Help Edible Avondale SE1 offer training in carpentry so that local people improve their skills and get new jobs.
Fund our Trainer in a Container.
Who we are
Edible Avondale SE1 is a community group based on the Avondale Square Estate in Southwark, London. We use horticulture and carpentry to regenerate our community, and to support opportunities for local people, young and old.
Avondale Square is one of the largest of the City of London's housing estates. We have around 6,000 residents, and our work is already estimated to have touched around half of them in some way already.
What we’ve done
In early 2014, we received a grant from the Big Local, a National Lottery project to improve selected communities across the UK. This allowed us to transform the unused spaces around the estate. We started with raised grow beds, tended by residents. From there we continued our efforts into the wider community: painting and sowing planter boxes with the nearby primary school, and holding family events at our community hub. We even established a carpentry workshop in an upcycled shipping container to provide classes for local residents. These are only a few of our projects!
We're proud of what we've achieved so far. But with your help, we can do much more.
What’s next?
Our new plan is to help local young adults into employment through a carpentry training programme, based in our workshop in a recycled shipping container. To do this, we'll hire a professional carpenter to work part-time for a year, to teach this skilled trade to residents who have limited opportunities available to them.
Why now?
It's a crucial time for this project; our training will coincide with Southwark Council's regeneration plan for the Old Kent Road, and the creation of new jobs. We want to prepare our young people to be as qualified and confident as possible so that they can benefit from these new opportunities.
As a bonus, these newly trained carpenters will also help to support Edible Avondale SE1's projects as we move into the winter months. During this time, our horticulture is naturally scaled back, and we place more emphasis on skilled crafts and trades, food education and cookery classes.
We need you
Edible Avondale SE1 has been generously supported by a range of organisations, but we’ve never had a paid employee – everyone up to now has been a volunteer.
But now’s the time for Edible Avondale SE1 to bring in a professional so that we can achieve our ambition. By backing this campaign you can make this happen.
Please support our community, and make a difference in one of London's most underserved areas.