The Living Projects | Land Based Lifelong Learning

About

The Living Projects at Pondfield is a thriving community led space that facilitates pioneering initiatives coming from our local area to tackle systemic issues around purposeful work, social infrastructure, rural youth opportunities and nature connection.

Founded in 2014 by local young people who wanted to see more opportunities for their generation, Pondfield has grown into a thriving hub for our community. We grow food, we explore pioneering techniques to help ecosystems and biodiversity through regenerative land management. We offer space for volunteering and learning about various horticulture approaches whilst we continue to support the local community through providing opportunities for connection to the land, social health and true wellbeing.

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Our vision

We are creating a thriving, land based learning hub for our local community that is primarily focused on supporting young people within an intergenerational community. We want to continue to explore how we can take a regenerative approach to working with the land whilst supporting alternative ways to create meaningful work in the local area and tackle the biodiversity crisis head-on. We are testing the waters and learning through experience how to take ecologically damaged land and turn it into something positive for the future. As we build on our successes and learn from our mistakes we want to lead the way for others to restore degraded land through community participation.

Multilayered approach to wellbeing and social health

We consider the mental, physical and emotional needs of individual and collective health

Community led

We listen to our local community and continue to develop in response to their needs

Regenerative Land Management

We are learning and teaching how to work the land in a way that leaves it healthier than when we found it.

Grassroots

We are growing organically, in a way that is nourishing to our team, our community and the land.

Land based lifelong learning

We offer space that strives to support all the different ways that people can learn from the land

Resilience and Sufficiency

We are resilience builders, helping our community to rediscover the skills that we need to live and thrive on our land.

Our Mission

We know that these are troubling times and collectively we are navigating Covid19, climate breakdown, biodiversity loss, a growing wealth gap, inequality, isolation, a mental and physical health crisis, and so much more. We understand that we each have a role to play in navigating these issues. At The Living Projects we are finding ways to build resilience, capacity and confidence for people to face these issues together. We want to foster qualities that support lifelong learning so that more of us can adapt to the challenges of these times.

We also believe that given the right type of support, funding and opportunities that Pondfield could become a prime example of how communities can collectively run, use and transform agricultural land into community assets, supporting learning, food sovereignty and wellbeing. Our mission is to grow The Living Projects into a space where we can support others to create similar initiatives and together tackle these issues.

2020 saw us grow, formalise and deepen our commitment as a project. 2021 is the year for us to really show what we are capable of. Our members are going to be essential to our ongoing development and growth, as well as a number of changes on the horizon that will hopefully open up new avenues of funding and, therefore, more opportunities for our project to serve our local community.

Become a member

What we do

Everything that we do as a project revolves around nature, regeneration, community, learning and wellbeing and this informs how we grow together.

Our weekly community volunteer days are the staple diet to caring for the land, as we grow food and spend time being creative outdoors together.

We look at how we can give more to the land than we take, discovering ways to improve, restore and regenerate as we maintain and support habitats to thrive.

We offer space for our local community to put on a variety of events, workshops and courses around learning and education that have ranged from mushroom cultivation workshops to sweat lodges to film screenings.
We provide space for others to grow food like the Squash Cooperative, advising and supporting other projects that collaborate with us on the land.

Being a welcome space for young people to come get stuck in and find experience or support that will help them grow and thrive.

Membership

We are raising funds through our membership scheme to become more sustainable and self sufficient as a project which will help us continue to create a positive impact for the community through the space we offer for regenerative land practices.

Our project has grown out of providing a space for local people to connect with the land and rediscover vital skills. The time, energy and enthusiasm given by the local community has brought us to where we are today and we are really excited to see where this support will lead us.

2020 gave us the opportunity to expand and so we are finding pathways to become more sustainable in our long term vision as a project and we would like to offer our local community more opportunities to join us in the continued development of The Living Projects.

Through our membership scheme you can join a number of community events that we offer throughout the year and participate in shaping the project as well as book the roundhouse space from June - November.

Become a Member

Who we are

We are a group of local young adults, who are passionate about the regeneration and enhancement of land as well as fostering learning and education within our local community that supports wellbeing and social health.

We are currently undergoing governance and organisational work to grow the resource and capacity of the team and therefore The Living Projects. We'll update here when we have completed this work and can announce the new and expanding team.