Cook 4 Life Harvest Celebration

Date of event: 15th September 2009
Organised by: NCVO
Venue: Offshoots Permaculture, Burnley
Report by: Rob Squires, Wellbeing Network Co-ordinator (Third Sector)

This was the third regional networking event that I have organised for Target: Wellbeing, the objective being to connect people accross the region doing work around healthy eating. The day followed the same format as the mental health and physial activity events in July, in that it was headlined by a talker from Government Office North West. On this occasion it was Angela Towers, who is the lead on Food and Health Issues at GONW, and also at the FSA (Food Standards Agency). Angela gave a fine presentation about the work of these two agencies, and how they support 3rd Sector projects such as those in Target: Wellbeing, as well as impressing upon the group, how vital the work of our projects are to regional healthy eating strategies. (A copy of Angela's presentation is available on request .. please email me.)

Angela's presentation was delivered in a yurt, which is a traditional Tibetan structure. The yurt was lined with straw bales, and was filled with 16 enthusiastic participants. These included three people from Making Local Food Work, which is a national infrastructure project supporting local food enterprises. One of these was Maressa Bossano, who supports the Food C0-ops programme, and traveled all the way from Hastings especially to see us!

With the approach of the autumn equinox, and the end of the growing season, the day also included a harvest celebration lunch, where participants brought along fruit from the land, and dishes made from ingredients from their projects. Following this was a fascinating tour of Offshoots Permaculture project by Phill Dewhurst. Offshoots is managed by Groundwork East Lancs, and is part of the Target: Wellbeing programme. It is a flagship project in Burnley, demonstrating many features of sustainable living, including food growing, community composting, compost toilets, renewable energy and sustainable building.

Follow up:
I am already planning a follow-up for this event, which will take place at Rice Lane City Farm in Liverpool next year. Making Local Food Work will headline this event, and the theme will be around social enterprise skills sharing for Target: Wellbeing food projects. The event will also be timed to co-incide with the lambing season, and participants will be able to get involved in this. A couple of days after the Harvest Celebration event at Offshoots, I visited Rice Lane, for a planning meeting with Roma Margret. At the same time I organised a three way meeting with Nicola Lee who is the director of food with Liverpool MBC. Both Nicola and I had a fascinating morning learning about the work of the farm, and meeting some of the rare livestock that are bred there.

In the Shadow

PART I - GUEST BLOG

Date of event: 9th September 2009
Organised by: NCVO
Venue: Groundwork Northwest
Report by: Mike Chambers, Head of Local Government Information and Analysis

It happened while I was on leave in August. While I was sunning myself in the mountains, Government Office was busily volunteering me for a day shadowing Rob Squires. I could have complained and, I guess, they could have apologised, but either of these would have been a first (honest!). But why complain? I have always been curious about the inside story of a cluster of projects delivering our vision for the North West.

It's not been what I expected. I don't know why but I was expecting brass tacks and lots of detail but instead I have spent the time looking at philosophy, ethics and the futures for the region's communities. I imagined we would occupy seperate worlds with different priorities and imperatives but in fact we have lots in common; not least the goals, frustrations and mysteries of health inequalities and life chances.

At the back of my mind is the haunting question of whether there will really be wider benefits than the joys of a mushroom melt lunch and some delightful chats with a collection of smart people. Well, there are. I hadn't appreciated that the mound of information we are sat on in Government Office could be useful to others, or the potential of Target: Wellbeing to give us a wealth of examples of initiatives to illustrate what can be done. So we will be extending our networks by looking at sharing information and analytical tools.

Its still only half time in the shadowing process. The second leg will be in Government Office next week. So watch this space.


PART II

Date of event: 16th September 2009
Organised by: NCVO
Venue: Government Office North West
Report by: Rob Squires, Wellbeing Network Co-ordinator (Third Sector)

It all began whilst everyone else at Target: Wellbeing was on holiday. In a quiet momment in the office I nonchalantly applied to a NCVO scheme called A Day In the Life, in which I would shadow somone in local government for a day, and in return they would shadow me. My reason for applying was that I wanted to discover what the human side of a government agency was like. When Mike arrived in our office last week, my first impressions of him were that he was very cool and confident. He also turned out to be quite fascinating, with a rich depth of experience, and a broad outlook on life.

During my afternoon in Government Office with Mike, we talked quite a lot about issues to do with data analysis and dissemination. He introduced me to his information and analysis manager, Mark Ellison, and we looked at some of the reporting formats they are developing for their data. They are keen to develop a closer partnership with Groundwork Northwest, and Target: Wellbeing as an outcome of A Day In the Life. Mark has offered to come into our office soon and give us some support in shaping up the evaluation data that we are getting from the 95 projects in Target: Wellbeing.