AN UPDATE ON OUR LATEST DONATIONS
We recently donated the latest round of funding to our three Faith in Futures partner organisations, Restoring Hardknott Forest, Pyramid, and Holbeck Together.
We recently caught up with the teams at all three partners to find out what how donations have contributed towards their work and projects.
Back in Autumn, several of the Northern Monk team visited Restoring Hardknott Forest to help for the day with some of the work being carried out. Since the visit and most recent donation, Hardknott have invested in new tools, including spades and forks to prepare beds for wildflower and tree growing. The team are planning to harvest more wildflower seeds and gradually spread species such as ragged robin, red campion and water avens throughout the forest site. This increase in flowering plants will hugely benefit pollinating insects like butterflies and hoverflies.
The Restoring Hardknott Forest team have also been hosting regular volunteer days and visits from school groups who have been helping remove non-native trees, as well as learning about habitat restoration and wildlife, and they even spoke to ITV Borders about their involvement in a project to introduce more pine martens into Cumbria to save them from the threat of extinction.
At Pyramid, their Visioning Group, artists with and without learning disabilities, autism, or both, ran an event celebrating the 'Pyramid Plan' which the group have co-ordinated, and the progress that was made against the plan throughout last year. Pyramid also hosted a social event, exhibition, and an auction of artworks for friends, supporters and artists from Pyramid, at Northern Market in Leeds, one of Northern Monk’s three venues.
The Visioning Group now hope to make this an annual celebration event at Northern Market, as a chance to meet with funders, stakeholders, supporters and to tell their own stories about why Pyramid is valued so much by its communities.
Finally, at Holbeck Together, the Faith in Futures donation was used to fund their outreach and engagement work throughout the end of the year, and especially the social supermarket.
The social supermarket had 676 attendances in the last three months, enabling local people to shop more affordably in the local area. Faith In Futures also supported the provision of 57 food parcels to individuals and families in crisis and the direct provision of 10 individuals who received winter fuel support enabling local people to heat their homes through the challenging weather conditions.
Faith in Futures raises funds for grants through various channels including fundraising events, merchandise sales and sales of Northern Monk Faith in Futures range of beers, which are available in all major supermarkets, Northern Monk website, and Northern Monk’s venues in Leeds and Manchester.
