be good candidates. Joanna said how hard work it was, and that working so locally on such a specific issue, it was hard to see how they fitted in with the big picture, but of course she agreed with think global, act local etc. So encouragement through links with what else is going on in the world would be great.

The following morning we had a very interesting meeting in a lovely cafe (sampling the cheesecake and apple cake) with Basia Witek from Pracownia Zrównoważonego Rozwoju, a sustainable development organisation based in Torun (www.pzr.org.pl). Again they are quite a new NGO – about 4 years. Basia is a fairly new volunteer, in her 20s, who got involved in helping to apply for funding and do community consultations. Krzysztof Slebioda the director, wanted to join us, but his wife is pregnant and they had a medical appointment. So the people involved seem to be young. The main event they organise is laying turf on the main town square, for a day in June – with stalls selling eco-goods, local food, etc etc. encouraging a family day out with an important message. They are very much into the Global Footsteps message about making connections and community building, as well as sustainability.

As she is a fairly new volunteer, Basia couldn’t commit the organisation to anything, but they have weekly meetings on a Monday, and she will report about our meeting, and possibly arrange for Glenn to visit at a later date, or come back to us with more questions.

Our meeting with Bartosz from AIESEC was also very promising (www.torun.aiesec.pl). He is interested in sending a representative to the conference, and I think they will be useful, as they are good networkers, like us. For example he told us that they arrange for international students to run workshops in local schools about the country that they come from. Also they take part in summer camps for local school children, and they have organised skills workshops for local unemployed people. They are interested in the international links we have made, and also in the local links in Torun – they don’t seem to know about PZR at the moment. I think it would be useful for them to attend as networkers, but also as an organisation who can give a presentation on what they do. I encouraged them to send a representative, and he said he would report back to their committee and be in touch. He indicated that they would need financial help.

Finally, Monika from Barbarka put us in touch with Zbigniew Szalbot, who organised the Fair Trade picnic. We didn’t have time to meet him, but he responded to my email with interest, saying they will “soon be creating an organization (a co-op) that will have as its goal taking on board unemployed people and offering them work.” He said they could not afford the fee, but I encouraged him to arrange a meeting with Glenn to take discussions further.

It has been great to get a brief sense of what is going on environmentally at a grass roots level in another country. I was inspired to meet these people, and hope we develop lasting links with their organisations.

Sophie in Annecy

May 5, 2010 by Jenny    No Comments    Posted under: annecy, environmental education, global footsteps, global ventures, sophie, sustainability, travel

Sophie Franklin took time out from her Easter break with her family in France to visit Cheltenham’s twin town of Annecy for us. Here is her report:

In view of the difficulty in getting to correspond with our Annecy counterpart at the Borough offices, Morgan asked me to go and see what I could find out on the ground, which I did.

I had found out that there is an officer solely working on the environment for the town of Annecy, so I knocked on the door of the municipal Offices and asked to speak to him.

Unfortunately, he was away on a course, but the receptionist was very friendly and helpful and I promised I would contact him by email on my return.

In the morning, I also tried to speak to someone at FRAPNA, they are a Federation of local associations which deal with all sorts of local environmental problems, but really nothing that matches up with Cheltenham.

So I then went to Prioriterre, with whom I had established contact before going and who were really hospitable and helpful. Prioriterre is an Annecy organisation trying to empower people to protect the environment in whichever way they want, green buildings principally and renewable energy, through consultations, talks to schools and colleges, etc.

Prioriterre’s new building is carbon neutral, even better, it produces more energy than it needs. Even the armchair in the reception area are made of cardboard… Very comfortable too, but the staff don’t think they will last very long, not the perfect sitting room armchair as it might age rather quickly!

I explained what we did and that we wanted to establish links with like-minded organisations, especially in order to organise exchanges between young people. They said they would certainly find youngsters interested in going abroad to one of our partner organisations, like Kisumu, and also possibly to go to our next Youth conference in Slovakia.

I met Anne Hughet, who does not speak much English but some of her colleagues do, so future contacts should be easy.

Their web address is: http://www.prioriterre.org with a couple of pages in English. Anne also gave me the address of another organisation “La Terre en Heritage”, specialising in sustainable consumption. I really look forward to finding out more at a later date.

Jana visits Ramnicu Valcae for Global Footsteps! Part 4!

Apr 28, 2010 by Jenny    No Comments    Posted under: environmental education, global footsteps, global ventures, gottingen, jana, ramnicu valcae, romania, sustainability, sustainable development, waste

Fourth day, 17th March 2010

Irina and I went to see another project, which had been implemented in the community a short time ago. With the help of the Göttingen waste management, a system of waste separation had been installed and a new waste land was being built. As the other projects we saw, this too is EU-funded.

Back in Irina’s office, we did not stay for a long time but left for La Journée de la Francophonie, the French days in Valcea. Schools were presenting short plays by Molière and Romanian playwrights in the library and this was a nice opportunity to join some local cultural events without struggling with the language barrier – at least almost, as the Romanian plays were in Romanian. We had lots of fun watching and couldn’t take our eyes off the smallest children running around in their traditional costumes.

Later, we went to the market place again to get some food for my journey from Valcea to Sibiu, which was due the next morning. In the evening, I went out alone and strolled through Valcea’s city centre, taking pictures and being happy with the experience!

Jana visits Ramnicu Valcae for Global Footsteps! Part 3!

Apr 28, 2010 by Jenny    No Comments    Posted under: global footsteps, global ventures, gottingen, ramnicu valcae, romania

Third day, 16th March 2010

Irina came to my place to pick me up at noon and we drove to her office together where I had some time to prepare myself for holding the presentation about Global Footsteps and the conference in August. At 2pm Irina, some of her colleagues and I went to a conference room in the municipality building for installing the beamer and the laptop. The head of the Social Department, Simina, Carmen and other employees joined us. When I started giving the talk, Irina translated from English into Romanian. After I had finished the women had a quite long discussion about the subject – everyone was impressed and thought of it as a great idea, but, as I understood, there were also doubts about Romania’s role in this network. How helpful could be their community for the network, as they have so many difficulties to cope with themselves? And could they profit from their engagement in conference and the future cooperations? Although I only understood a bit of what they were saying and Irina could not translate everything for me, it became clear to me that the conference and the linking between the communities and projects means something different depending what the basis of the respective project is. For the project in Valcea, becoming active in the GF network and investing time and work into it, seems to mean investing much more than a project from e.g. Germany would, because they have such a great lack of funds and employees. Being part of the network can be a great chance for them, but becoming active only seems to make, if they can really profit from this.

Having come to an end, everybody thanked Irina and me for the presentation and I felt quite relieved that it had gone well.

After a short break and some cookies, Irina, Simina, Carmen and I drove to the outskirts of Valcea to visit the MARA centre for autistic children, another project realized by the Social Department. The centre offers therapy for children and advice for their parents. The children live with their families but come to the centre for their therapy every day. The MARA also is EU-funded and the only centre dealing with autism in the area of Ramnicu Valcea. Studying psychology, this visit was very intersting for me as I already had courses about autism but never had met autistic people before. A worker from the centre gave us a tour through different therapy rooms, presenting different groups of children to us, who ranged between 2 or 3 years up to about 11 years. The groups also differed in the children’s type of autism, and so did the therapy. Some therapists were working on the children’s concentration through drawing or making simple crafts, others focused on language, as some autists hardly ever speak. We also saw a gymnastics room where the children can play and move to music during their therapy. There we encountered a little boy having the savant-syndrome. According to our guide, he was very gifted doing all sorts of calculations. At the end of the tour we all were sad for leaving.