Federation of City Farms & Community Gardens Supporting, advising and promoting community growing in Wales

A little bit of history…. FCFCG was established in 1980 to support community farms and gardens across the UK. We have offices in Cardiff, Bangor, Bristol, Scotland and Northern Ireland Our work helps: 200 city and school farms, 1,000 community gardens and 200 city farms and community gardens in development Between them our members employ around 550 people, engage with thousands of volunteers and attract over three million visitors each year In April this year we will merge with Care Farming UK, we’ll have a new name with a new logo

What do we do? We love giving practical support like site visits, training courses and networking events. If our members want guidance on important areas like employment issues, governance training, site design, or if they simply want to know the best way to build a raised veg bed, we are there to help

Tyfu Fyny Programme Funded by Welsh Government Rural Communities – Rural Development Plan until at least May 2019 initially to strengthen the community growing sector in Wales We support community gardens, community supported agriculture projects (CSAs), care farms, orchards, community farms and street planting projects, if you bring people together to farm, garden or grow we can help

What we can offer…. Advice and support from one of our Development Workers based across Wales Help to produce Feasibility Studies that will help your project develop new services or income streams Specialist support to develop your income generating activities through social enterprise Mentoring provided by experienced staff and volunteers from established projects in your area Funding to visit other community growing projects or other sites of interest Training events …..

National and regional gatherings, to bring people together to share and learn Intensive mentoring and training for Community Supported Agriculture projects A range of services for Care Farms, including networking, mentoring and consultancy from Care Farming UK Promotional events and campaigns to raise the profile of community growing and help more people to get involved, an example of this is our ‘Have a Grow Day’ on 2nd June, more about this in a second

Upcoming Events Monday 12th March - Tea, Tour & Talk at Cae Tan CSA 10.00 – 12.30 Gower Heritage Centre, Parkmill, Gower Learn about the story of Cae Tan from its grower Tom O’Kane and of its very recent success in securing new land to further develop the enterprise Wednesday 18th April – Enterprising Ideas 9.30 – 3.15 – Sbectrwm Centre, Fairwater Cardiff Joint event with Enterprising Solutions. Introduction and tour of Vision 21 to demonstrate how a project can become financially sustainable through social enterprise.

24th – 25th April – UK Conference Growing Better Lives, Manchester A conference exploring and celebrating the links between community growing, care farming, health and wellbeing. We will be launching the merger between the Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens and Care Farming UK. Bursaries are available to help with travel or ticket costs Saturday 2nd June 2018 – National Have a Grow Day (Across Wales) Celebrate and promote community growing by joining a national open gardens day where we support community growing projects across Wales to open up their doors for the day. The aim is to raise develop a recognisable “brand” for the community growing sector 15th – 16th June – All Wales Gathering at Ashfield Community Enterprise, Llandrindod Wells A chance to meet others and network and take part in a range of activities and workshops along with a tour of Ashfield We will also be attending the RHS Show in Cardiff on 13th April and we will also have a stand at the Royal Welsh Show from 23rd – 26th July More events and training will be scheduled throughout the year, full details at www.farmgarden.org.uk/events

Some Inspirational Stories We have a large range of videos and resources on our website. Here are a couple of videos from community growing projects that we have supported: St Peter’s Community Garden, Cardiff https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLATwL4xTucSQ2XvxHwFu0rtS8c_0XR3d8&time_continue=43&v=S6a45W5OqRQ Caerhys Organic Community Agriculture (COCA) https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLATwL4xTucSQ2XvxHwFu0rtS8c_0XR3d8&time_continue=309&v=yNUYKCcYY00

Any Questions….? Thank you! Please feel free to take any of the information I’ve brought with me today and please get in touch if you’d like any further advice