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Farming, Family & Therapy at Jamie’s Farm

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Towards the end of last year, we visited Jamie’s Farm, a traditional red brick farmhouse in the picturesque Sussex countryside just outside Lewes.

Jamie’s Farm in Lewes is no ordinary farm. It is one of a group of similar farms across the country that transform the lives of vulnerable children between the ages of 10-16 by working closely with partner schools, providing a combination of ‘farming, family and therapy’ through a unique residential and follow-up programme.

The goal of Jamie’s Farm is to ‘re-engage children with educational life and enable them to fulfil their potential both in school and the wider social setting’. It acts as a catalyst for change, enabling disadvantaged young people to thrive academically, socially and emotionally.

Social and academic exclusion are real problems affecting young people in the UK today. There are worries about the effects of children becoming disconnected from their natural surroundings, especially those from BAME or low-income families.

In a report from Jamie’s Farm, one young person from a local college said, “In a normal week, I just stay inside, but here I get to be outside, help out the animals, and be active. It’s taught me the importance of good teamwork and communication.”

As a society, our growing relationship with technology can play havoc with our connection to nature and each other and Jamie’s Farm tackles this by asking their young visitors to leave their phones at home, instead opting for communal co-operative and nature-based activities such as farm work, gardening, group walks over the downs, caring for the farms’ animals and playing music together around a campfire.

Jamie’s Visitors come from diverse backgrounds, and guests are invited to cook healthy home-cooked meals together in the cosy farmhouse. Recipe ideas from home are welcomed, contributing to a really healthy cross-cultural and all-inclusive environment. The visits are also a valuable opportunity for teachers to get away from the stresses of everyday life and form better relationships with individual students and the entire group, outside the formal school setting.

Through other funding opportunities, the farm has also taken a more regenerative farming approach by adopting a rotational cropping regime and planting 1,500 metres of new hedges to support local habitat.

Enjoolata Foundation awarded £10,000 to Jamie’s Farm in April 2021 to convert a disused ‘duck house’ farm building into a multi-purpose space that will be used for one to one meetings and group sessions. It will transform visits for many of the young people who visit, offering a safe and inviting space to discuss any issues that arise. The new building will be completed later this year.

When not being used for visits, all farmhouses can be rented for holidays. This allows the farms to contribute towards the finances of the charity and allows anyone to take a rural break that also gives back!

To find out more, visit Jamie’s Farm website.

Celebrating with friends at The Royal Pavilion Ice Skating Rink

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Thank you to everyone who was able to join us for an evening of ice skating at The Royal Pavilion this month. It was heartwarming to see so many happy faces and see so many new and old friends together on the rink.

Looking back over our last year we are overwhelmed to say the least, meeting people and organisations that are really making a difference and funding well over 70 projects.

We want to thank each and everyone of you who we have been fortunate enough to meet and work with in some form, it has really got us excited for what the future holds. Looking onto next year we eagerly anticipate hearing about and funding some new projects and building our existing relationships.

We will be active but on the quieter side over the holidays as we believe it’s important to take a break over this period, be present and energise for next year.

From all the team here at Enjoolata we wish you a good break and a happy New Year!!

Christmas at The Clock Tower Sanctuary

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We’re feeling festive here at Enjoolata HQ, and as we lead up to Christmas, we want to highlight the work of one of our favourite projects last year.

The Clock Tower Sanctuary (@theclocktowersantuary) works with young homeless people in the city to give them space, support and stability when they most need it. It is the city’s only drop-in day centre for younger homeless people, and last year the Sanctuary had over 4,000 visits from young people who had no home.

This time last year, we worked with the Sanctuary to fund some festive gift boxes to help spread Christmas cheer.

Local schools were put on decoration duties, and children and patrons of the charity contributed Christmas messages to show the guests at the centre that they were really thinking of them.

Boxes included headphones, mobile phones, socks and chocolate! Wherever possible, items were bought locally. The team also included gift vouchers so that their guests could go and choose things that they could get actual use from.

Upon receiving a box at the Christmas meal, a guest commented, ‘This was the worst Christmas ever… getting a food parcel, and great Christmas presents from CTS was a fab start to the new year. It made my week, my month even!’

Projects like this can make a massive difference to young people at this time of year. For more information about the Clocktower Sanctuary or support their work, follow them on Instagram or head over to their website.

There’s a Tiger in my Garden

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Flock Theatre makers believe that good art should be accessible to all and that participatory experiences are hugely important to communities who experience poverty and / or marginalisation, but theatre is a luxury some cannot afford.

“There’s a Tiger in my Garden” was performed for primary school children, the refugee community and the elderly in venues identified as an area of need and scarce artistic opportunity.

East Sussex Parks and Brighton primary schools were the venues used this September and October. Aided by puppets, music and dance the audience’s imagination was provoked, joining Nora on her adventure in grandma’s garden as she discovered carnivorous plants, a grumpy polar bear, butterflies as big as her arms and even a tiger!

“My kids were mesmerised by the puppets and songs. I found it quite emotional going to see live theatre again.”

“Our kids have a creative potential that can profoundly impact their futures. This sends a message that their potential is recognised and worth caring for.”

The arts will play a vital role in our social / emotional recovery from the pandemic. Participatory experiences transform communities: they raise esteem & aspiration, aid language development and provide a space to process complex emotions.

The Bevy’s ‘Meals on Wheels’

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The Bevy is a pub in the heart of Moulsecoomb in East Brighton.  But it is far more than Just a pub.

In 2010 the original Bevendean pub was closed down by the local authorities because of anti-social behaviour. Prior to this it had been a part of the community since 1937.

Since then the pub has been completely refurbished and reopened with funds raised by some extremely committed residents who breathed new life into it. It is now a pub and cafe and has become a hub for multiple local charities, community groups, lunch clubs and in general a place for all locals to get together. It is now a community venture, run by local people for local people and it is the first ever community pub on a housing estate in the whole of the UK.

‘Meals on Wheels’, one of the Bevy’s latest projects was launched within 24 hours of the pub’s closure on March 17th 2020 due to Covid. By the following Friday, 17 hot meals had been rolled out to vulnerable people all over Moulsecoomb and the service has been growing ever since, continuing throughout the lockdowns to deliver hot meals to peoples’ door steps several times a week.

The service has allowed a team of volunteers to check in on people, have a chat and run any errands that might need doing. Helen Jones, a founding member and integral cog of the Bevy described it as a ‘melting pot’. On arrival we were greeted with smiles from volunteers from all different ages and backgrounds, including Helen’s own young lodger who had been assigned with and was fully embracing the role of coordinating deliveries. Helen explained that they were managing to feed a lot of people who usually attend their lunch clubs.

Whilst some pay for the Meals on Wheels service, the Bevy itself subsidises the cost of the meals to those who can’t afford it.  Head Chef, Catherine runs a team of volunteers to cook up delicious, nourishing meals alongside volunteers and learners from St John’s College. St John’s is a specialist school and college in Brighton which works with young people who have complex learning disabilities, helping them to prepare for their young adult lives.

Pubs play such a vital role in the community. At a time when English pubs are in decline, the Bevy offers a refreshing new model.  Even in the face of Covid the team at the Bevy have found a way to bring an otherwise fragmented community together and really have helped combat isolation and loneliness among Moulsecoomb’s residents. It offers inspiration at a time when we all need it most.

Enjoolata has proudly supported the Bevy with a Community Grant.

If you live in Moulsecoomb and Bevendean, have been told not to or cannot leave your home and would like to receive one of these meals, or know someone who would then please phone The Bevy on 01273 281009

Any profits made from the Pub/Cafe go directly back to the community. To donate to the Bevy click here.  https://www.thebevy.co.uk/donate/

Making it out’s ‘Stop Sign Memorial’

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Making It Out’s tagline is ‘Creative alternatives to repeat offending’. At their Portside workshop the team design and make furniture, installations and a range of products from small scale pieces to larger public art installations. The difference between MIO and a normal workshop is that the charity only works with people who have come from or are in the prison system. The outcome is a space where participants can access job opportunities and learn and grow in confidence in a creative and supportive environment.

I visited the MIO workshop at Portside Studios in Portslade on a scorching summer’s day in May. The output of the workshop spilled out onto the pavement;  its large wide open doors lined with murals and artwork made by participants revealing a hive of activity.

I met Founders Lucy and Mark and Ess, who Mark had met through the Choir with No Name – a Brighton choir consisting of people who have experienced Homelessness.

Ess has been coordinating and developing the ‘Stop Sign Memorial’ project since the beginning of lockdown. Through the ‘Stop Sign Memorial’ project, Making It Out are co-creating a large sculptural artwork to commemorate people who have lost their lives whilst homeless in Brighton and Hove.

It is important for the team that the artwork belongs to the people it will mean the most to. So they are inviting only people who have experienced homelessness either themselves or through loved ones to participate in the design and manufacture of the artwork.

Currently in its early stages, packs are being distributed to participants who are being invited to share drawings, write and even make small clay models about their experiences of homelessness.

One participant drew a picture of a disabled toilet key referring to it as ‘the key of life’, and then went on to describe how ‘you have to drink and take drugs to get through the night, noise and cold’ and in another account someone talked about how their friend had died of a drug addiction.

Even in its early stages the project offers a valuable insight for all of us who haven’t experienced homelessness into what life can be like on the streets.  It also has the potential to give a necessary and important platform to those who often find themselves without a voice and become a physical living memory of those who have been lost.

I met Omar, who was participating in the Stop Sign Memorial and had also been visiting the workshop regularly for several months. Omar was in the process of creating an incredible wooden board game called a Carrom board, which is native to his home country of Zimbabwe.  It appeared really important to him and it felt very special that Omar had a space where he could create and manufacture objects that connected him to his roots and reminded him of a country that he had not visited for many years.

In the art room I was shown other striking pieces, beautiful self portraits and a powerful clay sculpture of a heart wrapped in barbed wire that had been started in prison and had the barbed wire added at a later date.

Making It Out directly challenges the stigma associated with prison and homelessness by simply producing great quality work and thought provoking, interesting art that really captures the collective voice of the outsider.

The Stop Sign Memorial project was funded by an Enjoolata Community Grant. To find out more about Making It out and the Stop Sign Memorial project visit – makingitout.co.uk