What do you do when you've got what you wanted?

Or Argentine tango.

 

How very right you are Mum!!!!!

Val

 

For me, I have everything anyone could wish for. A healthy happy family.

But, I need things to occupy me, I have a very active mind and loads of energy so I need to be constantly on the go with projects. I don't go to bed until the early hours between 1and2 most nights, so when the rest of the family are in bed, I catch up with things that need doing, from re sealing the shower to cleaning the oven. Things that I wouldn't do whilst everyone's awake!

I have projects listed for the house and a time scale to finish them. I can't leave anything half finished as it does play on my mind until its finished.

 

Why don't you try having a mid life crisis?
It works for me.

 

Ever thought about getting involved with a charity?

 

Loads, but I don't really have much time on my hands.

I have 3 acres of countryside that I want to make into haven for all sorts. I've wrote to all sorts of charities and organisations asking if there is some way that I can help them, not with money, but with the use of the land. I thought, here's a chunk of land which although not that big, has a surprising diversity of conditions on it (from flat exposed top field, to deep ravines, to natural native broad leaf woodland, a marshy bit and a stream running along the boundary. If I approach various nature charities and ask them if I can help them, they'll jump at the chance wont they? No. They only want money. One well known charity sent me a load of glossy colour brochures in response to my enquiry. Another told me, over a month later, that my goal is interesting but they are frankly too busy to help me. Given that it was me trying to help them, I was a bit miffed at that. One very well known organisation, on hearing of my offer, asked if I would sell them my land. I knocked them back out of hand. The land is not for sale. I was a bit disappointed that all of the organisations I approached barring 2 (Bumblebee Conservation Trust, well done to them, and the one that couldn't be bothered to even speak to me), tried to turn it into a financial transaction of one sort or another.

There is something I've always wanted to do, but I have no idea how I'd go about it. I hate the way we hear of 'deprived neighbourhoods'. Deprived of what? Deprived of an old boy's club? I've spent the vast majority of my life living in 'deprived neighbourhoods', and what I've consistently seen is people who don't believe they can achieve more, and therefore don't try, with a local minority deciding the are going to push ahead anyway despite everything and everyone. I've always dreamed of setting something up that gives people the self belief they need in order to aim a bit higher and achieve more. I have no clue how one would go about that though.

One idea that kind of spawned from thin air during a chat between me and my neandertal mate Paul (I don't mean that in a derogatory sense, he is a neandertal, he's not very bright at all, but is a big lad with too much physical strength to be human). Neither of us particularly came up with the idea, it just sort of created itself and burst into our chat uninvited. We thought about organising a full blown festival type event, combining entertainment with a recruitment day. Not like the usual run of the mill dull events, stuff aimed at actually getting people to feel like they'd created the event rather than simply attended it. Neither of us have ever organised anything on the scale that it would need to be, and neither of us can afford to bring in a specialist event organiser, so nothings happened about that idea.

 

Let me take you back ...

The whole thing about "deprived" neighbourhoods is, that at the very root of the problems lie people who have bought into the idea of ... well, deprivation; that *is* their equivalent of an "old boys club"! The area is run down; no one is investing/upgrading; jobs are scarce; work ethic low. The only "positive" about a deprived area is, that housing is relatively cheap. Once those who are self driven begin the journey of achieving a form of improvement, as soon as they are able, they tend to move out of the deprived area as a symbol of how they have 'progressed'.

To digress, slightly: research has shown that, when an economy is thriving, being out of work is stigmatised. Conversely, when an economy is struggling (aka redundancies, lack of employment opportunity), being out of work is "normalised" - it's ok! You become "one of the gang" of unfortunates for whom life has dealt you a blow.

I think, if you wish to harness the land you have, and couple it with encouraging people to aim higher and achieve something, your target market are not those who buy into the "deprived" label per se; I think, your target market would those people who, through no fault of their own, have been thrown into the pit of lack of employment via redundancies and lack of opportunity. Yet, there will always be those from what you call deprived neighbourhoods who hold the two attributes you quoted: possibility and want but I'll throw in a third (cos 3 is a magic number ) potential!!

A festival is a short lived affair; recruitment? Not quite sure how that fits in with a festival (but, it's late and I'm tired so maybe I'm not reading it correctly?) I think you would need to think a bit more laterally?

 

I understand why many people think that, but with the greatest respect, its wrong.

My neighbourhood is officially 'deprived'. Yet there are more job opportunities at my end of town than there are at the posher end of town, simply because my end of town is closer to either the bulk of the work, or the main trunk roads that take you to the neighbouring large towns. It takes about 15 minutes to commute from my house to Middlesbrough, 45 to Sunderland, 55 to Gateshead. Add 20 minutes to allow time to cross town to get from the posh end to the fast roads, and you see that commuting times start to become a pain.

In Sheffield, there is a patch called 'The Manor'. Its as rough as a badger's behind, yet its on the tram route so its connected to easily to every part of the city and beyond. I lived in a different officially deprived part of Sheffield, 25 minutes walk from the city centre, and well connected by public transport.

What makes a deprived neighbourhood is this. A neighbourhood builds around one particular source of employment, and then that employer goes. We see that in any steel town or mining town. When I was a kid, I lived on a street where almost every dad worked at either British Steel or ICI (both within a short bike ride of our street), and then when I was young, first ICI sold off most of their plant, then British Steel automated most of the jobs. Our street went from being financially ok, to absolutely 'deprived' within a very short time. I and my friends were actually told at school that there's no point aiming for much, because there isn't much. People are told by the peers and even by those they look up to that there is nothing for them. That's what makes a neighbourhood 'deprived'.

If I had my way, I'd make it officially discrimination to call a neighbourhood 'deprived'. Not because I'm a stickler for such bureaucracy but because I think the issue is self perpetuating. If you tell someone that their neighbourhood is deprived, then it kind of tells them that there's no point. Like kicking someone when they're down, or worse, like making a fuss of a kid every time they scrape their knee. If you say 'oh you poor poor thing' all the time, you create a softy who believes they are a poor poor thing, where is if you say 'right, everything is still attached, move on', then eventually you create people who can't be bothered to waste time whimpering. They get knocked down, and they get themselves back up. The only way a neighbourhood can be deprived is if someone builds a wall around it and physically deprives them of the opportunities on the other side of that wall. We're no allowed to do that, so instead we build psychological walls. Its those walls that, if I could, I'd take down.

 

I totally agree that it is the psychological walls that need addressing

My mother was from Yorkshire; my father from Sunderland, so I do have an inkling of the history of those areas in terms of the industrial revolution and the subsequent decline in certain industries. But, I do not believe therein lies the root of the problem! The root lies in a culture of movement. Agriculture was the original employer; then, it moved to manufacturing; currently its services and ultimatley, it is in IT! Employment and opportunities are fluid; times change, technology changes and, to quote an old adage: "people need to move with the times".

To a large extent, we live in a culture of "care"; but, only since after the second world war - and oh how quickly we have become acclimatised to it! We "care" for every category imaginable; which is great during periods of prosperity, but becomes a shackle in times of austerity.

Seriously, if I were starving? I'd be out right now, picking blackberries and selling them door to door!! (Or, if I had a little reserve, making it into blackberry wine so I could make more money! A slightly less reserve and I'd be making jam). However, I live in a culture where I do not *need* to make any effort (if I don't want to). Hence my comment that people "buy in" to the deprived syndrome: "Oh poor me; I live in a deprived area, no jobs, no chance of bettering myself - blame the Government. I'll just have to put up with it!"

 

A.B.G

 

Just a thought, but if you've got 3 acres of land 'doing nothing' why not, either contact somewhere like The Woodland Trust, The John Muir Trust, Plantlife, RSPB? As I understand it, Sheffield has 17 local nature reserves, but surely there's no reason why they can't have 18?

If there's still no charity which wants to make use of your land, what's stopping you starting your own charity/conservation area/nature trail? 3 acres may not be huge, but it's what it contains rather than its size. If you were to create some proper pathways, disabled access, tell local schools and invite them to bring small groups of children, then (if you don't already know), read up on the flora and fauna and give guided "walks 'n talks", it's manageable in the sense that it wouldn't take hours to walk round and sounds as though it has a diverse habitat. You could produce some leaflets on your computer, have special 'seasonal' walks (every school 'does' 'Autumn' - children love collecting leaves, conkers etc.) even produce a 'Question Sheet' for children to fill in as they go round, or a colouring sheet for younger children.

You could perhaps in time, have a small shop - a few general interest nature books bought cheaply direct from the publisher, produce some booklets yourself along similar lines to Parish magazines, a few cheap souveniers - pencils, erasers, book marks. If there's scope, you might even be able to sell 'hedgerow produce', jams, jellies or cordials made from sloes, hawthorn, blackberries, rose hips, elder flower and berries; produce leaflets on how to make them, along with things like nettle soup or elderflower/elderberry or nettle wine and even perhaps, hold a tasting evening or two.

 

I was interested in that your first post lists what you have...the question now is what you want to do. What ways can you spend your time that you find meaningful and enjoyable? What do you want to do more of? What about less of?

If you are interested in doing something with the land, what about learning about what other people are doing to achieve similar aims, by volunteering on some projects that are similar in aim to what you want to achieve. It would give you an insight into what works and what doesn't.

I also think it would be good to get experience of a) the voluntary sector and b) running that kind of project. As the trustee of a small, local charity I sympathise you didn't have the response you wanted from other charities. The reason they were all asking for money is because your offer went to the development team. They didn't have any personal contact or context to put the offer into. Also the offer of land with a specific purpose in mind is a liability rather than an asset. It is like being commissioned to deliver a project and getting half the money. Using land effectively with volunteers takes time, which means it takes money at some point on the chain.

But... You could set up your own project. Or maybe contact somewhere like the permaculture association, which is a link to lots of people who probably would be very interested in your 3 acres from a conservation/small holding point of view. There are people out there who would be very interested in being able to do something with your land - it might not be the most disadvantage though. I grew up around people who in a low key way had land that they grew veg on, put up yurts on, hung out in, had parties on. The land was not theirs but they had the use of it at a peppercorn rent because they would keep it maintained.

Anyway, it's your land and your life! Sounds like you have some interesting plans already. Just had to chime in about the charities bit because i wanted to explain why it seemed everyone was after money and not interested in your offer!

 

Fidgetsmum and Reetgood, you make good points, but I think I might have not been very clear. The land isn't really sat doing nothing. I already have an eco-project going on up that that I've been working on since I took the place on about 4 years ago. I wanted to make it a wildlife and wildflower haven, but the costs were too great for what I wanted to do, however I pushed on anyway, clearing bracken and gorse, working on a bit at a time, and now the wildflower diversity is starting to return. The creatures that depend on it will no doubt not be far behind. My land is a safe haven where I can personally guarantee that the bugs wont get annihilated with some nasty chemical, and where they can buz and flutter and crawl about finding (hopefully) everything they need. I'd like to get others involved so we can achieve more things faster, but I'm not too bothered at this point because progress is happening.

I have had a new idea though. Well really it was my mam's idea. We were all in the car going past an donkey sanctuary when my son started asking awkward questions about why the field was full of donkeys. My mam, who having raised 3 kids and helped with numerous grand kids, should have no better but she got sucked into the 'why?' cycle, and had to try to explain to a 3 year old that not everybody is nice to donkeys but some nice people found them a happy home. I know which organisation runs it, and they are local and don't have the resources of bigger organisations. It may be that my piece of land is too far out for them (its in the middle of nowhere) but I know their farm is packed to the rafters now, and I'm sure they could use a spare acre or so. It would be good to get some mutually beneficial system in place, like an old fashioned rotation, animals grazing one section one year while another section is put to another use, then swap each alternate year. I need to give it more thought but I'm going to go and speak to people.

Folly, sorry, what's A.B.G?