Comfrey Almanac Publication hit its fundraising target!6 months ago
Brilliant news, thanks everyone!
Bringing together people and opportunities to create vibrant communities
The Comfrey Almanac is a volunteer-led, collaborative, digital and print book project revealing the global in the local, showcasing our volunteers' engagement with their gardens across Tyneside.
The Comfrey Almanac is a collaborative book project mapping the interactions of human and natural diversity as they unfold over the year in our Tyneside gardens. This book embodies our organisation's ethos in cultivating a space where human and natural diversity can thrive together. Your donation of £10 + pp. will give you a beautiful and practical 120-page risograph book, The Comfrey Almanac: Growing the Multicultural Garden, upon publication in January 2024. Conceived in collaboration with our volunteers, staff and a resident academic, we've been working together over a year to document life in our garden. The Almanac showcases the global in the local, charting the year with stories; cultural events (Nowruz, Eid, Refugee Week); garden tips; global recipes; natural remedies, and local wildlife. With workshops and publication, this project will valorise our volunteers and the community, creating new opportunities and an enduring legacy that can evolve online over the years.
What we'll deliver:
Why it's a great idea:
The Comfrey Almanac will be a lasting structure to record the knowledge, skills and folklore of the diverse cultures that make up the Tyneside community. The project will contribute to the mental and physical well-being of participants, with workshops enabling opportunities and creative connection, and publication fostering a sense of dignity, belonging, and achievement. The launch and valorisation of The Comfrey Almanac through local libraries, community centres and Newcastle University will ensure its accessibility, significance and reach, offering educational and cultural enrichment opportunities to our volunteers and a broad audience. The Almanac's promotion at venues across Tyneside will include community discussions and activities centred around multicultural belonging, ecology, and urban social and environmental renewal in the North of Tyne area. The Almanac also has potential to generate income for our charity and help us in our goal to celebrate diversity sustainably.
Steps to get it done:
The Comfrey Project aims to create a society where refugees and people seeking asylum are included and respected as equals. We have three garden/allotment sites - at Moorside, Walkergate and Windmill Hills in Bensham. We use our gardens as a basis for creative activities which improve mental and physical wellbeing. As a tangible product which promotes our presence and value to the social and natural heritage of Gateshead and the North of Tyne, the Almanac will be invaluable. We will use it to support the delivery of our educational programmes, and it will aid in our participants' self-motivated engagements with other community organisations in the area. It will also enhance our visibility within Higher Education institutions, as our academic partnership will ensure its promotion and enable our participants to lead Almanac workshops at the university. This book and its website will generate broad interest in our work, encourage volunteers and build bridges to the wider community.
Gallery
Location Newcastle upon Tyne
About the space
Our gardens are in Walkergate, Moorside and Bensham
Council
Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council
Journey
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Brilliant news, thanks everyone!
Whoop, 10 people have pledged since fundraising began!
Whoop, 10 people have pledged since fundraising began!
Bringing together people and opportunities to create vibrant communities
How will the money be spent?Target (inc. fees) £10,528
Costs Breakdown
This shows how money raised for the project will be spent. These costs have been confirmed by the project's Delivery Manager and verified.
Overfunding
This project is enabled for overfunding. If the project hits its funding goal before the end of the campaign period, any extra funds raised will be spent (in order of priority) on:
Target (inc. fees) £10,528
Our Volunteer List
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VolunteerThe Comfrey Project aims to create a society where refugees and people seeking asylum feel they belong and are respected as valuable members of the community. The charity provides a safe, welcoming place for people who have fled conflict and persecution to improve their physical and mental wellbeing, develop new skills and put down roots in their new community.
Our Story:
From our beginnings in 2001 at Moorside Allotments in Newcastle's West End, since 2018 we are a Charitable Incorporated Organisation, with garden and allotment sites in Moorside, Walkergate and Windmill Hills in Bensham. Ours is a place where everyone is made to feel at home and everyone is encouraged to play an active role. Our volunteers, who are people seeking asylum and refugees living in the North East, give back as much as they gain, sharing their skills and knowledge with others and helping to make decisions about how the organisation is run.
Our approach is based on the use of horticulture-based activities including gardening, bee-keeping, cooking, crafts and construction, to improve people’s lives. Our regular programmes include: Community Garden Sessions; Language Support; Community Drop-In; Kitchen Garden; Afghan Chai and Grounding.
Our mission is to:
Our values are to:
Together we strive to make The Comfrey Project a place where people’s mental and physical health – and overall wellbeing – improves through taking part in meaningful activities, learning, and through contact with nature, other people and the local community.
Project Owner: The Comfrey Project The Project Owner takes legal responsibility for receiving and spending the funds raised and ensuring the project is delivered.
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