Julia's Start-Up EdVenture

I will join Edventure (www.edventurefrome.org) as a student this September and will learn new skills through spending 10 weeks setting up a community enterprise.  The enterprise will involve a large walled garden near Frome, with two polytunnels, which will be opened as a plant nursery and a space for community organisations and charities to use for events and programmes.  The client involved is keen to tackle issues of social isolation and loneliness through this enterprise, and to make the space inclusive for all.  There are many 'groups' who are not able to access natural, green spaces and who therefore may struggle to establish a personal connection with nature; that could contribute to their health and well-being and help them to form a positive outlook for their own lives and their relationship with the wider world.

Being part of this start-up edventure will help me to understand how I might be able to set-up my own business one day, and to discover my strengths and weaknesses, while developing my skills and abilities within a team.  This scaffolded work will give me a great model to follow when I look to do something similar myself in the future.

I have worked toward doing something like this for some time now - I have been a Grow Leader at Feed Bristol, and have studied permaculture with Shift Bristol.  I have volunteered to help Bridge Farm take it's first steps as a community-led housing development, with food resilience and sustainability at its core.  I am now a Director on the board of Sims Hill Shared Harvest, a Community Supported Agriculture farm in Frenchay.  So, you can see this is something that really matters to me!

The cash raised by this fundraiser will be our spending money used to make the project happen, so as a donator you directly support me and this enterprise.

REWARD: a guided Deep Time Walk.