Vote for us!

We have been shortlisted for the Aviva Community Fund to support the younger generation.

We want to run nature based creative activities for Lewisham’s young people in at The Wild Cat Wilderness.

If we win we will run free creative, nature-based workshops for young people in Lewisham during the 2015 summer holidays. At the Wild Cat Wilderness we can combine art with the great outdoors. Vote for us if you love – art, nature, being outside and Lewisham.

Click the link below to register and vote for us.

https://community-fund.aviva.co.uk/voting/Project/View/973

The aim of the activities is for young people to be naturally creative in this urban wilderness. They will play, learn and create whilst being outdoors and connect to the local natural world. They will discover an urban wilderness and learn about nature and wildlife, whilst being creative using natural and recycled materials and gain an understanding of the importance of conservation & the environment.
We will run 20 half-day creative workshops during August for young people aged 4-18 targeting different age groups and abilities. We aim to have 10 participants per workshop so we will reach 200 local children. The workshops will also allow parents, family members, guardians & carers to come & enjoy the space whilst the sessions are happening.

Watch the video above where Olive and Honour explain about the last willow weaving session they took part in and what it’s all about.

Click the link below to register and vote for us.

https://community-fund.aviva.co.uk/voting/Project/View/973

The pond

As part of the Big Dig, we have dug a hole and put a bath in it. This may not sound very sensible, but it is in fact the modern way to create ponds.

riot20150322_143749

Building recycled furniture

We had a fab day building a few benches and tables

Willow planting

We have planted over 200 willows along the fence by the sports ground called a fedge and dug a path from the gate to the wilderness.

the path

20150322_132406A path has now been laid down from the entrance of the allotment to the entrance of the wilderness, as agreed with the allotment tenants.

the toilet

riot20150321_133757We have had a compost toilet installed. It has two containers underneath it, for obvious reasons, and you can pour wood chippings instead of flushing to reduce odour. For some technical reason you have to sit on it, and personally, I found the bushes slightly easier, but women may disagree, and at least it is more civilised.

Progress report

We have made the following progress so far:

  • We have 9 regular members on the steering group, the
    youngest of which is 8 years old.
  • We have had 4 meetings to date, which are generally 2
    hours long and have actively planned the volunteer days,
    next actions and potential plans for the future.
  • We have a recording system in place to record details of
    people involved
  • We have had 16 volunteer days, generally running from
    10am-3pm, sometimes up to 4.30pm
  • We have had 3 further planned, which were cancelled
    due bad weather.
  • To date we have had 25 people involved and 398
    volunteer hours spent on the project. Volunteers have come from the Time bank and also via networking locally.

The team is currently planning:

  • The common area
  • Main path
  • The composting toilet
  • Other paths to designated spaces.
  • All the volunteer days and special events for 2015.
  • Promoting the project
  • Training