Restart Party comes to Tooting!

Do you have broken electrical or electronic items that you don’t want to throw away?

Good at fixing or mending stuff or would like to learn how?   

Come to a Restart Party!

Tuesday 9th August from 7 - 9pm

Restart Parties are the antidote to the thow-away society, why chuck out your electrical and electronic stuff when they could easily last longer?  Laptops, cameras, kitchen appliances, gadgets etc. - we will try to mend anything or at least tell you what's wrong and what to do next and it's all completely free!

Here is a great description of a previous event in Tooting to get an idea about what goes on...

Do remember that Restart Parties are a community self-repair space where you take responsibility for your own electronic items and data, so please don’t forget to take any back-ups beforehand, if relevant.  Also, if possible, do please arrive during the first two hours to allow time for fixing!

The next Restart parties in Tooting, all at Mushkil Aasaan, 220 - 222 Upper Tooting Road, SW17 7EW are scheduled for :

> Tuesday 9th August, 7 – 9.30 pm

> Saturday 12th November, 2 - 5pm

More info about Restart including details of regular skillshares at www.therestartproject.org

Outdoor Learning and doing with NCS Challenge

On Sunday 17th July, Jeni Walker and Richard Couldrey continued with the 4th year of our annual pattern of work with the National Citizen Service through "The Challenge" - a personal development and social integration programme offered to 15 - 17 year olds which includes a project focused day with a Charity or Community Group.

Emer Clark, our principle contact and Challenge Mentor, reflected that interaction with Transition Town Tooting challenges the participants to step out their comfort zones and enables them to make a contribution to a local community, which is a huge part of the overall aims of NCS Challenge.

For us, this project chimes loudly with our aim to work with Young People of all ages - from the Reception Class of Gatton Primary to a poster competition with Graveney Secondary School for Foodival last year, to name but 2.

The 11 participants of this years NCS Challenge with the results of their labours!

Read on to find out what happened on the day...

Growing Tooting finale - the 8th weekend of TTT's local grow-your-own classes completes the series

In the final local growing sessions in Balham, Tooting and Wandsworth we celebrated progress and looked at what comes next now the programme is complete. 

We discussed harvesting and preparing food (and bringing any surpluses to the Tooting Foodival), and asked about what the participants might need next in their growing journey. 
Suggestions so far: 'local gardeners' question time', a Facebook group, occasional meetings, visiting each others' growing spaces.

Plus, local community gardens including Tooting Community Garden and Wendelsworth Community Garden can offer support.

Exploring the herb bed

With the Balham group, Rose identified plants and explained how the herb bed at Tooting Community Garden is managed, in particular how foliage is cut and left lying to suppress weeds and help prepare the ground for sowing - and the group raised a glass to celebrate.

Fresh produce laid out on the Eatwell pie chart

With the Tooting group, Belinda took us through the new Public Health England Eatwell Guide. The Guide illustrates how to achieve eating a healthy dietary balance of good food - including what we can grow in our gardens.

Our 8th Growing Tooting Handout is available for all: please click here. To see all 8 handouts, and to read each fortnightly blog post, click on GROWING TOOTING in the quick links above.  

Hats off to Martin for writing the handouts and facilitating the delivery of Growing Tooting so brilliantly! And to the others who co-facilitated: Eleanor, Belinda, Rose, Jeni and more.

In summary the Growing Tooting series of 30 local workshops reached 24 people who came to each session, another 24 who came to some of each local series, and another two dozen who are interested for another time.  70+ people are connected in a new way to local growing and each other. 

Update on Border Control - Gold Medal garden at RHS Hampton Court Palace.

On the 30th June CARAS Youth Club members travelled to the RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show to help with the build of the Border Control Concept Garden. It was a fascinating visit - to see the TTT blog post, click here.
Now the garden is finished and open to the public. The Youth Club paid a second visit this week to see it.

In the past week there has been a lot of interest in Border Control. Although we don't claim any responsibility we are thrilled...
The garden won an RHS Gold Medal, and also won the Award for the best of the ten Concept Gardens. 
We're proud because taking a very small part in the garden has helped us spread the word about the reality of refugees' experiences and helped us be confident that our Rooting in Tooting project with CARAS is valuable. The visit has given fascinating experiences for Youth Club members as a group about encountering new aspects of Britain, and created and opportunity for them to explore and communicate their own responses.

The Evening Standard covered Border Control again yesterday, including an interview with one of the CARAS Youth Club members - you can read the article here

Finally, there are a few free tickets available for the Hampton Court Show, for tomorrow (Sunday) - the last day.  
These tickets have to be collected in Tooting today, Saturday 9th July, before 4pm.
This is a very last minute-offer so excuse the rush - if you would like to have a ticket or two, email as soon as you can to TTT at transitiontowntooting@gmail.com and we will explain how to collect.
Go and visit Border Control in person!

Tour de Tooting in the Press

Delighted that last weekend's Tour de Tooting makes the front page of the Wandsworth Guardian this week!

With this report on page 3

And this is Emma Brazell's short reportage film of the day on youtube.
 

3 current and vivid research projects about climate change and UK communities - Tooting included

In 2015 TTT helped facilitate a research project by the University of Westminster all about the impact of urban heatwaves - for the details please see past blog posts by clicking here on Urban Heat.

TTT worked with the researchers and with many local partners in Tooting: voluntary and community groups plus borough-level and statutory bodies.



The funder for this research project is The Joseph Rowntree Foundation, and yesterday TTT took part in a workshop comparing the early research results of three JRF-funded projects.  
Each of them explores the links between climate change and UK communities and households. Each aims to give new information to local and national policy makers.
Participants included national bodies such as Public Health England & Defra, & the Cabinet Office, local authorities and universities.

An overall view? That there are synergies of relationships between all the topics outlined below..and that communities with local knowledge and energy have an opportunity to get involved and contribute.

Well that was fun! #TdeT

Tour de Tooting is THIS WEEKEND

Wheels are turning down in Tooting town, the inaugural Tour de Tooting is barely a revolution away. We still need volunteers 12.30-3pm to help with road 'openings' for the parade. If you can help please EMAIL TTT

Once upon a time ... in a town called Tooting, there was big windmill whose sails had not turned for a very long time. A group of children got together and wondered - if they took to the streets asking everyone to create energy from their whistles, clicks, thumbs up, high fives and smiles ... could they get the sails to turn again? 

Who's this with decorated bike?

So they set off. As they were leaving they realised they'd forgotten two things! Some Corn - important for the windmill to grind, to make bread for all and some Water to grow the corn. Just as they were leaving an Elephant appeared to help them gather water from the River and off they went. Find out what happened to them along the way! 

Visions of Wheels - Dominic, Lucy & Richard

Join their Grand Parade of Wheels on Sunday July 3rd - departing Franciscan School at 2pm (gathering at 1pm). After weeks of workshops and preparations, the brightly coloured rickshaws are being stored in a church, a windmill is having its sails attached and a bus diversion from the Tooting Bus Turning Circle has been secured. 

Alice testing out a rickshaw

Cars and buses are being asked kindly to budge over a bit for a short while as a Pelatons of Pedalistas gather at Franciscan School from 1pm on Sunday July 3rd to help this Tooting story on its way: a grand community celebration of the people-powered wheels in our lives making good change in our town. Wheels are a symbol of change: one of the greatest of human inventions and associated with liberation and freedom. Come with your wheels to reinvent them! We need your wheeled energy to turn the sails. For more info CONTACT US