At the end of 2020 the management committee applied for further funding for WCGN to support events and reach out to more gardens. We were incredibly lucky to receive funding from the National Lottery Community Fund and further support from Southwark Neighbourhood Funding. The combination of these has allowed us to employ a part time project officer to help gardens organise events and link new and emerging community green spaces into the local network.
WCGN is keen to promote local residents and people of colour to more prominence in the world of community gardening and growing. Therefore we are delighted to have Ali Yellop join our team to be our on the ground person. Ali is a Camberwell resident and native Londoner so understands the challenges of growing in the urban landscape. With a strong horticultural training and interest in community gardening nurtured through her commitment to gardening in the aftermath of the Grenfell disaster Ali brings fresh eyes to our establishing network. For those of you who have not met Ali yet here is a little more about her.
Ali is a gardener, landscaper and cook, whose long-term vision is to empower communities towards food sovereignty and encourage young people to spend time with the land. Decolonising current horticultural practices is of importance to her work. She is interested in ancestral ties with the land and what they can reveal to us about how we work, honour and heal with plants.
Currently she is training to be a forest school teacher, works on a freelance basis with Urban Growth as a gardener and workshop facilitator. As well as being one of the co-directors at Grow2Know.