What's new at CTDU?
Here's what's happening April to June 2004!

Events April - June 2004

Funds raised at Ceilidh, 30th January 2004

Creating our own garden!

CTDU's new premises

Previous CTDU newsletters available on line

Home

Contact

Projects

Services

About us

Bananas

Links

Annual Report

Events April to June 2004

Welcome to our Global Citizen & Garden Programme
April to June 2004

Wednesday 14th April, 10.00 a.m. - 3.00 p.m.
In the morning there will be a Students Association meeting and the afternoon we will be working in the garden - at Bothkennar. (Please remember to bring waterproof clothing)

Friday 16th April, 10.00 a.m. - 4.00 p.m.
Risk Assessment Training with Peter Blackburn from BTCV (British Trust for Conservation Volunteers) - at Bothkennar
The training will include looking at why we need to carry out a risk assessment and then we will work together to identify the hazards in our garden and identify risk reduction measures.

Thursday 22nd April, 9.45 a.m. - 4.00 p.m.
Human Rights training day at St. Mungo's Church Hall, Mar Street, Alloa
A session led by the Human Rights Trustlooking at how we create a human rights culture in our organisations and how the act can help our members. Places are restricted to 20, so please get in touch with CTDU quickly if you want a place.

Monday 26th April, 10.00 a.m. - 3.00 p.m.
Drystane Dyking Training with John Diment
(Please remember to bring waterproof clothing)
This is the first of two drystane dyking training days. The day will involve training and construction of a drystane dyke for our garden.

Wednesday 5th May, 10.00 a.m. - 3.00 p.m.
Global Citizens Programme at Bothkennar
Norman Philip will visit CTDU to talk about the Petro Chemical Industry.

Monday 10th May, 10.00 a.m. - 3.00 p.m.
Drystane Dyking Training with John Diment (Please remember to bring waterproof clothing)
The second day of the drystane dyking training. The day will involve training and construction of a drystane dyke for our garden.

Wednesday 12th May, 10.00 a.m. - 3.00 p.m.
Garden Development Day at Bothkennar (Please remember to bring waterproof clothing)
Developing the Bothkennar garden with the assistance of Jean Bareham.

Wednesday 19th May, 10.00 a.m. - 3.00 p.m.
Global Citizens Programme
Carrying on from last term this session we will look at the Palestine & Israeli conflict & Arms Trade.

Thursday 20th May, 10.00 a.m. - 3.00 p.m.
10.00 a.m. -12 noon - Continue work on garden
Kathleen Marjoriebanks from Falkirk College will visit 1.00 p.m. - 3.00 p.m.
Kathleen will talk about the courses that are available to support people who wish to go to college but aren't sure what they want to do (please find enclosed information for the COME & TRY DAY's at Falkirk College and Stirling Centre for Further Education).

Willow Work Training
Dates to be confirmed

Wednesday 2nd June, 10.00 a.m. - 12 noon
Global Citizens Programme - What's next?
The session will focus on what the Students Association want to do next, the global citizens programme has covered various topics this year and there may be things that students wish to develop further for example getting involved with a focus group with Norman Philip or make links with other groups.

Wednesday 9th June, 10.00 a.m. - 3.00 p.m.
Garden Development Day
Continue work on Bothkennar garden.

Wednesday 16th June, 6 p.m. - 10.00 p.m.
BBQ
Before we all head of for the summer holidays, to celebrate our hard work in the garden and with the Global Citizen Programme there will be a BBQ @ CTDU.

CTDU Staff
& programme contributors

Fiona McKeown - development worker
Fiona completed her community education degree last summer and joined CTDU in June 2003. Fiona runs the volunteers' mentoring project and supports the student association.

Jean Bareham - consultant facilitator and researcher
Jean undertakes very thorough and useful evaluation studies for our member groups who want to review their achievements and weak spots, often to inform their strategic planning and funding strategies. She is also a keen gardener.

Finlay Currie - premises development volunteer
Finlay undertakes vast amounts of electrical, joinery, decoration, landscaping and gardening tasks at our centre.

Peter Blackburn from BTCV (British Trust Conservation of Volunteers)
Peter is a qualified trainer in occupational safety & health. He will assist members to carry out risk assessment of the garden area.

John Diment, Alder Environmental Services
John is an experienced trainer and will provide drystane dyking training and construction.

Anthea Naylor, Four Winds Inspiration Centre
Anthea specialises in willow weaving. She works at the Four Winds Inspiration Centre. An environmental education and charity based centre.

Jan Mullen, Scottish Human Rights Trust.
The Trust is the only educational charity devoted to the promotion of human rights in Scotland.

Norman Philip, local environmentalist
Norman is part of the 'Living Within The Glow' project in Grangemouth.

Iyaah Warren - training and development worker
Iyaah is a community educator with a particular interest in cultural approaches to regenerating marginalised communities. She runs the active citizens' programme - Action for Equality.

Rosemary Murphy- resource and information administrator
Rosemary is CTDU's company secretary. She co-ordinates our communications and financial systems and leads training on financial management and e citizenship.

Lisa Sinclair - volunteer administration assistant
Lisa helps in the office, dealing with incoming mail and email, word processing and photocopying.

('Voices' Menu)

Creating our own garden at Bothkennar!

Volunteers are currently developing an idea to create a garden that will encourage birds, bees, butterflies and wildlife to our garden. We want to create a garden that will be accessible and enjoyable to everyone who wants to be a volunteer gardener at Bothkennar. So we're looking for plants that smell nice, make interesting noises and need low maintenance. We're planning to have raised beds so that wheelchair users are able to participate.

We think the Bothkennar Centre is a fantastic place to hold our training activities. Having a nice garden will make Bothkennar more like a retreat where people can come and learn new things and meet new people.

Thanks to VAF 'Valuing Volunteers' grant of £500 we employed community artist Tansy Lee Moir to draw up a magnificant plan of how our completed garden might look and research the kind of plants that might survive in our garden. Thanks Tansy, you've gave us lots of creative ideas, including dry-stane dyking and a pebbled CTDU logo as a feature! We're looking for plants, cuttings, sponsors, volunteers and that all important funding to put some of these ideas into place.

Update on the development of the Bothkennar garden
Fiona has been busy writing to people asking for donations of money, plants or materials for building our garden. A big thank you from everyone at CTDU to:

• Shell Brent Alpha Redevelopment Project and Brent Alpha Platform who donated £300
• the Klondyke garden centre in Falkirk who donated bags of compost, plants, bark and pebbles
• Forth Valley Food Links who gave us £100 to buy fruit trees
• Margaret Meek, who donated £50 from the sale of her book of poetry 'Words'.
• BP Grangemouth, who donated sleepers, and Finlay, who did most of the work creating our raised flower beds. Thanks also to Allan and Harry for their help.
• VAF 'Valuing Volunteers' grant of £500 which paid for two days gardening expertise of Jean Bareham. The students enjoyed the planting in the raised beds.
• £500 award from the Co-op's Community Dividend fund to help develop our accessbile garden
• we've recently heard that our application to the Falkirk Environment Trust has been successful. This funding is to promote biodiversity in our garden; provide training e.g. drystane dyking, willow work; and for planting plants that are indigenous to this area. This grant has enabled us to start planting in our garden, and we've had 2 fabulous days building our drystane dyke. Willow work will start in November.
• £300 from BP Grangemouth Great Days Fund enabling us to buy picnic benches. We've now got them, and they're in place allowing us to sit out and take a rest during our lunch breaks.

So if you're interested in gardening, why not join the others?
email Fiona to let her know if you want to join the gardening group, and if you need transport to Bothkennar.

Fiona announcing the news to CTDU students and volunteers that we'd received a £300 donation for the garden project from Shell.

(Above) - the entrance to our garden at Bothkennar
(Below) Fiona being presented with a £500 award from the Co-op's Community Dividend fund

Our new premises have lots of advantages -

We recently held an 'Open Day' and enjoyed using all the space outside for a barbeque!

• 2 training rooms, 2 offices, 3 toilets, a kitchen and a resource library
• ground floor, and access for disabled people
  
• the building is bright and airy
• we're in a very peaceful location
• there's plenty of room for volunteers to come and visit, to work alongside us and to use our resources
• some open air space to use in the summertime
• plenty of car parking