In early 2024, we were awarded funding by the University of Exeter. The Bridging Communities funding has enabled a number of vital roles to be supported. Specifically, a volunteer coordinator was employed to lead weekly community sessions, providing valuable skills and social interaction for participants, and additional support to part-time staff; a research intern was employed to support the ethical review process and explore potential research questions; and a community researcher has been generating creative content, including podcasts from audio-recorded conversations.
We were awarded a funding extension, allowing for the continued employment of the volunteer coordinator and the weekly community sessions. Alongside the weekly sessions, bespoke events, workshops and activities were organised. These included a Bioblitz, where all ages came together to record wildlife on site and learn about the many plants, fungi and animals living at Loveland; a building workshop, working together to construct shelter on site and learn about affordable, low impact and natural construction; and a photography workshop, sharing skills in nature photography using peoples’ own affordable equipment. A monthly family day was also set up, leading to more families taking part in sessions. Over a few successive weekends, people at the community sessions also created a new pond, which was further developed by local schoolchildren who planted the surrounding area.
Along with these activities, local community outreach was undertaken. This included a food and nature community conversation, bringing people together form the local area to share what is important to them about local food and nature, what they would like to change, and plans for making this happen. This was reported alongside other community conversations on climate and nature on the Cornwall Climate Action Coalition website. It was organised alongside a facilitator training session to further develop local skills in hosting inclusive community conversations, and an accompanying video and organiser’s guide were also created. Connections were also strengthened with complementary groups concerned with local food and nature, including the Penryn Highways food bank, and Sustainable Food Cornwall.
A report on the volunteer experience at Loveland was published, based on research from the first bridging communities project, and an infographic and report on recent activity at Loveland is in preparation. The research will also be presented at the 2025 Royal Geographical Society International Conference. Support was also provided with ongoing grant fundraising: an application for further research funding was unsuccessful, but thankfully philanthropy has extended the funding for the volunteer coordinator for the community sessions for another year.