The East London Waterworks Park: Phase 1

Music and Video3 months ago

Spacehive supporter, if you haven't already, please donate to our current crowdfunder. We need your help with the next phase of the project: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/elwp We're 55% of the way there! Thank you to every single person who continues to support us! Thanks also to those of you who joined us at our online presentation and Q&A and at the Open House Festival at Grow Hackney, you've been wonderful audiences and we have more to update you on, on both of those events.   We are excited to announce we are having a fundraising night at Grow Hackney on Tuesday 27th of September, where there will be music and dancing from The Preshaah, Abdoulaye Samb and more! There is a fantastic group of raffle prizes including: • a dinner for two with a bottle of wine at Grow • a weekend stay in a getaway in the South of France • a stay at Five Acre Barn • a professional portrait by photographer Jonathan Perugia • a local foraging walk for two from Flavour Fred • Bramble Jelly and Sloe Gin from Peter Mudge • Good Folk Coffee • and more! Buy tickets for you and your friends to join us here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/east-london-waterworks-park-fundraising-night-tickets-421389085097   We also have the video of last week's online presentation. Please do share it with anyone you know that is interested to find out more about the project but hasn't donated yet: https://youtu.be/cmq4DcBE2V8     Now more than ever we need to invest in our local communities. Creating East London Waterworks Park is a once in a generation opportunity to provide free access to clean natural swimming and community spaces. The park will be a vital resource for generations to come and we as a community are uniquely placed to steward this plot of land. Help us spread word about the crowdfunder and encourage those who haven't donated yet to do so. You can donate again if you'd like to also: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/elwp   Finally, if you'd like to get involved with the project or know of a company that has a strong approach to corporate social responsibility and might be interested in supporting us, please get in touch: nathan.miller@elwp.org.uk.   And, of course, please continue to get the word out there via social media by following and sharing our posts:  Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/EastLondonWaterworksPark/  Twitter - https://twitter.com/ELWaterworks  Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/waterloversoflondon/  LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/east-london-waterworks-park/   Thank you, from the East London Waterworks Park team

Events & Sharing3 months ago

Supporters of East London Waterworks Park, We have a couple of events coming up that we would like to tell you about. Some of our volunteers are going to be at Grow Hackney on Saturday 10 September for their Open House Festival, from 12pm until 6pm. Come and see us there! https://www.growhackney.co.uk/events-calendar/open-studios-openhouselondon2022 We also have an online presentation and Q&A this coming Tuesday 13 September. Come and learn more about the work we've been doing, as well as how you can help the crowdfunder! https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/east-london-waterworks-park-online-presentation-and-qa-sept-2022-tickets-408823481037 Thanks so much to each and every one of you for your continued support for East London Waterworks Park! This is an all-or-nothing crowdfunder so, if we don't get to £500,000, we won't get anything. I have every confidence we can get there, but we do need to pull out all the stops! Can you persuade three people to donate within the next week? https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/elwp Finally, if you'd like to get involved with the project or know of a company that has a strong approach to corporate social responsibility and might be interested in supporting us, please get in touch: nathan.miller@elwp.org.uk. And, of course, please do continue to get the word out there via social media by following and sharing our posts: Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/EastLondonWaterworksPark/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/ELWaterworks Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/waterloversoflondon/ LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/east-london-waterworks-park/ Thank you, from the East London Waterworks Park team

Look how far we’ve come: an August update from East London Waterworks Park4 months ago

I like me a metaphor. A metaphor can help turn a feeling into something more tangible, something you can explain to others. For me, life is like an endurance race. Sometimes, you don’t know how you will go on, but you dig deep, find a well of energy you didn’t know you had and you push forwards. You keep going and reaching the finish line is amazing, a moment of pure, sparkling joy, before… you plan your next gruelling challenge. But there’s another volunteer in the East London Waterworks Park team, Cathy, and she takes a very different approach to life. She encourages us all, every so often, to stop and turn around and see how far we’ve come. She reminds us to celebrate our achievements even as we look to the far horizon and focus on our goals. So, today, I’m not going to talk about how far we have to go with our crowdfunder (https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk), I want us all to focus on how much we have already raised (or almost already raised): £250,000, a quarter of a million pounds, in around two months. That is nothing short of amazing. It’s a testament to the power of a good idea. And I thank all of you, from the bottom of my heart, for your generosity in sharing the crowdfunder (http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/elwp), encouraging others to donate and donating yourselves. It would be lovely to share this moment of reflection with you, this waypoint in our endurance race that is the crowdfunder (www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/elwp). After the success of our in-person meet-up at Today Bread in Walthamstow a few weeks ago, we’ve decided to re-run the event online. Join us at 19:30 on Tuesday 13 September for a short presentation followed by a Q&A. It’s an opportunity to find out about the project in more detail, ask all your burning questions and learn what you can do to help us reach our crowdfunding target. Register here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/east-london-waterworks-park-online-presentation-and-qa-sept-2022-tickets-408823481037 We've got another £250k to raise, so as ever, please do get the word out there, and if you would like to get involved in volunteering, contact us at info@elwp.org.uk Please do continue to share the project via social media: Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/EastLondonWaterworksPark/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/ELWaterworks Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/waterloversoflondon/ LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/east-london-waterworks-park/ Abigail Woodman, 30 August 2022

All-or-Nothing!4 months ago

Thanks so much to each and every one of you for your continued support of East London Waterworks Park! You are visionaries on a journey to create a resilient biodiverse new park. Thank you to Alex at Today Bread for hosting us on Friday and thank you particularly to those of you that were able to come and listen and ask questions about the project. We noted down the questions and will be answering them on social media across the week, so keep an eye on our accounts at the end of this email. We’d like to address one particular question now though: What happens if you don’t reach the crowdfunder target? The answer is that this an All-or-Nothing crowdfunder, so we need to reach £500,000 before the deadline or you’ll all be refunded and the project will have a significantly lower chance of happening. So please join us in encouraging your friends and family to donate what they can to create this amazing new park! https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/elwp We will be hosting more in-person events, so look out for updates on those.Finally, if you’d like to get involved with the project or know of a company that has a strong approach to corporate social responsibility and might be interested in supporting us, please get in touch: nathan.miller@elwp.org.uk. And, of course, please do continue to get the word out there via social media by following and sharing our posts: Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/EastLondonWaterworksPark/ Twitter - https://mobile.twitter.com/ELWaterworks Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/waterloversoflondon/ LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/east-london-waterworks-park/ Thank you, from the East London Waterworks Park team

We’re loving spending time with you, so we’re extending4 months ago

We’re so proud of what we’ve achieved together. We’ve dreamed an audacious dream and we’ve raised over £200,000 in a little over a month to make that dream come true. That’s nothing short of amazing. To see so many people contributing to the crowdfunder demonstrates how strong the community support for East London Waterworks Park is, and it’s helping us fix meetings to power the project forward. Thank you. Over the last week or so we’ve received a lot of feedback from people who love the project but haven’t managed to donate yet. And we get it; there’s an awful lot going on at the moment. So we’ve spoken to Crowdfunder and we’re extending the deadline to reach our goal. We now have 84 days to reach our target! As ever, please do continue to talk to your networks about the project and encourage them to donate what they can: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/elwp And do come and join us at Today Bread in Walthamstow on Friday 12th August at 19:00, for a short presentation and a Q&A, to find out about the project in more detail, ask all your burning questions, and learn what you can do to help get us reach £500,000: https://www.facebook.com/events/460496495684028/ Finally, if you’d like to get involved with the project or know of a company that has a strong approach to corporate social responsibility and might be interested in supporting us, please get in touch: nathan.miller@elwp.org.uk. And, of course, please do continue to get the word out there via social media by following and sharing our posts: Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/EastLondonWaterworksPark/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/ELWaterworks Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/waterloversoflondon/ LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/east-london-waterworks-park/ Thank you, from the East London Waterworks Park team

The awesomeness of community: a July update from East London Waterworks Park5 months ago

I’ve just been talking to someone who said that the most inspiring thing about East London Waterworks Park is its focus on community, and so I decided to look up the definition of ‘community’. Broadly, it is: 1. a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common 2. the condition of sharing or having certain attitudes and interests in common 3. a group of interdependent plants or animals growing or living together in natural conditions or occupying a specified habitat. How cool to discover that East London Waterworks Park is all three of these things: it is a group of people living in Waltham Forest and Hackney; it is a group of people that share a desire to create a beautiful place where people can reconnect with nature; and it is a group of people that are growing together to develop a new way of doing business that is inclusive and supportive and responsive to the needs of our environment. Just in case it’s passed you by: East London Waterworks Park wants to buy the Thames Water depot for the community so that it is owned by the community and the community decides how it is managed and what happens there. And you are all welcome to be part of that community, now or in the future, whenever you have the time and space and energy. That’s lots of ‘and’s because the project is all about adding and joining and making things better for us all and the animals and plants we share our home with. The crowdfunder has been doing well. I hope, by the time I post this blog, we’ll have reached £200,000. That’s a huge amount of money to have raised in a few short weeks, and thank you to everyone that has contributed so far. We are really and truly grateful. But this is an all-or-nothing crowdfunder. That means, if we don’t reach £500,000 by 23 August, we won’t receive anything. Now, we’re not panicking. We do not do panic! But we do need to call on the awesomeness of community for its – your – help. If you haven’t donated yet, please do it now: www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/elwp If you know of anyone who has expressed an interest in the project but hasn’t donated, please give them a nudge: www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/elwp If you haven’t shared the project with everyone you know yet, please do so now: www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/elwp And if you work for a company that has a strong approach to corporate social responsibility and might be interested in supporting us, please put us in touch: nathan.miller@elwp.org.uk I absolutely appreciate that times are tough and if you cannot afford to donate or are working so hard to make ends meet that you don’t have the head space to think about the project, don’t give it a second thought. Know that your community puts its arms around you and is doing its best to create a space that you and your friends and family can enjoy without thinking about money. Abigail Woodman, 29 July 2022

Power To Change5 months ago

Power To Change have matched £10k to our project! They support some wonderful community projects and we are so happy to be amongst them! It's great to have our vision and plan positively assessed by Power To Change and The National Lottery Community Fund, and be one of our major donors. If you can connect us to any other potential major donor who like to be part of this good news story please drop us a line. Thank you to everyone who has supported us so far! We're nearly at 38% with our next big goal to get to 50% of the way! It would be amazing if each of you were able to secure donations the same size as yours from your friends and contacts. https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/elwp As ever if you would like to get involved in volunteering, contact us at info@elwp.org.uk Please do continue to get the word out there via social media by following and sharing our posts: Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/EastLondonWaterworksPark/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/ELWaterworks Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/waterloversoflondon/ LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/east-london-waterworks-park/ Thank you, East London Waterworks Team

A Third of the Way!5 months ago

We've reached 33% of our initial goal of £500k! Thank you so much to each and every one of you who has donated! We're so grateful for you coming on this journey with us to create East London Waterworks Park. The recent heatwave has shown the urgent need for community climate resilience. Keeping cool is even more important on days like these and our area of London is one of the most at risk from dangerous temperatures in the UK. Wild swimming at East London Waterworks Park will be free - essential in an area where 40% of children are living in poverty. You can help us to make this vision a reality by encouraging your friends to donate. All sizes of donations are equally important. We need to raise an average of nearly £10,000 a day if we're to meet our crowdfunder target. If you know anyone who might want to make a bigger donation we're happy to speak to them, and if you have suggestions for how we can reach more people please do reach out. Here's the link: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/elwp As ever if you would like to get involved in volunteering, drop us a line at info@elwp.org.uk Please do continue to get the word out there via social media by following and sharing our posts: Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/EastLondonWaterworksPark/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/ELWaterworks Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/waterloversoflondon/ LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/east-london-waterworks-park/ Thank you, East London Waterworks Team

Quarter of the way there on Crowdfunder!5 months ago

Thank you so much for helping us reach 25% of our initial goal of £500k. We're so grateful for your support of East London Waterworks Park. We'd love your help in continuing to ensure that the project is shaped by the local community. Can you reach out to 4 friends this week and ask them to donate? We've had some very generous large donations, and smaller donations are also important in helping represent the local community commitment to the project. Here's the link: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/elwp We now have some beautiful flyers to help spread the word. If you would like to use flyers as a starting point of conversation to get people to donate, drop us a note at info@elwp.org.uk Please do continue to get the word out there via social media by following and sharing our posts: Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/EastLondonWaterworksPark/ Twitter - https://mobile.twitter.com/ELWaterworks Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/waterloversoflondon/ LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/east-london-waterworks-park/ Thank you, East London Waterworks Team

The crowdfunder is live: the time is now!6 months ago

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/elwp Let’s do it… let’s turn this concrete-covered depot into community-owned natural swimming ponds and a biodiverse park. The crowdfunder is live: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/elwp Please share it with friends, family, colleagues, anyone and everyone you think might be interested. And, if you can, please donate. The landowner is willing to sell. Now we have to back our offer with cash and we are fundraising from many sources. Our Crowdfunder campaign is our initial marker in the sand: to demonstrate the community is behind the vision and together we can raise the money. It’s really important it gets off to a very good start so, if you are able to donate, it would be great if you could do it sooner rather than later. For those of you who would like to share on WhatsApp and Instagram, we have some images: Map image https://www.elwp.org.uk/Committee/Display.php?File=412&Code=pd0bEJ2wzKg6evBrFJeI5C2CJgQLJ5jD Wild swimming image https://www.elwp.org.uk/Committee/Display.php?File=415&Code=AXgzJGmE9a90iTtC7MkNjUyt0f1ZeKFl I’m feeling a little nervous. No, scrub that, a lot of nervous. But this project has a life of its own, and there are so many people working hard to make it happen. Thank you to each and every one of them, and thank you to you too. Let’s do it! Abigail Woodman, 28 June 2022

The East London Waterworks Park: Phase 1

The East London Waterworks Park: Phase 1

The East London Waterworks Park: Phase 1

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