Category: Events

August: A Social Gathering

Events, HGN Events, HGN news Leave a comment

We have no formal gathering in August, but Russell of Innocent Pilgrim has invited us to his yurt for a cider and cheese tasting – hurrah!

Russell will be opening the yurt from 7pm for a meet-up, social and tour of the apple farm. He will take you through some popular cheese and cider pairings, and more plans afoot to pair cider with food.

Please let us know if you can make it, and where you’re coming from so we can share lifts.

If you don’t let us know we may assume no interest so please do say!

The easiest place to do this is on the Facebook event, but you can also email events@hgnetwork.org.

Look forward to seeing you!

September’s Gathering will be back at Left Bank in Hereford, we’ll be checking in with our plastics campaign and welcoming Emma from the Marine Conservation Society with resources and ideas…

And don’t forget the start of the Make Do and Mend Saturdays at The Kindle – please spread the news far and wide – see you there…

 

Spring Greens Report

Community, Culture, Events, Local Groups Leave a comment

For all those of you who attended Spring Greens in early May and would like to keep in touch with this lovely local festival, there is a meeting this Sunday 15th July for the Spring Greens AGM & de-brief. All welcome – 2.30pm at Court of Noke.

And as a little pre-reading, click here for the Spring Greens School Days Report. The School Days happen in the run up to the Spring Greens weekend itself and are an opportunity for local schools to engage in green and inspirational activities.

 

 

Make Do and Mend!

HGN Events, HGN news Leave a comment

Bike Repair – Clothes Swap – Food and more.
Practical activities to save energy and money every month.

August starts with a Clothes Swap – great fun and a massive money saver, more details soon!

Do you have a ‘make do and mend’ skill you can share on any of the days?  Please get in touch with what you’re able to do and what you’d need from us – resources, fee etc.

Here’s how the CLOTHES SWAP will work on 18 August:

10-11am Drop off the clothes you don’t want & collect your tokens (max. 10 items per person).

11am-1pm Select the clothes you do want & exchange them for your tokens.

PLEASE NOTE – We will only accept clothes that are in good, clean condition. We will NOT accept shoes, socks, nightwear, babygros, underwear, hats, scarves, gloves.

The Clothes Swap normally has a good selection of children’s, men’s and women’s clothing, which will be sorted into separate sections.

Any queries about the Clothes Swap, do please contact Averil: averil@brightspacefoundation.org.uk.

Similar events are scheduled for 15 September and 13 October 2018 to celebrate h.Energy weekend!

To volunteer or find out more about these series of events, please contact Rebecca:
Email: events@hgnetwork.org

Facebook event for updates and to let us know what you’re bringing:

https://www.facebook.com/events/269974263550742/

Thanks to the Big Lottery funding for helping to make this possible and our lovely partners The Kindle Centre and Brightspace.

Sharing Culture at TAWAI

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Thanks to all of you who joined the showing of TAWAI last night – and especially to large group who joined us to sit outside in the coolness of the summer’s evening, and reflect on the themes and issues raised for us all by the film.

Thanks to our panelists Cecibel Egan (Pachamama) and Jon Dover (Integral View) for their fascinating insights. Jon’s interest is in the development and transformation of human consciousness based on the ideas of Ken Wilbur, and he drew on Wilbur’s model of human evolution in our discussion. Pachamama is a group of four women from around the UK who will be travelling to Bolivia in October with our prayers and messages of reconnection to the Earth.

Cecibel talked a little about Pachamama in our discussion, and also drew on her own family background in rural Peru as we talked about the inspirational egalitarian hunter-gatherer society featured in the film.  Director Bruce Parry particularly highlights the move from hunter-gather society to agricultural society as the inevitable point of change in our relationship with the land – but also with each other. It is a transition from a culture where ‘personality and wellbeing is inseparable from the group and the landscape…’ to one of ownership – possession, and exploitation.

Our group regretted that the key players in the film were so dominantly male, but otherwise in equal part felt moved, saddened and uplifted by the themes the film portrayed. We would have liked to have sat and discussed for longer … but as the lights turned off in the Courtyard we too disappeared off into the night on our separate journeys home around 10.30pm.

 

Our next film at the Courtyard will be a showing of In Our Hands on Thursday 25th October to follow h.Energy. 

Date Correction

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In Our Hands is showing in Leominster on Saturday 14th and not Friday 13th July:

A showing of the inspirational film In Our Hands. Hosted by the Herefordshire Green Schools Project and Transition Leominster at the Leominster Community Centre there will be a chance to taste a fine array of local produce from 6pm, with the film showing at 7.30pm.

TAWAI – not to be missed!

Culture, HGN Events Leave a comment

Join HGN on Monday 9th July, 8pm at Hereford’s Courtyard for a showing of this stunningly beautiful documentary from well-known BBC TV presenter and explorer Bruce Parry.

The question of interconnectedness is at the heart of Parry’s film, and after the showing we will be considering our own feelings of disconnection – and our quests for reconnection in the context of our rapidly changing world. The discussion will be helped along by the expertise of our friends in HGN, including Cecibel Egan of the Pachamama Project.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

 

Booking & ticket details here: www.courtyard.org.uk/events/tawai-voice-from-the-forest

July Gathering: Multigenerational Wisdom!

Community, Events, HGN Events, Local Groups 2 comments
This is a BELTER of a gathering before our August break!
Getting Multigenerational Involvement
July 18th 2018 7.30pm
YFC Centre, Beech Business Park, Tillington Road, Hereford HR4 9QJ
 
We’ll have quick updates from our campaign groups – Plastics Action and Divest – and confirm initial plans for October’s h.Energy Weekend.
(Thanks for all the sign-ups – still time to register your interest as an exhibitor, and crowdfunder still open please SHARE SHARE SHARE! Just a fiver from 10 of you would transorm our weekend plans!)
Followed by a great workshop:
“Getting Mutigenerational Involvement in your Project”
 
In a time constricted ever busier world, it’s really important to appeal to all age groups to ensure all are included, and we don’t stigmatise any age group away from our activities. Christine Hope and Liz Knight will talk about simple solutions through advertising and holding a gathering – to get the best results.
 
Christine and Liz are facilitators with experience of multigenerational working, and have an interactive session which should start our conversations to get more people on board in our sustainability projects.
 
Its a great opportunity for anybody to come to make a difference for a more cohesive society.
More info and let us know you’re coming on the facebook page – thanks.
(And – did I mention that the crowdfunder is STILL OPEN…?!  🙂

Finding Funding

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Thank you to all for joining us at the Small Funds for Small Groups workshop yesterday.  We were buzzing with ideas by the end and all felt more confident in describing the impact of what we do, and writing funding bids.

Herefordshire Community Foundation gave us some useful insight into the funds available – and an open invitation to get in touch with any other questions we have.

There is a short summary below of some of the good advice for those that couldn’t make it…  and there’s more training in two weeks – Volunteer Recruitment – book on!

Clear Aims: A clear, simple aim for your project or organisation is so important! As are clear activities, and evidence that these activities will have an impact. Evidence could be as simple as a conversation. The simple template we used in the session is here

Many funds will need groups to be constituted. HVOSS can help with this – it’s a simple process. We the Network are are members so can access some of their services at a low (or no) cost.

Some funds that are more suitable for environmental projects:
Gillian Bulmer Fund, Becket Bulmer Fund and Glencora. Most funds are listed here

There is a new online form so the process is more streamlined now. If you’re not sure about where you fit – they are more than happy to talk to you.

If you’ve got a project that you think fits under the remit of Herefordshire Green Network and you’d like to be part of a larger HGN bid – please get in touch with Kate.

We’ll be running this workshop again in November, at the monthly gathering.  Hope to see you there.

FREE TRAINING – Fundraising and Recruiting Volunteers

Events, Funding, HGN Events, HGN news Leave a comment

Do you ever find yourself wishing you had a few more people to carry out the great ideas, or a pot of money to do them with?

A couple of ways coming up that we can building our skills and resources…

Small Funds for Small Groups – a locally-focused workshop here in Herefordshire

10am to 1pm Monday 2nd July

The Kindle Centre, Hereford

We’ll:

  • Look at an example completed small grant application
  • Hear from Herefordshire Community Foundation about grants available right now
  • Identify grants that could help us make great activities for our h.Energy weekend
  • Work on the first step of our own applications – how we describe what we do, and the impact of it, so that a funder will listen!

Tea, coffee and pastries at the start!

You should leave with at least part of a funding bid written – well worth a morning’s reflection.

Places are free but limited – please book here and we’ll confirm your place by 22nd June.

If you’re raring to go now, here is a fund with a deadline in two weeks – if you’d like support completing it please email events@hgnetwork.org

Recruiting and Retaining Volunteers

July will see some free, live, online sessions with our events and publicity coordinator Rebecca who is also an experienced volunteer management trainer. All welcome!

Three lunchtimes: 17th, 18th and 19th July covering: recruiting volunteers, keeping them on board and making sure it’s all legal too.

Sign up here

If you’re not sure what an interactive online workshop might look like, Rebecca will be able to explain after the funding workshop face-to-face!  The beginning of the online sessions will also include an orientation.

h.Energy 2018: Let’s Do This!

Climate change, Community, Energy, Environment, Events Leave a comment

h.Energy is an event in Herefordshire that has been running since 2010.

Would you like to be involved this year? Please tell us how!

Crowdfunder link is also live – please support us here!

This year the event will take place over the weekend of October 13/14, have two main hubs (Hereford and Queenswood Country Park and Arboretum) and other pop-ups around the county according to interest.

Its aim: Promoting sustainable lifestyles, encouraging action to reduce carbon and providing practical support for carbon reduction initiatives.

Your interest and enthusiasm at this stage is what will shape the event – this year once again we currently have very little secured budget to spend on this event, so we are looking to partner with as many of you in our great network as possible.

Previously we have seen films, fun runs, workshops and puppetry all in the name of sustainable energy for life – what will you make happen this year?!

Please let us know how you could be involved in this form by FRIDAY 29th June 2018.

If you have an idea, but you’re not sure if you have the resources – come to our funding workshop with Herefordshire Community Trust on 2nd July. We’ll have a bid written in a morning – promise! 🙂

 

 

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