Category: Community News

1. Harvest Festival at Moulsecoomb Primary: Primary School Enrichment Grant in Action

   Posted on 11:00am Friday 29th Sep 2023

   East Brighton Trust launched Enrichment Grants to provide local primary schools with grants to fund some of the extra-curricular activities that they could not afford to fund themselves.

   The name “Enrichment Grants” reflects the nature of the activities the grant will fund - things that will enrich pupils, their educational experience, and consequently their lives. And crucially, once awarded, this money is for the schools to do with as they see fit. 

   Moulsecoomb Primary School decided to spend some of its money on the Harvest Festival event which takes place every September using fruit and vegetables grown at the school. A juicing machine was funded by the grant, as were two cooks, Anna and Karen to support the activity.

   

   Working with Stephen from Brighton Permaculture Trust (link), children chopped and pressed apples and pears from the school and the Bevy orchards, transforming them into delicious juice. 

   

   Anna and Karen were on hand throughout to help the children cook incredible food from school-grown veggies, including tomato bruschetta, apple crumble cake, roast vegetable frittata, pumpkin bread, and more! 

   

   Warren Carter of Moulscoomb Forest Garden Project said: 

   "The Harvest Festival is the culmination of our work with Year 5 who spend the academic year learning how to grow food - starting with broad beans and garlic, to tomatoes and peppers from seed in our greenhouse hot box to potatoes, pumpkins, and sweetcorn.

   The stunning school grounds also have an orchard and chickens. The children learn how to prune, mulch, and care for the chickens. 

   The East Brighton Trust enrichment grant means that the children don't just get to harvest the food they have grown, but get to turn it into delicious food while the apples and pears become juice.

   Finally, they get to serve it up to everyone at the end of the school day."

   

   Stephen Gehrels of Brighton Pemaculture Trust commented:

   'With Moulscoomb Prinary's commitment...and the funding streams they have accessed, we have been able to deliver and maintain with them a great orchard as well as many other trees in the school grounds.

   The Harvest Festival has been without doubt one of the charity's favorite yearly events over the years that we have been running it! Thank you to all that make it happen!!!' 

   

   We can’t wait to see what else Moulscoomb decided to spend their grant money on this academic year! 

    

2. East Brighton Trust Round Table

   Posted on 12:10pm Friday 26th May 2023

   On 12th May 2023, the inaugural ‘Roundtable’ session took place at BACA, hosted by Jack Davis, Principal and Ty Goddard, Director, East Brighton Trust.

   Roundtable and action planning events are set to become regular fixtures in the East Brighton Trust calendar. Chaired by East Brighton Trust, their purpose is to bring together relevant people and organisations around a particular topic, to facilitate change and support  people living in the East Brighton area. 

   For this first event, the topic was ‘Summer ‘23’, and Ty and Jack were joined by associates from local organisations. including Jane Fendley, Head at St Marks School, Kirsten Abingdon, Longhill School, Adam Muirhead from Trust for Developing Communities, and Nigel Jenner, Brighton Youth Centre.

   The purpose of the meeting was to discuss, plan for and share ideas on how to deliver a rich and diverse summer of physical and creative activities for children and young people living in the East Brighton area. A comprehensive guide, produced by the Trust and partners, will follow to be shared with schools, clubs, and families within the local community.

   Ty Goddard, EBT Director says: “ This is an important step for the Trust. We fund groups across East Brighton and we want to see that funding and the work of other organisations being focussed on what communities and young people actually need over the Summer. The Summer Guide is about people working for the good of residents, in a coordinated way and avoiding duplication.” 

   Do you work for or run a club or organisation within the East Brighton area and would like to contribute to the Summer ‘23 programme? Please get in touch with Gill [email protected] and Jodie [email protected] for more information.

    

3. East Brighton Champions - Celebrating East Brighton

   Posted on 12:00pm Friday 21st Apr 2023

   East Brighton Trust held a successful reception and awards evening at Moulsecoomb Primary School on the evening of April 20th to celebrate the people, organisations, and communities from the heart of East Brighton who are making a positive difference to those living in the area. 

   

   With over £800,000 distributed so far by East Brighton Trust to good causes and local groups and organisations, there were many positive stories to tell of people doing good things for good causes. With a dedicated staff team and a committed board of directors and a new purpose and strategy to lead it, East Brighton Trust is now well on its way to releasing its first £1m of funds to local enterprises.

   The event was introduced by, Adam Sutton, Headteacher at Moulsecoomb Primary, followed by an introduction to East Brighton Trust by Interim Chair, Warren Carter, before a speech by Brighton Mayor, and Councillor, Lizzie Dean. Drinks were supplied by The Bevy with food from Haylea’s Cafe.

   Ty Goddard of East Brighton Trust, said “The inaugural East Brighton Champions Award is really important to the Trust. We want to recognise, celebrate and champion all the good work being done in our community with the people of East Brighton. This is a celebration about potential; about the people who make the area what it is.”

   The awards' winners were as follows:

   Christine Harrop, nominated by Alan Cooke, Craven Vale Association: 

    

    

   “Christine has volunteered at the Craven Vale Food Bank since long before Covid, and is now an indispensable part of the team. Since lockdown ended, Christine has taken on an increasing number of roles in the community, from keeping our lively notice board up-to-date , to organising free twice-weekly gentle gym sessions, including the acquisition of all the equipment; and, as our resident artist, painting a beautiful mural of our community.  

   Christine has also played a significant role in making Craven Vale a better place to live. We're lucky to have so many champions, but Christine is a number one."

    

   Class Divide, Nominated by Ty Goddard, Director, EBT

   

   “Class Divide is a grassroots campaign fighting to draw attention to the deeply unjust educational attainment gap for young people from East Brighton and the communities of Whitehawk, Manor Farm and Bristol Estate in Brighton and Hove. Supported by the Crew Club, these campaigners with purpose have put this issue firmly on the City Council's agenda and their podcast rightly draws attention to this key issue in powerful ways."

    

   Maha Mustafa, nominated by Trust for Developing Communities

   

   “Maha has community spirit running through her. She works as an Engagement Worker for TDC and is a Board Director at East Brighton Trust. Maha supports people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities to identify their needs and links people to resources and services. It's a great example of a 'Social Prescribing' Project. Maha's journey with TDC started when she had support from a Community Development Worker to run groups in the BME community to bring people together. Maha then joined as a volunteer and has now progressed to working within the team.”

    

   BACA mentoring scheme and the BACA mentors- nomination from Jack Davies, Principal, BACA.

   

   "A unique scheme to support a whole year. Inspired and pioneered by community organisations across East Brighton, this whole Year 7 mentoring scheme is unique across the City and shows the commitment of this fantastic community to support their local school. We have mentors from our closest communities, across the city, and even ex-pupils. Each of the scheme's 43 mentors gives up their time to mentor a small group of pupils at the school. Already it is making a difference.

   Received by Grant Philipps on behalf of the mentoring scheme. 

   Ends

4. University students and staff join Community Spring Clean

   Posted on 12:00pm Wednesday 12th Apr 2023

   

   University of Brighton students and staff joined the local community to clean up the area around Moulsecoomb station as part of the Community Spring Clean 2023. 

    Supported by East Brighton Trust, Brighton & Hove City Council and the University'sActive Student volunteering service, the event on 23 March saw volunteers collect 17 bags of rubbish, with the more unusual items including a bike helmet, a bra, a charity collection box, and a toilet seat!

    The Community Spring Clean 2023 runs alongside the national Great British Spring Clean organised by Keep Britain Tidy. Research from Keep Britain Tidy found that more than 8.5 million adults in the UK have done litter-picking at least once in the past six months, showing that there is both a need and a desire for this kind of community action. For this eighth year of the Great British Spring Clean, the focus is on taking pride in your local community. 

    Mark Eslick, Head of Placements, Internships & Volunteering at the University of Brighton, said: "We're really pleased to have linked up with East Brighton Trust for this year's Community Spring Clean. Volunteering to litter-pick is a simple action that anyone can do to make an immediate and visible difference to their area, so it was great to see so many students, staff and neighbours taking part.

    “Lots of people who took part in last year’s Great British Spring Clean reported that taking part made them feel more pride in their local area. We hope that this clean-up will have a really positive impact on our University community including our neighbours here in Moulsecoomb.”

   Alasdair McGregor from East Brighton Trust said “We’re delighted to work alongside the University and other projects across the city. East Brighton Trust listened to residents about areas that needed a Spring Clean like Westlain Belt, behind BACA, Craven Vale and the station area."