Dwellbeing is a soon-to-be community benefit society and co-operative in the neighbourhood of Shieldfield, Newcastle upon Tyne. As community members we undertake creative and socially oriented projects which build community knowledge about the issues that affect the neighbourhood including: rapid urban development, gentrification, food poverty and social isolation. We explore alternative models for organising, learning and solidarity which can lead Shieldfield (and other neighbourhoods like it) toward self-reliance, resilience and interdependence.
Permaculture
The Permaculture Responds project will make our network of projects, educators and practitioners and all the brilliant learning and practice that we have built up over the years, more accessible to more people. We will support people to get involved through events, increased communications and bursary places on the new online learning course.
Radical Herbalism Gathering & Network
As a collective of medical herbalists, healthcare activists, bodyworkers and designers we have organised Radical Herbalism gatherings for the past eight years. We’re currently offering information and resources through our website, addressing the COVID-19 crisis through the lens of healthcare inequality and race-based and other injustices, with solidarity and support for people and communities experiencing the pandemic and its effects disproportionately.
Ashburnham Place
At Ashburnham Place we are developing two sites – one in our four acre Walled Garden and another in a slightly wilder area of woodland and field; this area is called Friar’s Field. The long-term purpose of both is to provide experience and training that helps others on their journey toward gentler, more sustainable and connected ways of living.
Fourthland
Fourthland is a socially engaged artist practice bringing together diverse groups of people through creative processes that reposition our relationship to each other and the land. Working across a variety of mediums and social processes, Fourthland becomes a place that brings marginalised knowledge into the center to form new myths about land and people.
Talia Randall
Raised on a London council estate, Talia Randall began her artistic career began as a ‘participant’ in various community schemes. She’s now a writer-performer who has been building a growing following with her variety shows, one-woman plays and podcasts.
RADMIN
The project and concept of RADMIN emerged out of an email conversation about
laminating at Bristol’s Cube Cinema. It has since taken on a life of its own.
Its radical yet delicate proposal is to reconsider administration not just as an infernal condition of life but also a site for action and intervention, dark
arts, wild experiments and meaningful work.
The UBI Lab Network
In 2020, UBI Lab has become a worldwide network of researchers, activists and campaigners exploring the potential of a Universal Basic Income.
Community Apothecary
We are a collective of medical herbalist, growers, local residents and volunteers who cultivate a network of herb gardens in the London borough of Waltham Forest and offer training in herbalism and horticulture with the aim of building circles of communal knowledge and resource sharing.
The Shieling Project
The Shieling Project is a social enterprise and community-based off-grid education centre in Glenstrathfarrar, near Beauly in the Scottish Highlands. We use the story of the ‘shieling’ (àirigh in Scottish Gaelic) as a route into place-based learning about crofting, horticulture, green building, food growing and cooking, renewable technologies, traditional skills, crafts and culture. The idea is simple: to explore the landscape’s past to help build a more sustainable, resilient future.
Social Farms & Gardens in NI
Social Farms & Gardens in NI have been delivering the FSSSE programme to 23 gardens across the north of Ireland for 18 months, addressing fundamental questions of food sovereignty, power, control, biodiversity and climate instability, equipping us to find our own road to agency, through saving & exchanging seed together.
The London Renters’ Union
The London Renters’ Union is a member-led, campaigning union. We take action with our members to win better housing conditions in the here and now as well as organsing to transform the housing system so that it serves people instead of profit.
Torridge Common Ground
Torridge Common Ground is a non-party-political platform putting the shared values and practical vision of the community at the heart of local governance, empowering communities to transform their local economies and wellbeing. Our key driver is to be giving agency to those who have the least sense of agency.
The Feel Better Project
Domestic Abuse is not inevitable. Every year, globally, millions of people suffer and lose their lives as a result of this epidemic. At The Feel Better Project we use evidence and research to understand the causes that lead to violence, and what steps we can all take to preventing this tragic cycle.
Sewing Café Lancaster
Run by Victoria Frausin, Sewing Café Lancaster is a grassroots project that advocates for an ethical textile industry and sustainable textile practices. We draw on ideas of conviviality in actualizing “the eight ‘Rs’” – revalue, reconceptualize, restructure, relocate, redistribute, reduce, reuse and recycle in relation to clothes and textile production and consumption.
Restore Project
The Restore project is about engaging polar opposite communities, locals of traditional welsh valleys and communities of asylum seekers and refugees, bridging the differences using food and the production of food, creating a space to belong and to learn.
Rethink Food
At Rethink Food we are creating systems where food becomes the solution and not the problem. Our mission is to improve health and wellbeing outcomes for children, young people and communities by changing the way we think about food.
Grass Roots Remedies co-op
Grass Roots Remedies is a Worker’s Coop based in Edinburgh and Glasgow working to rekindle our rich tradition of herbal community healthcare and promote ecologically responsible herbalism. We believe that herbal medicine is the medicine of the people, and that it should be accessible to everyone.
Regenerate
Regenerate creates opportunities for young people to thrive. We inspire and support young people by building strong relationships and creating life changing opportunities, helping them grow in confidence, make the best of their lives, and impact the world for good.
The Coping Mechanism
The Coping Mechanism monitors how people are coping with the pandemic both with positive pro-social coping (resilience) and negative anti-social coping (defendedness) and how financial stability & racial privilege impact coping.