Alpha Women’s Empowerment Initiative – Project Update
The second year of the Fruit-full Communities Project got off to a flying start with the training of trainers day held on 12th April at DECSY in Sheffield. Eight new development education specialists have been recruited to assist with delivery of the project at the 17 YMCA sites that are taking part in the second year of the project.
Fruit-full Communities is a project run by Learning through Landscapes with ITF, The Orchard Project and participating YMCAs that gets young people involved in outside activities such as planning and planting an orchard, woodwork and horticulture.
Workshops at five of the 17 YMCA sites will be delivered by ITF’s own Project Officer, Sue Pitt, and another three will be covered by trainers who will be working with us for a second year. The new trainers came together to learn more about the six key themes that they will encourage young people to engage with during the project, covering issues such as why trees matter, where food comes from and ecological footprints. They also considered ways to encourage an exchange of ideas between the young people on the project and young people involved in some of our other tree-planting projects in Kenya and Uganda.
Trainers will be able to engage young people in the issues through a series of resources developed by ITF. You are free to download the Environment Resource Packs which cover the following topics:
- Get Outdoors!
- Think Global, Act Local
- Why Trees Matter
- Where does Food Come From
- Ecological Footprints
- Working in the Green Economy
The highlight of the day was a visit to Parkwood Forest Garden where Tim Shortland (a former employee of ITF who now works for Sheffield City Council) explained the principles of forest gardening, and demonstrated how fruit and other trees can be grown together with plants in a multi-layered ecosystem. Angie Turner from Learning through Landscapes co-delivered the day with Sue Pitt and was able to share her hands-on experience of creating the orchard at YMCA North Staffordshire in the first year of the project.
Evaluations from attendees were very positive, indicating that they now feel ready to start planning delivery of the project at their own YMCA sites.
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