February 2024 News
On 2nd February, WEN Trustee Anne was on BBC Radio Merseyside, talking to Lisa Marrey about what we do, and how you can take action to tackle climate change. Anne mentioned our Big Green List of Wirral organisations. Take a look at the list here.
We held the final two sessions at St James Centre in Birkenhead North on 5th and 12th February to plan the sensory area at St James Community Garden. With chair based exercises to music one week and making DIY scented sachets the next, we invited people to join us to enjoy the activities and have a chat, while giving the opportunity to tell us what they would like to see, hear, touch and taste in the sensory garden.
We will be on site at St James Community Garden on Monday 4th and Monday 11th March, 12.30 – 4 pm, putting together some growing beds for children, making garden art, painting bright colours and creating a special sensory space. If you would like to join us, please email wen@la21.net
On 6th February, Carol held a Seed Sowing workshop at WEN for the volunteers at St Vincent’s Community Garden. The garden is behind Joeys Social Club in Seacombe and is run by the Wirral branch of the St Vincent de Paul Society. The transformation from neglected land to community space started in September 2023 and work continues to create a welcoming and vibrant eco garden, providing an opportunity to grow food and share produce with neighbours. Watch a video of the changes to the site here.
Meanwhile, Kenny represented WEN at a ‘Cool Communities’ meeting, a new initiative from the Cool Wirral campaign. Cool Communities will provide a monthly forum for local community groups to work together, share ideas and resources, and provide feedback to Wirral Council. The mission statement for Cool Communities is “Empowering Wirral residents to tackle climate change through connecting communities, while delivering social change.”
Also on the same day, Naomi attended the Merseyside Recycling Waste Authority and Veolia launch event for this year’s Zero Waste Community Fund. All community organisations who received funding in previous years were invited and everyone received a Certificate of Recognition in thanks for the contribution made to waste reduction.
Naomi caught up with people from Wirral Change, Make it Happen – Birkenhead, Merseyside Recycling Waste Authority and the St Mary’s Church, Liscard Eco Garden. It was also a chance to give out some Cool Wirral Climate Action calendars!
Since 2006, the Community Fund has supported 163 projects:
54 textile
44 furniture
43 food
23 reuse and repair
18 composting
Naomi with the Certificate of Recognition from Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority and Veolia.
Julie Marshall was back at WEN on 10th February for a re-run of the Egyptian ‘Minerals of the World’ workshop at the request of several people who couldn’t make the first one. The final session in the trilogy of workshops will be ‘Astonishing Australia’ on 23rd March. This is fully booked but Julie is planning more workshops later in the year. Sign up to our email newsletter or follow us on Facebook or X to get updates on events at WEN.
While the mineral workshop was taking place, the WEN Trustees and members of the team met for our annual planning meeting. We talked about ideas for projects to develop over the coming year and how to achieve our vision for the future of WEN. We’ll share news about our plans as they take shape!
The Transition Cafe took place on 20th February at the Quaker Meeting House in Liverpool, with a talk from Imogen from Liverpool Tool Library. Members of Liverpool Tool Library can borrow items from an inventory of over 800 tools. The project saves people money, encourages repairing and reduces waste. Did you know that a power drill is used on average for a total of only 13 minutes during its entire lifespan. It makes sense to share!
The next Transition Cafe is on Tuesday 19th March. Subscribe to the Transition Liverpool email newsletter to receive details.
The talk at the February Transition Cafe. Photo: Transition Liverpool
On 21st February, Kenny spoke at the Cool Places of Worship workshop on the topic of Land and Nature. The evening involved looking at how best to use the land around places of worship and community spaces, including growing food, encouraging wildlife. and providing areas of quiet reflection.
Kenny speaking at the Cool Places of Worship event. Photo: Anne Litherland
Cool Places of Worship events are organised by Faiths4Change. They bring together local experts, community groups, and eco teams from places of worship and provide practical support to attendees to reduce their carbon footprint and take action to mitigate climate change. See the programme of upcoming events here:
www.faiths4change.org.uk/cool-wirral-whats-on.html
Our ‘Eco Action For Your Community’ workshop was held at WEN on 27th February. Aimed at anyone who wants to make a positive impact on the environment and get involved in their local community, the workshop is taught through interactive games, group discussions and videos. There is an optional 3 week course available following the workshop.
We offer this workshop and course to community groups on the Wirral at their location or at WEN. Non-profit groups just pay what the group can afford. Click the ‘Eco Action for your Community’ poster below to read the details and email wen@la21.net if you would like to book.
Book WEN Community Climate Action workshops
Also on 27th February, we hosted Spot and Stripe Kitchen who gave a cookery demonstration and food waste talk as part of the events programme to support the Cool Wirral Climate Challenge. The practical session showed how to cook a cheap and delicious lentil dhal using up store cupboard ingredients and food that might otherwise go to waste. There was also a talk on how to reduce your food waste.
There will be more cookery demonstrations and tips for reducing food waste at WEN on Friday 8th March and Friday 19th April.
The list of Cool Wirral events can be found here:
https://www.tickettailor.com/events/wirralcouncil?
Lentil dahl: a great way to use store cupboard ingredients and leftovers
