FUTURE Shed in Frome has reflected on a successful year in supporting the community to create a greener and healthier planet since opening its doors to the public in November 2021.
A partnership between Edventure, Frome Medical Practice and Frome Town Council, Future Shed works with the community and anyone setting up community enterprises to create a greener and healthier future for the planet and communities in Frome.
After experiencing difficulties in the first few months of starting due to tougher Covid-19 restrictions, they have seen a positive rise in community engagement.
Project manager, Sue Palmer said, “We started last November and had a rickety start to the project due to Covid, but since February and March, we have had a lot of success and the community has been very responsive.”
The project runs three themed network meetings; textiles, food, and health and wellbeing, each giving people a chance to learn about what is being done locally in these categories to create a greener environment and lifestyle in Frome. Meetings run every Friday, with the network theme alternating each week.
Over the last few months, attendance to the meetings has grown. Sue said, “Each network across food, clothing and textiles, and health and wellbeing, has between 40-90 people who are part of it and want to take action. We didn’t have these numbers six months ago. Our Future Shed Friday sessions usually have 10-20 people at each meeting, with new people finding out about us all the time.”
“The health of ourselves improves the health of the planet. We generally live beyond the planet’s needs and we are passionate about supporting and empowering people to make change.”
As well as encouraging people to attend the network meetings, there are several events people can get involved in to raise awareness in the community. In July, they ran a conference with residents and 40 organisations, exploring ways to have a healthier community and planet, with other market towns wanting to do similar things.
Open to all, the team is keen to hear from anyone who would like to make a difference, to get in touch and share ideas about anything they are interested in. “We want to know what people are excited by, what they are enthusiastic about, we just want to hear from anyone who would like to get involved,” said Sue.
The group is running events in the coming months. They also run a co-working space at their site in the Welsh Mill Hub from 9.30am-1.30pm every Friday. Meetings start at 10am on Fridays and in the autumn, meetings will be held in the evenings to enable others to join.
For more information about upcoming events, to get involved or share ideas, visit the website https://greenhealthyfuturefrome.org/future-shed-frome/ , or contact Sue Palmer on, 07434 898059
