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Last week saw us step outside of our comfort zone when we visited London. It’s not often that we get out of the county but having being shortlisted as a finalist in the Groundwork Community Awards we were kindly invited to attend the House of Commons for the Awards Ceremony. What an event it was, starting with a tour of Parliament we were then taken to the Strangers Dining Room for the ceremony. The room was filled with MP’s, Businesses and the 30 community projects that had been shortlisted as finalists and what amazing projects they were. We had been shortlisted for an award for Best Community Partnership with Business, and though we didn’t win, we were delighted to see Bridgman & Bridgman get the award for their impactful work. For us, as such a new project, just getting recognised by being shortlisted was more than we had ever expected and to say we were proud, humbled and delighted to receive this recognition for our work was an understatement. The event for us was more than just an award ceremony and has helped us progress our work as a result of just being there. We met some amazing people there, in addition to the Groundwork staff we met Environmental Plymouth (winner of Best community group contribution to environmental sustainability), Givewith who sponsored our award and many others who we will surely be working with in the future. The whole experience was hugely inspirational and has helped inspire new ideas and reenergised us giving the motivation to continue pushing our ideas forward whilst exciting us about future possibilities. To make the most of our trip, before heading home the following morning we met with Nick Gardner, founder of Semble (previously Project Dirt) to discuss our ideas and their possible involvement in some projects we are working to create for next year. Nick loved what we were trying to achieve and will be supporting us in making them a reality which completely blew us away. So, from our mad 24 hours in London we came away with so much more than we had ever expected, even if it meant coming away without an award. We met some amazing and hugely inspirational people, we formed business relationships and we set out plans for how we want to grow next year and got on support that will help us make it a reality. Really, we couldn’t have asked for much more.
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Over the last month we have been working with students from Falmouth University and they have created a film for us that highlights some of our work. Enjoy. A quick update on our workshops and events.
We have just finished the workshops in Bodmin on Dignity Bags where over the last few weeks people came together to learn how to sew a bag with a real purpose. The Dignity Bags will be filled by the makers with essential items and toiletries and distributed through the foodbanks. We loved working on this project and we hope to do more in the new year if people would like to join in, All ages and abilities welcome and we will supply everything to make the bags. Our workshops in Par / Cornubia are going really well and there are still 2 Thursdays left for you to join in. These sessions are again bag making but a different style and these will be used for essential items for the childrens clothing bank here in Cornwall. The need comes through a referral system and agencies across Cornwall and we are very happy to be able to help the fantastic work they undertake. We have started to distribute them and more are needed in the run up to Christmas and again in the new year. You would be very welcome to join in on the last 2 sessions planned for this year and we are also on the look out for sewing machines to help us continue the great work and to be able to keep up with demand from you guys to join in. If you have a spare machine and would like to donate it to us then please let us know and we can arrange collection / delivery. We have a Socially Social network event planned for Tuesday the 13th November - 7 - 9pm and aimed at Social Enterprises and Community Groups where we can come together and meet like minded people, share stories and inspiration and maybe meet people who will be able to help build stronger communities. And then we have the Christmas Pop up Market in Honey Street on the 8th December. This is aimed at promoting youth Enterprise and social good causes around Bodmin. We are busy planning the day and we do have space for 2 more traders so if you think you fit the description then get in contact and find out about joining in. There is no cost to trade as we know the barriers that many young people face when trying to start up something and that costs can often mean exclusion. We have swishing in Cornubia on the 1st December and last time we attracted 107 people and nearly 1/2 ton of textiles! Not sure that will happen again but we can assure you that we will have fun, music while we swish and free tea and cake to help the day along. If you are unsure how swishing works then just pop along and find out, oh, and bring a bag of clothes to swap! We are also finalists for 2 awards this year, first is Cornwall Sustainability Award and the 2nd is a finalist for a Groundwork Community Award in the Best community partnership with business category. We have been invited to join the awards ceremony, to be held at the House of Commons, Westminster, London. We are delighted to be finalists for these awards and it seems that our hard work and efforts are paying off through recognition. We hope to continue building stronger, more connected communities in 2019 and we are working on some quite exciting stuff so stay tuned and watch out for our updates and how you can get involved. We simply loved 2018 and we cant wait to get going on bigger and better in 2019. We had an email today ... Congratulations, I am thrilled to let you know that you are a Cornwall Sustainability Awards 2018 finalist! The judges met today and worked through all the applications, carefully examining the merits of each one. The panel were blown away by the calibre of this year’s applications, which made choosing the finalists no easy task. In turn, this means that being a CSA 2018 finalist is a real testament to the quality of your sustainability work and your commitment to environmental growth. We will let you know how we get on..  |
Our blog is designed to keep you up to date on Cultivate Cornwall news and all the different projects we are working on.
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