Camphill Pages Vol. 23

Northern Ireland Region

Ireland Region

Scottish Region

English/Welsh Region

VOLUME 23 AUTUMN/WINTER

2016

DON’T MISS ‘PAGES PLUS’ Our 4 page supplement PAGES PLUS ‘Camphill Goes to Parliament’ included inside this volume.

Welcome We are delighted to produce a Pages Plus Supplement this time including many events where Camphill has been involved in parliamentary action whether in lobbying, an artistic event showing what Camphill can do or making submissions which affect legislation.

Once upon a time there were influential friends protecting Camphill’s interests, nowadays it is up to us and our good Families and Friends to make sure Camphill is not a victim of unfair legislation much of which is of good intention but affects intentional communities in unforeseen and adverse ways.

In other Pages we celebrate New Lanark, The Truly World Wide Weave on its worldwide journey and news from around the regions of The Association.

Have a good read and best Greetings from The Editorial Coordinator Vivian Griffiths.

The two pioneers, Richard (on the left) and Andrew (on the right) with local MP Stuart Donaldson

MILLTOWN DAY WORKSHOP CELEBRATES 20 YEARS On 15th April the Day Workshop at Milltown Community held a celebration to mark its 20th Anniversary.

The invitation had gone out, the cakes had been baked and many old and new friends came for the day, including local Councillors and the local MP, Stuart Donaldson.

Before the celebration cake was cut Richard Firth welcomed everyone and told the story of when the Day Workshop had first begun in 1996 with just him and Andrew Irvine.

Richard spoke about the main motive behind setting up the Day Workshop - a motive that is still valid 20 years later.

He said that everybody wants to feel appreciated, have a laugh and have some useful work to do that gives them a sense of achievement.

THE 7TH NEW LANARK CONFERENCE

Continued on page 2...

Read all about it on pages 3 - 5

Pages is the newsletter of the Association of Camphill Communities UK and Ireland www.camphill.org.uk

SCOTTISH REGION Continued from front cover...

Milltown Day Workshop has come a long way since the early days when the emphasis was on sawing firewood to keep the stove going and restoring donated hand tools for Tools for Self Reliance. Over the years there have many developments.

There is now a large greenhouse, a poly tunnel and cold frames for growing plants and a small shop for selling the plants, restored garden tools and wood work items. There is also a new purpose built workshop for the wood working enterprise. Among all the things they make there, the wood working group have made sets of storytelling chairs and seats for two local schools.

There is a Community Garden with raised beds for small scale vegetable growing; willows are grown for making living willow structures, and there is a clay oven for baking pizzas and bread.

There is a yurt for taking shelter in bad weather and for the occasional drumming session. Some local potters built a wood fired kiln in the Community Garden that is just beginning to come into use.

In addition to all of this the Workshop people spend time in a neighbour’s woodland harvesting firewood for the Milltown stoves and taking part in wood craft activities.

And, as a sign of this success, later this year there will be another celebration as the ‘100th Tools for Self-Reliance’ tool kit is completed and dispatched to Malawi for the use of men and women with disabilities.

As Richard said in his speech, ‘provided we can stick to the values that have brought us this far I don’t think we will go too far wrong and I hope that in 20 years time someone else is here talking about the years 20 to 40.’

CORBENIC POETRY PATH “A magical and inspiring place where people, poetry and landscape meet”. - Andy Jackson An unforgettable merging of poetry and place.

Three kilometres of meandering path through a staggering variety of terrain with poetry installations along the way.

A wee gem in the heart of Perthshire.

Featuring Jim Carruth Ron Butlin John Glenday

Kenneth Stevens Sally Evans Tim Turnbull Jon Plunkett

Patricia Ace Chrys Salt Foy Vance Alec Finlay

Andy Jackson Morgan Downie Margret Gilles Brown Nikki Magennis

Eileen Carney Hulme Mary McDougall Anne Connolly and more...

THE CROFT ORCHARD NEWTON DEE In 2008 the land group decided that a piece of Orion field bordering on to the Croft could be set aside for the development of an orchard.

The land was ploughed, stones picked and a fence erected with the help of the Morven farm team. I ordered 24 apple trees from an organic nursery in Ayrshire; the trees were mainly Scottish varieties, some of which are in danger of disappearing. The two garden teams came and helped dig the holes and plant the trees. The trees were tiny, just a whip; but now, eight years later, they are fully grown; some trees yielding good crops and others in time will do so too.

A freshly picked apple from your own orchard tastes completely different from a supermarket apple often brought in from another continent; it is fresh, crisp, tangy and full of flavour.

Feel free to come and walk around the orchard or have a picnic there.

Entrance to the orchard is from a gate opposite Westcote.

Kirsten Beckett

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Autumn / Winter 2016

NEW LANARK CONFERENCE

NEW LANARK CONFERENCE:

SHAPING OUR WORLD THROUGH SELF-EXPRESSION 24th - 26th May 2016 The 7th New Lanark conference, which was held in May this year, attracted over 160 delegates from around the world.

Feedback tells us that the conference succeeded in its aims of delivering an enjoyable and stimulating opportunity for Camphill and Garvald communities to make connections with each other, share experiences and exchange ideas.

People told us that they left the conference feeling inspired to bring the impulse back to their communities and that they have a better outlook, feeling renewed and invigorated. In short, as with all New Lanark conferences, the atmosphere was alight with energy and enthusiasm!

The conference theme ‘Shaping our World through Self-Expression’ was interpreted in many fascinating, creative and accessible ways by the facilitators and participants alike.

www.camphill.org.uk

Some highlights included an energetic and creative exploration of ‘the self’ through story-telling by Daru McAleece (Garvald) and some fabulous clowning by Carol Thompson. User involvement sessions by Values into Action Scotland and Garvald were well received, and the plenary by People First, who discussed rights and inclusivity, received the warmest applause of the whole three days. As part of the story telling theme, we were pleased to help Ann Farquharson (of Camphill School Aberdeen and Beannachar) to launch her book called ‘Tanya’, which is a moving and insightful account about the importance of ‘transitional objects’ to vulnerable children.

We also strengthened our links with other learning disabilities organisations with People First, the Scottish Commission for Learning Disability and Values into Action Scotland either contributing to or attending the conference.

After organising the past three conferences Camphill Scotland are now handing over the reins, working with a fledgling group of activists to find a new way forward. We would like to thank everyone who has helped us to plan and deliver these much loved conferences, and we look forward to seeing what will happen next.

Pictures on next page...

People with learning disabilities were part of the planning and delivery of the conference this year, adding greatly to the quality of the process.

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NEW LANARK CONFERENCE

04

Autumn / Winter 2016

NEW LANARK CONFERENCE, MAY 2016 It was lovely to be at the New Lanark conference for the first time. This conference has been running since 2003, administered by Camphill Scotland and Garvald.

In earlier and easier times, people with an interest in the creative life of Camphill, Anthroposophy, Curative Education, and community building had many opportunities to meet and “cross-pollinate” ideas, and inspiration - to draw support from fellowship with others of like mind. This applied to residents as well as co-workers. It is much more difficult nowadays, at least in England. Money is tight, people find it difficult to leave their communities, and so can feel somewhat isolated. It is heartening to point out that several communities still strive with great success to maintain Camphill principles, even though employment has largely replaced the vocational aspect of the work. But in others, particularly where distant and over-prescriptive management holds sway, it is hard to keep a sense of a shared endeavour in one’s community or with the wider movement.

Scotland has always been different. Camphill has friends in the Scottish Parliament, and is much respected by the regulating authorities who recently gave them top marks.

Camphill Scotland, the overarching body that informs and protects the Scottish communities and encourages working together, is a very important factor in the continued success of those places.

In England people who have worked out of a vocational impulse, building community with our learning disabled relatives, often find their work misunderstood and even undermined by the regulating or commissioning authorities or by their employers. It seems to me that New Lanark offers a way to reconnect, even briefly, with a movement that families value very highly, and with some of the people who still carry it.

There is an international dimension, with representatives from ECCE (European Co-operation in Anthroposophical Curative Education and Social Therapy) and ACESTA (Association for Care, Education and Social Therapy out of Anthroposophy). Some 180 people came in total, from all the Scottish Camphill communities, and of course Camphill Scotland, as well as the Garvald communities in and around Edinburgh, which were originally a “break away” group from Camphill. Three came from Kopake community in the USA. It was sad not to see anyone from the English communities, except for Botton and Sturts Farm. Unfortunately it’s a long way to New Lanark from the South, the conference lasts three days and it is expensive to attend.

I think residents like my daughter Marina, who lives at the Grange, would have loved it.

A good proportion were people being supported. They took part in everything on equal terms and with great gusto - artistic workshops, Eurythmy, weaving, singing, painting, storytelling, seminars on such themes as What is Camphill? and Giving of Yourself in Community. Best of all was a brilliant ceilidh, which raised the roof.

Whether residents, vocational co-workers, employed support staff, managers or whoever, everyone was engaged together in a common endeavour, and it was so good to see that no-one saw themselves as “in a role”. Everyone brought a sincere wish, in spite of all the difficulties faced where they live, to strive to maintain the heart and soul of what has made Camphill and Garvald unique. The people being supported often articulated this, in their way, better than anyone.

I was glad to meet again people from Sturts Farm in Dorset. Faced with challenges, as so many (all?) places have been, rather than trying to hold on to and re-work old forms and practices - or letting the baby go with the bathwater - they decided with the “support of some very courageous trustees” to “dig deep” to rediscover the essence of the original Camphill impulse of Karl König, and think about what a rich community life with learning disabled people could look like today. The results are very exciting.

New Lanark was created by the visionary social reformer, Robert Owen. Early in the 19th century he built a model village on the Clyde around his cotton mills, where he provided decent housing for his workers, medical care and education for their children. His ideas were a forerunner of the co-operative movement and of the Camphill impulse that came later. New Lanark is now a World Heritage Site and the mills and workers’ tenements are being transformed into flats and a hotel. So it was the perfect place to think about and work on community building and social renewal.

We at Camphill Families and Friends are keen to support the conference in future if we can.

It would also be very good to find a way of making the fun, inspiration and fellowship of New Lanark more available to people who live in the South.

Mary Pearson Camphill Families and Friends

www.camphill.org.uk

05

ENGLISH/WELSH REGION A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S CAMPHILL DREAM On 3rd June, the day for Camphill AGM (Annual General Meeting) we played A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which we have been rehearsing for a while.

It is an adaptation based on the famous Shakespeare play with the same name.

I played the part of Flute the Bellow Mender.

Here is the list of the rest of the cast: Matthew as Theseus, Andrew as Hippolyta, Matilda as Bottom, Stuart as Quince, Alex F as Snug and Thomas as The Wall.

The show was very well received as laughter burst out and the audience showed their appreciation at the end of the show.

Better still, we will be playing again this autumn, alongside another show - The Three Piglets. I will put more effort in for another big success .

Lee S.

Our play writer and director Teo cleverly sprinkled a flavour of Camphill in the play that from time to time made the audience chuckle.

The cast and crew at Botton

BOTTON AND THE BARD: A SHAKESPEARE MEDLEY 06

Botton Village has created its own medley of songs and scenes from a selection of Shakespeare plays to mark the 400th anniversary of his death.

The 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death has been marked by many performances and celebratory events throughout the UK and abroad.

Not to be left out, Botton Village is creating its own event, including ‘Romeo & Juliet’, ‘The Taming of the Shrew’, ‘Macbeth’, ‘Julius Caesar’ and ‘The Tempest’.

Autumn / Winter 2016

HEROES, HUGS AND HOW, AND SAYING NO… An original piece from The Mount Camphill Community where Louise Coigley works as speech therapist and storyteller.

Seamus stared out of the window, rhythmically kicking a table leg. His dark brown eyes were fixed on a tree outside, as he repeated, ‘no… no… no - NO!’.

This had been going on for a couple of sessions, while I plied him with books, pictures and a few boyish, I hoped, toys.

Seamus had Down’s Syndrome, was nearly thirteen years old, had very good understanding and almost unintelligible speech. He was deeply frustrated. I was 26 years old, in 1983, and a very tired Curative Education Student at The Sheiling School, Ringwood, qualified in Speech Pathology and Therapeutics and I wasn’t helping.

Just at that time, I had discovered the work of two women: Sylvia Ashton Warner, a pioneer in child centred education from New Zealand, and Dorothy Heathcote, creator of The Mantle of The Expert approach to education through Drama. I was also imbibing immense practical and spiritual wisdom from the older co-workers at The Sheiling.

So, during this third session I thought to myself, ‘Right, I’m going to take a risk here…’. Going against all my professional training of the time, (the 80s), and my background - ‘Don’t get too personal, don’t talk about feelings’, I said, “Seamus, what do you love?”. He looked at me, for the first time, and said something that began with a ‘p’ and seemed to end with an ‘l’ and had a kind of ‘b’ in the middle, it was three syllables. I apologized and asked him to repeat it, which he patiently did, three times. Contact! I worked out he was saying ‘Parzival’. I asked him if I was right?

He nodded tentatively. I said, ‘Let’s make a castle’, he beamed, ‘yeh!’, he replied.

He got so much language and inspiration to speak more clearly out of that cardboard castle, numbers of turrets, colours of flags, prepositions of journeys in and out and over the drawbridge, a word that I discovered he already knew.

Having finished my Camphill training (is it ever finished?!), I left Ringwood to gain more experience with adults, and moved to Botton. Two years later, at a Camphill Conference, I was chatting with a guy from Ringwood and mentioned Seamus.

‘Oh yes!’ the co-worker said, ‘I lived with Seamu... every time we had a visitor, he would bolt upstairs and return with a battered old card board box of a castle and show it off proudly, chatting away... he died recently’.

www.camphill.org.uk

I first met Zach in 2012 when he and two other students at The Mount Camphill College interviewed me for the job of Speech and Language Therapist during the last stages of my interview process there.

Zach asked me what I thought about Parzival and Caspar Hauser. I got the job and set about co-creating the first SLT lead support service at The Mount. I am sorry to say that Zach was not a priority on my caseload to begin with... there were many students, new meetings and structures to attend to. Zach seemed to be coping well and articulating his choices and needs or so I thought.

After about a year, I had a visit from Zach.

When he arrived, his usually sunny face was clouded and he seemed more nervous than usual. Our conversation went like this...

Zach: Gotta problem Me: OK… you want to tell me about it?

Zach: Yes… girls… pressure…. it’s complicated.

Me: Ah - yes Zach: They keep hugging me! ‘specially one - don’t want it.

Me: I see - have you talked to her about it?

Zach: I tried - no good.

I knew that giving verbal strategies would not be easy for Zach to remember, I knew that role play only also would not last.

Zach needed something deeper, simpler and very accessible. I wanted also to work within Zach’s interests, Rudolf Steiner, Caspar Hauser and Parzival. I planned to combine Zach’s sensitivity with the knight-like qualities of Parzival, using Steiner’s Speech and Drama gestures.

I have used these gestures to great effect in many contexts. For example, I worked for The British Institute of Learning Disabilities as External Supervisor to the first accredited storytelling training in England for adults with learning disabilities. They became ‘The Open storytellers’ and find these gestures ‘extremely useful’.

Two of these gestures proved life changing for Zach, but it took practice!

Firstly, to give Zach a great boost, we practiced the ‘Antipathy’ gesture, which involves flinging an arm and hand away from the body. We put some relevant words with it - it is a speech gesture ‘No thank you, I don’t want a hug’.

Zach with Louise Coigley

The Mount Camphill Community

Then we added a gesture called ‘Holding your own ground against obstacles’ which entails holding out both hands at an angle in front, just above waist height, hands not straight up and defensive and not limp and surrendering, just enough to delineate some personal space. I encouraged Zach to make up his words to use here and he came up with: “please don’t hug me”, “leave me alone” and “give me space please”.

He also told me that he was now much more able to say ‘No’ in all kinds of situations e.g. when asked to do the washing up. This new-found skill was getting a bit over-generalised! So we reviewed when it was OK to say ‘No’, and when he still needed to do his community tasks.

I asked him to practice these with a co-worker he knew well, and encouraged him to try them out where needed.

After two weeks, with a session each week, I asked him if things were any better?

“Oh yes”, he replied, “I said to her ‘don’t hug me now’” then he dropped his hands and added, “Then I said... maybe later”.

I asked him if he wanted her to hug him later, and he said “No, not really”. So we continued practising, for half the session. For the other half we worked on articulation and language targets. After four weeks, Zach arrived for his half hour session beaming. I asked him how it was going, he replied, “Great!” “Did you get her to stop hugging you with your speech and gestures?”, “yes’” he said. “So what happened?” I continued, “Well, she cried a bit”, but - she had stopped hugging him.

I had checked meanwhile, that the young lady in question was not too devastated by this rejection of her favours. Zach was pleased with his progress. He told me that his stomach cramps had stopped and he was sleeping better at night.

A couple of weeks later, one of Zach’s peers came to see me. She is a young woman with autism and a stammer.

She said: “You taught Zach how to say ‘No’.

I need that, please teach me”.

Louise Coigley, RCSLT cert., HCPC reg., Dip. Curative Education, (Camphill)., Dip. Speech Formation (Goetheanum).

The names of the students in this article have been changed.

Louise runs regular trainings in her method of communication development, Lis’n Tell: live inclusive storytelling.

To find more visit www.lisntell.co.uk References: Wagner JB (1976) Drama as a Learning Medium, the work of Dorothy Heathcote Warner, Sylvia Ashton (1963) Teacher Grove N (2009) Learning to Tell Coigley L (2013) Chapter on Lis’n Tell in Storytelling with Adults and Children with SEN, (ed. by Dr Nicola Grove)

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IRELAND REGION NIMBLE SPACES

Camphill Callan Community members working together on the ‘Shaping My Space Game’ led by LiD Architecture

Following the Irish financial collapse of 2008, a group of people in and around Camphill Callan tried to look beyond that era of austerity to a brighter future...

It was clear that public expectations for the support of people with disabilities were changing, and that life in Camphill communities was also changing.

What was the best possible future - with a lot of changes, some of which we might like and some we probably will not - that we could work toward?

In 2012 we came up with a housing and development project with the name Nimble Spaces. Funded initially by the Arts Council Ireland and philanthropic supporters (including the Camphill Foundation for the UK and Ireland, for which we are very grateful), the project was a mixture of an Enabling Design process, linking future residents with architects in a participative engagement, and international enquiry and research.

Over a three-year period residents, co-workers, staff and family members took part in Nimble Spaces workshops with an actively participatory approach.

We realised that there are many related impulses and initiatives arising across the globe, and saw great benefit in making productive links.

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This was a fascinating learning process, bringing people to many other Camphill situations for discussion and debate, to Hertha Living Community in Denmark, a conference in Istanbul, pioneering networks for Citizenship and PersonCentredness in the USA and Canada, bright social housing initiatives in Germany and the UK, ground-up designand-build in South America - all of which led toward promoting an illuminating conference at VISUAL, a major art centre in Carlow, Ireland, in May 2015: Ways to Live Together - A New Culture of Housing.

What emerged was a set of principles or basic methodology with five Building Blocks for a development process.

1. Enabling Design A Participatory Process in which residents, with and without disabilities engage with architects and artists toward designing “the home that I want to live in” 2. My Own Home A commitment that each person has a personal home, unrelated to the individual’s capacity to live “independently”, with additional space for social support and shared living.

This involves innovative designs for blending self-determination with community interdependence.

3. Full Housing Rights Associated with the personal dwelling, each person has a Tenancy Agreement establishing their rights to housing, in line with the values of the UN Convention on Human 4. Inclusive Neighbourhoods Social housing is integrated into a larger neighbourhood in which other people, interested to be “constructive neighbours” and share a local environment, are living their own lives.

5. Smart Homes - For You and the Environment Assistive Technology and Sustainable Energy Systems incorporated at the best possible level, to encourage self-determination and install optimum renewable energy.

At almost the same time, there was a call for proposals for new social housing, with an emphasis on community integration, under the Irish government’s Capital Assistance Scheme.

Camphill Callan proposed 16 dwellings built across four sites in the town, in Inclusive Neighbourhoods - embodying the impulses of Nimble Spaces. We applied for €2.2m in government funding and committed ourselves to raise €500,000 as voluntary co-funding to achieve a leadership standard. We are delighted that our full proposal was accepted, and we have received important pledges for the first donations.

In Autumn 2015 we were able to appoint architects and start the development process.

Some aspects of the project belong to the details and personalities of our Callan situation: others are quite universal in trying to find the best balance between recognizing each individual’s need and right for privacy and individual development and also the need and right for social support and community affirmation.

In complex ways, the Nimble Spaces initiative responds to what we have known as Camphill impulses and living experience and tries to evolve older forms into new patterns that are valuable preparation for an ever-changing future.

We hope very much to extend the wide learning that is involved as well as getting our Callan pilot built and lived in.

We look forward to any enquiries or feedback - there is still so much to learn.

Patrick Lydon is a long-term Camphill co-worker and member of the Nimble Spaces co-ordinating team www.nimblespaces.org info@nimblespaces.org

Autumn / Winter 2016

NORTHERN IRELAND REGION QCF CREATIVE CRAFTS Camphill Clanabogan has amongst its work areas two creative and therapeutic workshops, the Weavery and the Wood Workshop. Within these workshops creativity is explored, skills are learnt and finely honed and artistic expression is nurtured. There is after all within every one of us, a creative being, an artistic force connecting us, regardless of perceived abilities; art and creativity binds us, challenge us, broaden and develop us.

Whether chiselled from wood or softly woven the work created in these settings evidence a highly skilled workforce.

And from the workshops the idea indignantly arose that though highly accomplished this work force had no access to accredited qualifications; there was no formal place to recognise their skills.

From here a process was borne, having established there was nothing locally that could facilitate this need, contact was made with CCEA ( Council for the Curriculum Examinations and Assessment) to discuss what direction we could take. CCEA had the solution; offering QCF level 1 to 3 in Creative Crafts. And so it ensued that with the support and guidance of the CCEA team Camphill Clanabogan became an accredited centre able to offer this course to those who were interested. The beauty of this qualification is that it is an inclusive course, it is available to all; and all who undertake it are subject to the same workload, examination process and achieve the same qualification.

Thus in January this year seven people decided to enrol as candidates, the mix of people underlining the inclusive nature of this qualification. These seven people all undertook their own creative journey, exploring different media, seeking out different inspirational sources, researching artists and different art forms all the while working toward an end piece.

This qualification is as much about the journey as the final destination. And though everyone worked independently of the other, there was shared learning, from this arose a mutual understanding which served as a motivational force. A new creative energy was born.

The benefit for those who completed the course was not only a deeper understanding of the creative processes, but a deeper understanding of self, a sense of accomplishment and achievement.

Each piece of work created ably represented its creator, the personality of each person imprinted on their piece. And in August all candidates received news that they had successfully completed QCF level 1.

Now inspired by others, a new intake of candidates have started on this process, each following their own creative pathway and in the process getting formal recognition of their skills, and not before time.

Anna McGurn of Camphill Community Clanabogan

ARVALEE SCHOOL Arvalee School the local special needs school in the Omagh area were seeking different work experiences for their transition year students and approached Camphill Clanabogan to see what we had to offer.

The workshops came together to devise a programme of work experience for the students which included sessions in the farm/garden, the bakery and the weavery.

Over a period of 12 weeks, seven students from the school engaged in work experience in the different areas for one morning a week.

This joint working with Arvalee School was a positive experience for everyone involved. The transition students had the opportunity to gain new experience and explore what they liked and didn’t like to do and were able to see the end rewards of work.

The work experience provided an opportunity for them to consider The students engaged in a number of future career options and work and day productive activities, growing and tending opportunity placements. The workshops tomatoes plants, small and large animal too were invigorated by the energy and care, general farm work, butter making as freshness the students brought with well as learning different baking techniques them; the established workers able to take and creating an assortment of baked goods. pride in being role models for these young The students were also able to enjoy creative people and understanding their need to work experience learning how to weave on a learn whilst recognising their own level peg loom and how to needle felt. of skills in relation to this.

At the end of their work experience placement the students were presented with a certificate of achievement, but also went home with the end product of their toil;

This project was a great success and we now are looking forward to future workings and more collaborative projects with Arvalee School.

Anna McGurn of Camphill Community Clanabogan

ARC CONFERENCE After a long absence ARC (NI), an umbrella organisation for learning disability providers across the sectors, facilitated an annual conference.

The conference took place over 2 days and focused on the Bamford Vision, looking at ‘where are we now?’, celebrating progress made but also identifying what steps are still required to make the Bamford Vision a reality.

The conference included contributions from key note speakers including the Minister for Health, Prof. Roy McConkey from the University of Ulster and representatives from the Department of Health, RQIA and also featured workshops facilitated by different organisations.

The Camphill Communities of Clanabogan, Mourne Grange and Glencraig came together to give a joint workshop. This workshop looked at the integrated approach to health and well-being throughout the stages of life for people with learning disabilities; exploring how the Camphill model meets the changing needs through an individuals’ lifetime as a result of its unique way of living and working together enabling people to live purposeful healthy lives in a community they are part of and contribute to.

www.camphill.org.uk

the tomato plants nurtured from the seed, banana bread freshly baked and the creamy butter to complement it, as well as a wall hanging they created from the peg loom and needle felting.

How we live, what opportunities we have, what support we get, feeling valued, feeling safe and secure throughout our life and throughout the various changes in our lives impacts on out health outcomes, there is correlation between lifestyle, physical and mental wellbeing.

They cannot be separate processes, each influences the other and the outcomes are evidenced by lower levels of challenging behaviour, by significantly lower levels of obesity and its associated problems.

The coming together of the three communities to showcase the Camphill model in a single workshop was enriched by the contribution of residents, day attenders and family members who spoke of their experiences of life in their communities. Covering the age spectrum from transition to adult services to old age the Camphill delegates from all communities ably and confidently told their stories.

Anna McGurn of Camphill Community Clanabogan

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WORLD WIDE WEAVE WORLD WIDE WEAVE IN SWITZERLAND In February the World Wide Weave Exhibition arrived in St-Prex, near Lausanne on Lake Geneva in Switzerland.

(Translated from the original French) Denis-Pascal Donnet Denis-Pascal is a very experienced weaver who leads the weaving workshop in the Ateliers du Glapin, St-Prex.

‘Compagnons du Bourg’ in front of Perceval’s exhibit (second from left)

Camphill Perceval is situated a short walk away up the hill, overlooking the medieval town and with a spectacular panorama of the lake and the French and Swiss Alps.

The council of the local commune had placed at our disposal a beautiful large, light, purpose-built exhibition room in the municipal centre called Salle Araucaria, named after the tree outside.

For Camphill Perceval this was a major event, greatly expanding the community’s vision of its own place as an integral part of the worldwide Camphill Movement.

It was also the occasion for many wonderful personal reunions and new encounters.

We had good publicity and an excellent illustrated article in the main Lake Geneva area newspaper ‘La Côte’, which helped to spread awareness of the exhibition and the work of Camphill.

Many visitors came from far and wide, from the whole surrounding area, from German Switzerland, Ticino (Italian), from southern Germany and southern and even northern France. One special guest was Brigitte Köber, the first weaver in Camphill, who established the craft along with Elsbeth Groth in Cairnlee c. 1950 and whose picture and story appear in the exhibition.

She now lives in retirement near Bern.

Brigitte Köber (left) and friends

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Many Camphill residents and co-workers came through the exhibition during its stay and it became quite a lively social centre, attracting lots of people just to spend time together in the presence of the beautiful and inspiring exhibits, and to deepen their appreciation of what was actually on view.

As in all venues since the beginning of the exhibition tour, visitors experienced that it could sometimes take two, three or more visits for them to feel they had really taken it all in. This was shared by members of the public from all walks of life in the Lake Geneva area who came to the exhibition in large numbers. The director of a prestigious art gallery in Lausanne expressed enormous appreciation for the quality of the exhibition.

An English visitor who lives near Geneva recognised the daughter of friends in one of the photos, a weaver who had participated in the creation of one of the English exhibits.

With such anecdotes our planet becomes smaller, the links between countries stronger and above all the connections between people more real and authentic.

Concerts were organised on all four of the Sundays during the exhibition, including musicians from Perceval and also professionals who offered their gifts.

French folk music and the exhibits excited lively conversations

In the second week a surprise occurrence affected us deeply. Thérèse Burg, Perceval’s music therapist, died suddenly just three days before the concert she was due to give with her partner Michael Binder. The end of the exhibition was marked by a glorious impromptu performance of folk-music by musicians from Perceval and Camphill Le Béal in the French region of Rhône-Alpes.

The exhibition displayed incredible creativity and a marvellous range and diversity of colours, materials and techniques.

Many visitors were touched by the love and joy which radiated straight to the heart from the photos and exhibits. The exhibition evoked in many visitors a feeling of amazement at the quality of the works on show. They could experience that the pieces themselves and the accompanying texts and photographs shone a light on the essential humanity of the creators, amongst whom the valuing of each individual person is paramount, and where disability becomes a secondary or even irrelevant issue.

It was an intense and enlivening experience from beginning to end; four weeks of celebration, of festival, of personal encounters, an all-embracing healing immersion in the Camphill Movement!

A warm and living tapestry of human relationships on a global scale - this was the vision with which the enormous project was launched and this was the strong impression left behind in St-Prex when the exhibition moved on. It was enormous in terms of the soul-forces and qualities invested in it, by Peter as the director of the project, inspired and accompanied by the Being of Camphill which has worked with him and with us, and fully supported by Camphill Foundation UK & Ireland through which the whole project came about.

In St-Prex the exhibition was also sponsored by the Council of ‘Fondation Perceval’ and the Camphill Association in Switzerland. Enormous enthusiasm and commitment also came from all the teams of helpers in all the different venues, and the helpful staff in those places, and each individual textile artist who left a little bit of him or herself in the exhibits.

Hundreds of hands joined together in weaving these interlocking threads between so many people - it’s tremendous!

I am happy to add that six of the pieces were purchased during the exhibition’s time in Switzerland and will find new homes here, four of them in St-Prex.

Felix has been in Camphill for 50 years - he loved the pieces from Cairnlee

Autumn / Winter 2016

WORLD WIDE WEAVE IN CANADA “Destiny being their guide they builded better than they knew”, remarked Canada’s first Prime Minister, John A. MacDonald, of the Canadian Constitution, newly minted in 1867.

A family experience

It is a phrase that neatly applies to the coming into being and ever expanding mandate of Camphill Communities Ontario.

Founders Chuck and Diane Kyd fully embody the vision of community to which they have dedicated their lives over three decades.

Their pioneering enterprise has spawned rural and urban initiatives now maintained by a small army of co-workers and volunteers, all directly or indirectly inspired by the Kyds and the context of possibility that attends them.

An ever evolving Camphill Ontario ethos carries forward time honoured traditions that ensure grace and ground for whatever is seeking to come forth from the future.

Blessings accrue in the form of coincidence and serendipity to accommodate eventualities that sometimes arise at short notice and require the work of many hands.

A confluence of elements, past, present and future, opened the way for the World Wide Weave exhibition held in Barrie from 6th 24th April of this year. An event carried from venue to venue, in country after country, by the surprise of its own unfolding, the value of this exhibition cannot be overestimated in the lives of all who encounter it.

Collier Street United Church and exhibition entrance in the snow and -10C

www.camphill.org.uk

I happened to be in Ireland in November 2015 when this awe-inspiring exhibition was opened by its curator, Peter Bateson, in Dublin’s Civic Buildings. I had a chance to talk to him about the history and purpose of a project to which he was passionately committed and which set him on a demanding course of travel by land and sea and sky.

Luckily for the Camphill Foundation he has the keen sense of the fitness of things that befits a good ambassador, to add to his skill in devising, organizing and keeping patient pace with the vagaries that attend the best laid plans of prospective hosts in several countries. The Bateson reports from every leg of the journey provide a connecting link for all the people who have been touched in passing or in their direct involvement with the exhibition itself.

Peter’s readiness to go beyond the call of duty is a capacity common among the Camphill co-workers I know and love, never more obvious to me than in the period leading up to the WW Weave opening in Barrie. The Kyds, assisted

by Elizabeth Campbell and other close associates had already expended great effort in opening a Camphill Store a couple months before in the downtown store that required their daily attention.

The exhibition filled all parts of the building

All hands were meanwhile on deck in the nearby MacLaren Art Gallery where the fourth annual Camphill Community Action Award gala dinner was to take place on 4th April when 150 participants would pay tribute to a distinguished Canadian craftsman Donald Stewart. Peter was already at work across the road hanging the exhibition with the help of the MacLaren’s versatile exhibition installer Andre Beneteau in the Collier Street United Church.

This cluster of Camphill events and the media attention generated resulted in a good turnout for the WW Weave that grew by word of mouth into a paean of praise for the rich vein of creativity evident in the tapestries, expressed in comments written in our guest book and in the faces and glowing remarks of the people who purchased catalogues. These artistic fruits of Camphill life remain a wellspring of inspiration, born of a conversation between souls and rendered in natural materials and striking colours that celebrate the enduring rhythms of everyday life and the work of human hands.

Every darkness seeks its opposite.

The redemptive qualities inherent in the Camphill co-working tradition left viewers of the exhibition breathless in a part of the soul where they had not been touched before. Reflecting now as I write gives me a sense of the larger picture that is ever in a process of becoming through the balancing of opposite forces in which every human being is engaged. The WW Weave presents a momentous collective striving in this regard.

Treasa O’Driscoll, Dublin, Ireland and Barrie, Ontario

Whether we consciously realize it or not, we are as human beings today always seeking antidotes to ever encroaching images of depravity and despair.

The happy Canadian buyer of The Lantern exhibit

The Ontario exhibit makes a beautiful piano cover

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ASSOCIATION MATTERS VISITING CAMPHILL ABROAD I represented the 4 Camphill Africa Region (CAR) Communities at the AGM of the Association of Camphill Communities UK and Ireland (AoCC) in Milton Keynes in early June 2016.

I visited a few Camphill Communities whilst in the UK. Simon Becket was my guide in Newton Dee, a Community of about 200 people; 86 being adults with special needs. They specialise in biodynamic farming, selling their organic and biodynamic produce, i.e. milk, fruit, vegetables and freshly baked goodies in the Newton Dee Store. It was wonderful to see how the residents each play a part in producing an item when visiting the metal and wood workshops where jewellery and toys are for sale in their gift shop.

Thank you for this experience.

Laurence Alfred

Blair Drummond Community

Loch Arthur Shop

Aberdeen School‘s Curriculum is sometimes used as a holistic (curative) guideline in the implementation of the SA National Curriculum by our School.

The castle not being “fit for purpose” as home for people with special needs, new houses were custom designed and built to meet their needs and recommendation made by residents. This community has recently undergone many changes, but is committed to work together for the future that they want.

The next day I left for Milton Keynes to attend the AGM. Milton Keynes Shop sells their crafts and organic produce; the Café serves lovely meals and the Chrysalis Theatre which is a multi-functional venue that can host any type of production.

This is a vibrant community.

Camphill got its name from the original “Camphill House” where the Community and Movement started. Entering the unaltered library of Karl König I could feel the energy of those who have gone before.

Their determination and devotion then, serve as inspiration in our work today.

Laurence Alfred, Executive Director, took me to Cairnlee House, a community for young people aged between 16 I visited Aberdeen School next. Alex Busch, and 25, as well as to “Simeon Care for the Elderly”. I saw the care home’s living Deputy Executive Director, was my guide of the school and Murtle Estate. They offer quarters; designed and built to be “fit for purpose”. many services such as residential and day placement, work experience, respite care Use the link to read the history of and a vast array of workshops.

Camphill Aberdeen. www.camphillschool.org.uk/about-us/history

Camphill House

Next stop Blair Drummond Community near Stirling. Jason Glass, Director of Operations, was my tour guide.

Blair Drummond‘s admin building is situated in a castle. High ceilings and ornate fire places hint at the opulence once present here.

My last Scottish Community was Loch Arthur in Dumfries; a beautiful vast estate and Loch! Loch Arthur Shop and Café sell all their workshop produce and treats from the Farm shop kitchen. Dave Mitchell, AoCC Chair who has visited SA, and I did a presentation about the African Communities that night which was well received.

Camphill Scotland is alive and thriving, working alongside their Government, making a difference. Thank you to all my Scottish host Communities for welcoming me.

My CAR presentation thanking the AoCC, showing how their contributions have impacted the lives of our residents and learners, was well received. The AoCC agreed to support the Camphill Africa Region for a further 3 year cycle, should the funds be available.

Thank you to the AoCC Chairman Dave Mitchell, Tim Davies for your assistance and to all the AoCC co-ordinators who helped to organise my trip. It was a pleasure and honour to represent CAR. Jeanne-Marié Botha

Mourne Grange in Northern Ireland has supported our Kindergarten for many years and I was invited to make a presentation there. I managed to visit some of their lovely workshops and had a great experience.

THE NEED FOR COMMUNITY:

A STUDY OF HOUSING FOR ADULTS WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES Influential think-tank the Centre for Social Justice has recently published a report on different types of accommodation for adults with learning disabilities, featuring contributions from Camphill Newton Dee Community (see pages 10 - 11), L’Arche UK and Choice Support.

The report concludes that there exists a “commissioning preference” which artificially favours supported living over residential care, that funding pressures are putting settings which offer a “unique opportunity for community” at risk and that this is limiting choices for people with learning disabilities and thus the impact of the personalisation agenda as a whole.

12

Autumn / Winter 2016

COMMUNITY? WHY? Former Camphill co-workers meet in Stroud 1st - 4th April 2016.

Following a Stroud get together last autumn of some former Delrow guest volunteers and long-term co-workers, the idea emerged to offer something similar to other ex-co-workers. They would then have the chance to reflect on and process the events and experiences of their time in Delrow and in Camphill.

We had no particular wish to dwell on the past or to focus on Delrow. We hoped to find a way to move forward together.

We hoped that people who had dipped into the world of Camphill would have the chance to look together at their past experiences, present circumstances and expectations for the future. What theme would allow us to explore new things and yet stay connected to our Camphill experiences? What had been appreciated and learnt? How does this reflect in our present circumstances?

Part of the background of the conference was that, when most of the carrying co-workers left Delrow in a short space of time, the remaining guest volunteers found themselves in situations which they were not trained for, and no longer with the support of their previous mentors, the house co-ordinators.

In a very short space of time, everyone had experienced the huge change from group-led community management to working under a managerial hierarchy.

Most still experienced a sense of loss connected to this.

Through eurythmy we explored spirals www.camphill.org.uk

Community? Why? - This universal question emerged as our theme and the centre of our conference. We wanted to find some answers.

Five former co-workers made it to Stroud: two travelling from Germany, one from London, one from Switzerland, and one from Bristol, making a group of seven.

We met and stayed in Elisabeth and Chas’ house. Some local former long-term co-workers (two were once in Botton Village) joined us for some of our sessions. So we were a colourful group of different ages and experiences. And even though many of the invitees weren’t able to come, they sent us good wishes and their thoughts about the topic. This added a big contribution. The four days were filled with earnest discussions, artistic activities, casual spirit, joy, laughter and delicious food.

When did community have its moments of glory in the past? We learnt how Amos Comenius, Count Zinzendorf and Robert Owen, Karl König’s Three Stars of Camphill, brought their contributions to the world in the realm of love, brotherhood, bond, connection, belonging, encounters, rights and equality. They set a milestone for community.

Through eurythmy we explored the forms of spirals which reflected the way our lives in community move.

People expressed the following: • Being creative together creates a connection between us • Supporting and giving is a great aspect of community • One of our experiences was to see the beauty and energy of initiative • One’s own wellbeing and state of feeling can be dependent on the state of the community • We were filled with deep appreciation for the chance we had to be part of Camphill communities • The urge to create community has never left us • Appreciation was expressed for the welcoming and inclusive attitude in Camphill prior to management change

We decided to keep in touch with the help of a shared blog despite being far apart.

Seasonal poems, thoughts and photos have already appeared. This will perhaps keep a flame going to lead to our hoped-for 2017 follow-up meeting. The theme would be one we turned to often over the weekend: Truth.

We were encouraged and grateful to receive financial backing from Freunde der Erziehungskunst Rudolf Steiners e.V. (through whom most of the German co-workers came to Delrow), as well as Camphill Foundation and The Camphill Family Trust. These generous gestures just about enabled us to cover our costs.

Elena Lo Bello (Cherry Orchards Community, Bristol - former Delrow guest volunteer) and Elisabeth Bamford (former Delrow co-worker)

• We created community by smoothing differences without taking away people’s individuality • Camphill communities were a shelter and a refuge for everyone We looked at Rudolf Steiner’s lecture Truth, Beauty and Goodness and saw how these essential ideals underpin Camphill.

The spring weather was warm and bright enabling us to go on a long walk exploring the beautiful Cotswold countryside on our doorstep.

How do our Camphill experiences influence Something very important seems to our present life? What did we learn? have begun which we would love to Where and how do we still carry its magic? continue, perhaps with more people next time. Those present resolved to stay in contact and meet again in a year to take this work further.

Meaningful and heartfelt conversations

Where community had its moments of glory in the past

Joy, laughter and delicious food 13

FAMILIES & FRIENDS CFF REPORT OF BIRMINGHAM MEETING We held a very lively and constructive meeting in Birmingham on 23rd April.

Several very concerned members raised the important matter of residents having to pay for workshops themselves because Gloucestershire has significantly cut the packages to many of the people being supported.

The AGM took place at the National Council for Voluntary Organisations Centre at 8 All Saints Street, London N1 9RL on Saturday 1st October.

The subject was “What does Wellbeing Mean to your Camphill Family Member?”

Jacquie explained how residents are assessed and funded for day activities, which varies considerably between authorities.

There followed a general discussion on the matter of workshops, from which the following major points arose: • It was recognised that workshops are essential to all Camphill trustees as well as to beneficiaries, creating a wonderful array of resources and being a crucial aspect of Camphill.

It was emphasised that day placements need to be made popular and available to the wider community of people with learning disabilities. John Sargent thought that many authorities are only interested in keeping people safe with little interest in supporting them to engage in meaningful activities and/or work and need to be made more aware of the importance of workshops particularly to peoples’ self-esteem, physical and mental health.

At CFF’s AGM there continued to be great concern about funding cuts, especially regarding workshops.

Members also heard two very interesting talks.

John Sargent

The preparation group is interested in hearing from anyone who wishes to lead a themed workshop and take part in the panel presentations and the discussion groups that follow. We would particularly like to hear from anyone with an interest in the following “An aging population - what now?”, “A generation of change - succession in planning and practice”, “Anthroposophy for dummies”, “Upholding the image of Man Protecting the Camphill Brand”.

14

Tim Woodward

• Several parents and siblings stressed the special importance of Camphill workshops and other day activities in giving our relatives the opportunity to contribute and to gain a sense of confidence and commitment to the community.

•S everal families and Jacquie stressed that families need to be closely involved in the assessment and care plan process as pressure can be brought to bear on local authorities at this point. Many families are not encouraged by communities to be involved in this process but they really need to stress the importance of their role Families also made the point about the in this. It was stated that it takes some negative psychological and physical effects courage to challenge the local authority of closing off workshops to residents. in any way but it is essential to do so.

Tim Woodward stated that the closure of workshops would be a big risk to people’s lives.

• Several families highlighted the inability of their relatives to pay for their own day activities and they would have to choose between workshops and holidays or even more basic needs.

DIALOGUE 2017 Booking for Dialogue 2017 is now open, as there will be limited places we suggest that you book early and get an early bird discount.

AGM AND OPEN MEETING

Families have key knowledge and sometimes unrecorded history of the needs of their relative so can thus work in concert with the community during reviews and assessments.

Dr Marcus van Dam spoke about his research showing the health and other benefits of Camphill community living, particularly purposeful work, shared meals, festivals and celebrations, and a rhythm to the day and the year: the “social determinants of health”, applicable to us all.

Miriam Snellgrove spoke about the problem of defining Camphill now that there is so much diversity within the Camphill movement. In small groups members identified some of the factors that bring wellbeing to our relatives: feeling valued, being heard and respected by people who know and understand you, sharing of life and meals, feeing that what you do matters to others, feeling safe.

The International Conference for Board Members, Trustees, Co-Workers and Friends 24th to 27th May 2017, Aberdeen, Scotland Hosted by Camphill in Scotland

The programme will follow the form of a panel presentation which will (hopefully) challenge participants and open up the next part of our day to discussion in smaller groups. We will then have lunch followed by themed workshops such as “Cultural ethics - cultural transmission and ethos”, or “Management and Governance: Theory U” where participants can be further challenged to develop their knowledge in relation to governance and community. The creative and Community building will be focused on activities such as tree planting.

Undoubtedly singing, sociable meals and plenty of tea and coffee will also play there part in bringing together individuals from around the world.

Booking information Please visit www.camphilldialogue.org for the conference and accommodation booking form.

Please send your thoughts about these questions to Alan Brown at alanbrown@newtondee.org.uk or Tom Marx at tom@camphilltac.org.uk

Some questions to consider to aid our preparation:

1. Are Camphill Communities currently meeting the relevant needs of their locality/region?

2. Are there other challenges that people in your locality believe that Camphill could perhaps meet in its present local guise?

3. Are there unmet local needs/challenges that people/authorities in your locality believe that Camphill could make a If you would like to contribute please contact meaningful contribution?

Tom Marx at tom@camphilltac.org.uk

Autumn / Winter 2016

DIVERSITY IN CAMPHILL COMMUNITIES An Association of Camphill Communities Coordinator Writes...

To some, the word “diversity” is a dirty word. For them it means embracing all differences, it’s too broad, it waters down the essence of what makes us different and special in a world where striving for sameness appears sometimes to be society’s goal.

Member communities and the Association itself have faced significant change during this time, legal and professional expectations have changed how we organise and plan our work and even how we view what we do, but these changes haven’t universally changed community itself. For many it’s been a struggle for It plays down our heritage, it dilutes our survival however that struggle forces us to founding principles - it removes meaning consider what is important and to make from our work. I am not talking about racial conscious decisions to protect those ideals diversity or cultural diversity or any of that remain at our heart. the other “protected characteristics” that our legislation quite justly defends, these Whether you are a resident or villager, are all alive and well in Camphill settings student, family member, co-worker, across the UK and Ireland. We face the employee, trustee or volunteer you will same daily challenges as every member generally recognise there is something of society in upholding these particular quite special about a Camphill setting. principles but a movement that was For some it’s a tangible sense of ownership founded on recognising the unique human that people express about their work and capacities within everyone should do well life quite regardless of whether the person in accepting and indeed welcoming human is in receipt of support or providing it. differences - and indeed we do.

For others it’s a sense of vocation in the way that those tasked with providing The diversity I refer to is the different ways support engage - employee or volunteer that we organise and run our Camphill our people care passionately about what settings and activities across the UK they do and on the whole do it by active and Ireland. The ways that we view our choice in support of their setting. communities and the people within them, It can also be seen as a sense of spirituality the activities that we carry out on behalf of and a drive to recognise the humanity in community, how we are remunerated and each of us regardless of or even despite our most importantly in my view how we work physical bodies and the challenges we may alongside the people that we support. experience. For all Camphill settings today there remains however a strong sense of In short our “Camphillness…”.

Community - a common purpose, a sharing of life and work together that is expressed I have been fortunate enough as an AoCC through our work, our festivals, gatherings, coordinator to have had the opportunity working together creating and re-creating to visit and work with many of our community itself. member communities across England & Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the I am not suggesting this simplistic account Republic of Ireland for the last three or is now how we define Camphill. It’s up four years. It’s been an amazing journey to each setting to define for themselves for me personally and I have felt privileged how they meet the founding principles to meet and work with so many different of the Camphill Movement. What I do people in so many different settings. say as an individual still relatively new to the Camphill Family, with 20 or so years Communities vary hugely in character, size of previous experience in other national and location, some very rural and others charities, health and social services more urban. I had preconceptions that settings is that Camphill remains special those run in a certain way might somehow and has simply not been subsumed by the be “more Camphill” than others and was expectations of sameness that the social keen to understand this, but within our care community might seem to require. membership that has simply proved not to It has developed new forms and will be the case. Each setting is unique and far continue to evolve to meet the changing from diluting the Camphill Ethos in some needs that the world presents. way each setting finds its own strength within Camphill Values and Principles So; diversity in Camphill is not in my view and can tell a story of growth and learning a dirty word at all, it’s how communities to meet the needs of today within their individually and collectively carry the own environment whilst holding valiantly flame of Camphill. It’s part of our fight for on to their individual expression of their survival in a changing world, something Camphill identity. to celebrate and share and something that will help us to keep the Camphill impulse Tim Davies, Camphill Milton Keynes alive for the future.

www.camphill.org.uk

CHRISTOF KÖNIG 8TH FEBRUARY 1933 - 13TH SEPTEMBER 2016 Christof was born in Pilgrimshain, Silesia, the second of four children of Dr Karl and Tilla König. Karl was the medical superintendent of a children’s home in what was the early days of the Nazi regime in Germany.

In 1936 the family moved to Vienna where Karl built up a large busy practice.

After the Anschluss of Austria in 1938, Karl left for Switzerland that August and in March 1939 the family joined him in Scotland. There he had permission to work and with a small group of colleagues in a house near Aberdeen where they founded what became the Camphill Movement.

Christof was schooled at Camphill and at Steiner schools in Edinburgh and at Michael Hall in Sussex. After WWII he served in the military as a medic and was stationed in Northern Ireland, before training as a farmer. He worked the farm at the Grange community in Gloucestershire where he and Annemarie married. They then spent two years managing a farm in what was Rhodesia.

This was not an easy time, after which they came to Glencraig near Belfast as house-parents, with Christof running the farm. He was famously rescued from the Jersey bull by Henry Byrne bringing the cows just in time.

In autumn 1971 they moved with a small group to found the new Village community at Mourne Grange, near Kilkeel in the Mourne mountains.

The property had been a private preparatory school. Christof set about transforming this and integrating it into the local community. His success in these ventures can be seen in the greatly changed landscape, the fertility of the farm and orchards, the many fine houses, workshops and community hall.

A special love of his was the Village shop and café. It could also be seen in the warm regard of the people in the community and in the great number of Irish friends attending the funeral.

Christof was a natural leader with focus and self-discipline. He did expect much of others, but even more of himself, which included his regular practice of picking up litter from the byways near Mourne Grange. He was fatherly especially to the villagers and younger coworkers. His speech was warm and he could say: ‘But it is serious!’ with warmth and a slight twinkle which got you to listen. The König’s home and marriage was a radiating haven for others in the village and for old friends returning to visit. Jim Iveson wrote that when Christof and Annemarie were leaving to live in England for some years, he was asked would he continue Christof’s evening practice of ‘walking in thought’ through each house in the village and thinking of everyone living there, and through the workshops, hall, chapel and farm to see that all was well for the night.

Christof was active in building up the work of Camphill in all of Ireland and beyond, travelling long distances to support other communities. On his last trip to the Republic for a regional Community meeting last Holy Nights, he and Susanne Elsholz sat by the Christmas tree and shared many memories of building up Camphill in Ireland.

For many years Christof bravely bore ill health with arthritis, which required medication. In 2014 he suffered a stroke and was near to leaving us. After recovering, he became a figure of warm blessing, of positivity and of faithfulness. He was surrounded by his family and his community in his last days.

Doris and Alan Potter

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NEXT TIME IN PAGES...

Spring - Summer 2017

PAGES IS CHANGING! We are going to have more themed editions of Pages from the 2017 Spring Issue we will still have news as well but each issue will be devoted to a theme picked by The Association of Camphill Communities Coordinators Team from topical issues affecting Camphill.

THANK YOU!

To Tom Marx our Scottish rep for putting together the supplement ‘Camphill Goes to Parliament’ To Nic Booth who is on Maternity Leave and who has been putting together Pages at Cactus Creative in Kendal for the past 2 years. We wish her well.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

PISHWANTON PROJECT

On Monday 20th June, we left Newton Dee for Aberdeen Airport, for our trip to Poland.

At the Spring Equinox 2017 our Pishwanton Project will be 21 years old.

We flew with Lufthansa, a German airline, to Frankfurt and then on to Poland.

We arrived around midnight. We were very tired and glad to see Dominica, who took us to her house where we slept like babies.

It is time it stood on its own feet and it is our We are in conversations with the Biodynamic aim to reach a financial sustainability with a Land Trust and hope, eventually, with their help, to raise finances to put Pishwanton new team of carrying people by this time. into a Land Holding Body for perpetuity.

We will also receive a visit from the Software Our recent Midsummer Festival of Poetry, AG Stiftung in September/October.

Music and Song gave an up-beat musical and poetic message from the Craft We have identified seven key personnel Workshop with a full quota of seats occupied and lovely evening light. roles and are actively seeking people to fill them and the funding to finance them.

Thanks to so many of you we have survived Please help us over this trying period with an interest-free loan or gift. thus far and, as a result of our Midwinter Appeal, we’ve even been given funding Thank you. recently to complete the first double Margaret Colquhoun chalet/student cabin. for The Life Science Trust However, we are in a very difficult situation Cheques can be made payable to: now. Since we lost one of our main care The Life Science Trust, and sent to: clients last summer the project has been Quince Cottage, 4, Baxtersyke, struggling financially. So last winter we decided to sell Greenbank Cottage in Gifford. Gifford, EH41 4PL This well situated cottage has been on the Or by Bank Transfer to: market since March and we have lowered Sort Code 80-08-23 the price to a fixed £190,000. But until it Ac. No. 00559417 sells we have no manoeuvrable cash.

BIC: BOFSGB21070 IBAN: GB08 BOFS 80082300 559417 This appeal is for all of you who have benefited from the Project and our courses in the past and would like to see it move into Online at www.justgiving.com charity fundraising website a new sustainable future.

We went on lots of excursions the first week - the Polish market, shopping in the supermarket, a Viennese café. We ate out for lunch and supper almost everyday.

We went on lots of day trips, but had rest days in-between.

Dominica took us to visit the local Camphill community where she gave us a tour. It is very small compared to Newton Dee, but nice. It is in the forest surrounded by lots of trees.

During the second week we visited a Polish spa, had lots of meals out, went shopping at nightin Wroclaw and went across the border into the Czech Republic, had ice creams, got our nails painted, and went sightseeing. I loved to see all the interesting things in Poland. I bought lots of presents to bring back.

We hope to show our slides and tell about our holiday at the next Newton Dee meeting.

Dominica’s family were so nice and accommodating - Lou, Alexandra, Rudolf, Ola, Victoria - and we had a wonderful time.

Emma Millar

The thing I liked the most about the first week was how everyone in the villages spoke English, so we could communicate to them easily.

On 24th June, we celebrated St. John’s Day in Poland. We all sat in chairs on the lawn having a barbecue and singing St. John songs. The weather was very hot, thank goodness. I even got sunburnt!

CAMPHILL PAGES EDITORIAL GROUP REPRESENTATIVES:

PUBLISHED BY:

Michael Hilary (Southern Ireland), Colm Greene (Northern Ireland), Tom Marx (Scotland), Steven Hopewell, Tim Davies (England and Wales) and Vivian Griffiths (Pages Editorial Coordinator)

The Association of Camphill Communities UK and Ireland.

Pages is published twice a year in September and March.

Contact and contributions are very welcome and should come through to viviangriffiths@talktalk.net

CAMPHILL PAGES

Contact Us: Camphill Pages Editorial Board, Wood View, 2 Pull Woods Cottages, Pull Woods, Ambleside, Cumbria, LA22 0HZ. Tel: 015394 22723 Email: viviangriffiths@talktalk.net Designed by Cactus Creative www.cactuscreative.com. Copyright©AoCC, and Contributors 2016.

Pages is the newsletter of the Association of Camphill Communities UK and Ireland www.camphill.org.uk

PLUS AUTUMN/WINTER

SUPPLEMENT

On two days in September, one year ago, Camphill featured in the life of both the Westminster and Scottish Parliaments, first to take part in a presentation to MPs; the following day Community members from across Scotland where invited to the opening of the World Wide Weave exhibition at the Scottish Parliament.

Some of the delegates under Big Ben

CAMPHILL GOES TO PARLIAMENT

Camphill featured in the life of both the Westminster and Scottish Parliaments

Organising events such as those at Westminster and Holyrood requires lots of hard work behind the scenes.

Many hours were spent by parent supporters, Simon Duffy and members of the Alliance for Camphill drawing together the speakers and presentations for the Westminster event.

While hundreds of emails and phone calls were made to make MPs, Lords and their staff aware of the event and to invite them along. Meanwhile at Holyrood invitations were sent out and the World Wide Weave exhibition was installed.

To all those individuals who helped and supported these two fantastic events a big thank you for all that you did!

Tom Marx

CAMPHILL AT WESTMINSTER

The Committee Chamber were we met at Westminster

On 15th September, a group of people from Camphill Communities across the UK took part in giving a series of presentations by Shared Lives Plus, L’Arche and Camphill.

This was done with the title “Choice for Intentional Community” and took place in one of the Committee rooms at the Palace of Westminster.

Sitting and listening to the presentations that day were MPs, Members of the house of lords, parliamentary researchers, journalists, members of a number of advocacy groups interested in community and family, friends and supporters of Camphill.

The event had been arranged by the newly formed Alliance for Camphill and was chaired by Dr Simon Duffy.

Speakers ranged from Anthony Kramers and Richard Keagan-Bull who spoke very eloquently about what it was like to live in a L’Arche community, to James Skinner, Lucy Riis- Johannessen, Frank Walters who spoke about what they valued about their lives in Camphill and at Botton Community.

Other contributors included Dr Stuart Cumella and Dr Marcus Van Dam who spoke about the evidence of positive benefits of meaningful Communities built on real shared living. The place and role of regulation was addressed by Richard Davis who was keen to stress the importance of allowing individuals the right to lead the life that they felt was valuable.

The various presentations brought together the idea that shared living communities including Communties like Camphill are not places that everyone wants to live in.

But that for many others they are places to be called home and that such Communites should be enabled to continue and to flourish.

There are clear benefits that living in Community can bring including physical, emotional and psychological well being.

As well as a better, more efficient use of resources and the ability to create safe spaces.

If you want to find out more about the day you can visit the Choice for Intentional Community page on the Camphill research networks website here: www.camphillresearch.com/ choice-for-intentional-community/

Murray-Jones who relayed the story of her son.

This year some of the presentation material helped to inform submissions from various groups and individuals to the Communities and Local Government select committee hearing on adult social care.

of shared living or intentional communities. Put simply, like it or not we did not believe there was a realistic prospect of any kind of life for David away from the two of us.”

“We sensed we might be in trouble with David when at age sixteen, after seeing his sister leave home for university, he asked when would it be his turn to leave home. We explained to David that university wasn’t for Perhaps one of the most important and immediate affects everyone. In response to which David stated flatly, “I don’t of the day was that it not only want to be stuck at home with helped to raise the profile of Camphill and of the very positive you two”, meaning his father reasons for living in Camphill but and me. it also laid the path to the CSJ We were at a loss to know how including the Camphill model to respond to David’s ongoing in it’s report on the importance requests for a life like his sister’s. of Community in social care.

At that point we hadn’t heard

Finally the presentation material is a very useful resource when communicating with funders a nd your local MP as it clearly illustrates and evidences the value of Community.

Perhaps the last word should go to Sally

David found a home in a shared living Community which has provided continuity, stability, ongoing friendships and the opportunity to participate in family life and meaningful work.

Tom Marx

Page Plus Autumn / Winter 2016

THE NEED FOR COMMUNITY In June 2016 a report was published by the Centre for Social Justice. “The Need for Community” focused on the need to ensure that individuals requiring additional support were not left isolated but were included into communities in a meaningful way.

Newton Dee was used as a case study to illustrate the Camphill model. The report noted that: Newton Dee offers many lessons for care provided in a communal setting. It demonstrates that: • Strong community does not necessitate an inward-looking community; • Strong community makes an outward-looking community possible.

It isn’t always clear why it is important to take part in an event such as the “Choice for Intentional Community” event at Westminster. Nor why it can be helpful to share with researchers and academics what Camphill is. But the CSJ report and the events at Westminster and Holyrood have helped us to focus on what we are and why we are a meaningful part of the wider community and to share this with the world.

This was highlighted by the recent motion at the Scotish Parliament after Tiphereth’s MP had visited.

The motion reads:

“That the Parliament pays tribute to the charity, Tiphereth, This is made possible by which runs the Camphill empowering each individual by: community in Edinburgh Pentlands; recognises the • Breaking down the standard valuable work that is done there relationship of carer and to support people with a learning cared for; disability or other support • Showing that each person needs through residential and has something to give to the day services, including an art community, and giving each and design group, woodwork, person responsibility; basketry, environmental work • Supporting each person in their and a gardening group; notes ability to contribute, involving the emotional value that living, a responsible level of risk; learning and working in such a community has for people with • Locating community services a learning disability or other alongside care services; support needs, and wishes the • Locating residential care staff and volunteers all the within a wider community. very best in the coming years The benefit of the community in continuing to support some and the individual can be of the most vulnerable people mutually reinforcing. in society.”

Therefore, residential care as a Motion S5M-01558: Gordon model is by no means rigid and Lindhurst, Lothian, Scottish unchanging - indeed as Newton Conservative and Unionist Party, Dee has shown, residential Date Lodged: 19/09/2016 care can be flexible and unique dependent upon user preference Tom Marx and care needs.”

To read the full report, visit: www.centreforsocialjustice.org. uk/publications

CAMPHILL AT HOLYROOD

Guests enjoy the weavings.

Deputy First Minister takes a Proud weavers, and Peter Bateson selfie with friends from Corbenic. from the Camphill Foundation.

Last September, the Camphill Foundation invited Camphill in Scotland to be part of their World Wide Weave exhibition when it took to the Scottish Parliament.

The exhibition was situated right next to the entrance to the parliament’s debating chamber, which meant that nearly every Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) saw the exhibition.

We had space to display six of the weavings from Scottish communities, and their bright eye catching designs attracted a lot of attention; over the five days that we were there, we spoke to nearly a third of all MSPs, including the First Minster and Deputy First Minster.

Camphill Scotland organised a reception on behalf of the Scottish Communities in the parliament for that week, when people from the Scottish communities, MSPs and other invited guests got together to celebrate Camphill’s 75th birthday.

Thanks to the hard work of communities, who

www.camphill.org.uk

contacted their local MSPs and invited them to come along, we had a really fantastic turnout of 14 MSPs (parliament staff commented that this was an exceptional turnout), many of whom stayed for a couple of hours chatting to people from the communities.

Deputy First Minister John Swinney even posted a selfie of himself on Twitter with his friends from Corbenic.

In May of this year, following the elections to the Scottish Parliament, we contacted all MSPs who have a constituency or committee link with Camphill, and invited them to visit. We received several warm replies, including from the Deputy First Minister and two government Ministers. We are delighted that following this contact we have set up visits for 10 MSPs to the communities they represent.

This includes a visit by the Minister for Early Years to Camphill School Aberdeen.

Kirsten Hogg

SOCIAL PEDAGOGY Social Pedagogy may be well known to some readers. To those who have not yet come across the term, the seven key features of social pedagogy will certainly be familiar: valuing relationships; valuing equality; valuing the self as practitioner and person; valuing good communication; valuing teams and communities; valuing the everyday; and valuing practical skills.

The synergies between social pedagogy and the Camphill approach are marked, and social pedagogy is practiced, both consciously and unknowingly, across the Camphill movement.

While social pedagogy is wellestablished in mainland Europe, in the UK the approach is still in its infancy, and has been used mainly in working with children.

CAMPHILL PAGES PLUS

In 2013, through Camphill Scotland funding was secured from the Scottish Government to run a pilot into the use of social pedagogy with adults with learning disabilities, with 15 participants from two of the Scottish communities (Blair Drummond and Tiphereth) taking part in intensive social pedagogy training.

The pilot project is an important piece of evidence in the development of social pedagogy in the UK, widening the possibilities for its use from childcare into adult care.

It was also a great chance for participants to deepen their understanding of relationship-based practice.

Those who took part in the training found it extremely valuable. The evaluation of the project (carried out by the University of Edinburgh) described the training as “trans-formative”, quoting participants who reported that it was “life changing”.

The impacts were many and varied, from an increased focus on reflective practice to improved relationships (with people with learning disabilities and with other colleagues).

Participants reported a clearer understanding of the potential for every interaction to help someone to learn and develop, and an increased appetite to take managed risks to support this growth.

You can find out more about the pilot by

Camphill in Scotland and Social Pedadgogy

watching our short film on Camphill Scotland’s YouTube channel www.youtube. com/watch?v=KVt_knOm520, and by downloading the evaluation report from Camphill Scotland’s website www.camphillscotland.org.uk/ camphill-scotland/our-work/ social-pedagogy/ Kirsten Hogg