Naomi Graham from Wirral Environmental Network, an education charity, offering courses in sustainable living. They also act as an umbrella organization supporting networks in their work to provide sustainable food, encourage recycling of furniture and repair cafes among other things.
They had been developing an online data base of local green organisations known as their big green list, in order to make them more accessible. They joined with Transition Liverpool in order to work together to develop a useable map of local green initiatives in order to make them more visible.
The map was developed by the Solidarity Economy Association, who are a world wide network of green initiatives.
Mersey Green Network Map is:
- A resource that can be used to find the green projects that are needed
- It identifies gaps in what is available, allowing the possibility of developing areas that are under represented
- It supports the local economy and
- It creates a resource that can be used for local green businesses to share their expertise and support each other
The map is a directory that groups activities into themes, for example, the activities supporting nature, friends of local parks and gardens, community apple orchards and land protection, urban farms and wild life trusts. In a similar way, local energy projects addressing fuel poverty, and bike repair services can be easily identified. There is an emphasis on recycling, including community furniture and even paint recycling services.
Naomi gave examples of the way that networking between local services had led to new and creative initiatives, for example, Magenta is a not-for-profit housing organization. When WEN were asked for help with the community garden, WEN were able to connect Magenta with Bee Wirral. Bee Wirral and Magenta jointly worked on Refresh, the furniture reuse project, making it bigger.
Another project, Eco Art in the Park, commissioned Alison Bailey Smith, a local artist who uses recycled materials in her art work to provide a sculpture and Diana Powell from Wirral Unplugged, to provide children’s activities. As a result of working together, they are now jointly running Wirral MakeFest, a celebration of the work of green organisations on the Wirral each year.
Naomi’s full talk can be found here
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