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Fruit-Full Communities Young people gain fruit-full skills Written by Sue Pitt, Fruit-full Communities Project Officer The Fruit-full Communities project is an ambitious one! Over three years, 6,000 young adults living at or attending YMCA centres across England will develop the confidence and skills they need to consider work in horticulture, arboriculture or related fields. The project is run by Learning through Landscapes in partnership with YMCA, International Tree Foundation and The Orchard Project. In practical terms, young people from 50 YMCAs will design and plant orchards in their neighbourhoods. As well as engaging with their local community, participants are already connecting with young people planting trees in African countries and gaining a better understanding of the importance of trees for sustainable futures across the globe. Fruit-full Communities is just one of 31 projects funded by the Big Lottery Fund under the umbrella of Our Bright Future. Run by a consortium of eight organisations, Our Bright Future is led by The Wildlife Trusts and defines itself as ‘a forward-thinking social movement that supports young people to lead progressive change in their communities and local environment’. Planting trees, building confidence This chimes well with the approach that ITF takes in supporting local community groups to bring about change that is appropriate to their lives and their local environment. And yet the desire to allow the young people themselves to take the lead in shaping the project is one of the major challenges. Most of the participants have faced huge difficulties in their own lives and so may lack confidence in their own abilities and in the belief that their ideas will be listened to and taken seriously. It is precisely because of this that the project has the potential to hugely impact their lives. After one group was taken on a visit to an existing orchard, their youth worker commented that she had ‘never seen them more engaged’ than they were that day. It is an often observed phenomenon within the Forest Schools movement that when people are taken out of their normal context and given the opportunity for practical, hands-on activity outdoors they can respond in ways that surprise everybody – not least themselves. Photo above: Astbury Mere Trust Community Orchard, Angie Turner 20 Autumn 2016
Fruit-full Communities provides an opportunity for people who may not have found school to be a very positive experience to learn and develop in ways that they might never have thought possible. The facilitators working on the project provide just enough input to build skills and understanding, but then stand back and allow people to take their own ideas forward. Normally, residents of the YMCA move on within two years, but many will continue to live locally and so may continue their involvement with the orchards. The skills that they will pick up are just a foundation, but some may go on to take more specialised training if they find an interest in this field. Engaging with the wider community The key to ongoing success will also lie in engaging local people who have some knowledge of growing trees and are keen to work with young people in the local YMCA as volunteers. Local community support is crucial for the longterm impact of the Fruit-full Communities project. It would be relatively easy to design a project that would result in fifty orchards being planted across the country. But the trees will continue to bear fruit for years to come, and who will care for the trees and eat the fruit once the young people have moved on? This kind of local community support is not easy to generate on the scale that is required for this project without knowing the local community beforehand. Residents of the YMCA are less likely to have such connections because it is the breakdown of family and community ties that often leads to people becoming homeless in the first place. The project will depend on the development of community relationships already established by the YMCA. Connecting young people across the globe A key part of ITF’s role within the project is to develop links between the young people involved in Fruit-full Communities and those working on other projects that ITF supports in several African countries. This approach has the potential to greatly enrich young people’s experiences, by encouraging them to understand the connections that they have with one another. This will involve bringing together people whose lives are very different in many ways, but who share a common purpose of working with trees to improve their lives and their environment. It will be interesting to see how they cope with the challenges of communicating across such a cultural divide. The project has great potential to change the lives of some young people who have had a tough start in life, but it will only do so if it speaks to them rather than about them. Its success will depend upon the extent to which we place our faith in them – because people can achieve amazing things when we do. This unique project is a collaborative partnership established by outdoor learning and play specialists, Learning through Landscapes, YMCA, International Tree Foundation and The Orchard Project. A bit about Sue Pitt Sue started out as a doctor, then did a PhD on the history of childbirth before raising her own children. Sue has also worked with a social enterprise developing innovative ways of growing food in the city using agroforestry techniques. That was just for six months, but it set her on the path to where she now is – working with ITF. A keen allotment gardener, Sue says being in the garden gives her the best therapeutic sessions ever! For more information please visit www.fruitfullcommunities.org To read more about Our Bright Future please visit www.OurBrightFuture.org.uk www.internationaltreefoundation.org 21
Page 1 and 2: International Tree Foundation Journ
Page 3 and 4: Foreword The convention in modern a
Page 5 and 6: In memory of Dorothy Freeland The l
Page 7 and 8: My 20 Trees and Me - Growing up Tog
Page 9 and 10: Global Trees Campaign Global Trees
Page 11 and 12: Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration
Page 13 and 14: A Group Photograph A Group Photogra
Page 15 and 16: Did you know? Forests across our pl
Page 17 and 18: Baker: founder Not a fantasy, but a
Page 19: of Konna and Borondougou. Furthermo
Page 23 and 24: Tanzania’s forests also provide o
Page 25 and 26: Tackling Food Poverty In a country
Page 28: AS WE’RE NEARING 100 YEARS OLD, I

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