Tread Magazine - Issue 2

A JOURNAL OF RURAL YOUTH

FOOD STORIES A focus on how food can bring communities together.

QUEERING RURAL SCOTLAND A special report on rural LGBTQ+ movements.

ULLAPOOL Why more people are choosing to stay.

T

The project is creative in how it works, using activities like Ideas Festivals, inter-generational learning journeys and dynamic leadership training that inspire young people to create businesses, social enterprises and to make a lasting difference to their communities. And, we seek and tell stories to share the voices of young people and gather examples of great approaches that support young rural people from all over the world.

ABOUT FUNDING The Rural Youth Project partners with organisations that are passionate about young people and supporting them in rural areas. Our partnerships are collaborative and crafted to engage audiences, communities and, most importantly, rural young people. In 2019 The Rural Youth Project was awarded funding from the LEADER Programme 2014-2020: The European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development: Europe investing in rural areas in August 2019. The cooperation grant is supported by five areas – Angus, Lanarkshire, Outer Hebrides, Rural Perth and Kinross and the Scottish Borders.

Financial and practical support for the project has also been received from Scottish Enterprise.

Our funders and supporting partners are listed below.

Supporters

Founding partners

@loomgraphics.work

he Rural Youth Project is an international grassroots movement for positive change. Its mission is to empower young people (18 to 28 years of age) to develop their leadership, enterprise & activism skills, to play an integral part in making rural places attractive and viable for young people to build their lives and their futures there. The project was founded in 2018 by Jane Craigie and Rebecca Dawes.

Magazine design and art direction by LOOM

ABOUT THE PROJECT

from the

S

I

n this edition of Tread, we turn our attention to community.

Through the lack of seemingly endless choice of humans to connect with, many of us developed a greater awareness of the wellbeing of our neighbours and the individuals in the different networks we all move within. Whilst many of us were forced to take a step back from work, it gave space to consider how we’d best like to contribute to our community and consider, is our community the best it could be?

We are at a great turning point in history, a time of crisis and opportunity.

Despite the fact that young people have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, often it has been young people leading the charge and seizing the opportunities to create change.

“We are at a great turning point in history, a time of crisis and opportunity. ”

At The Rural Youth Project, we have been continuously inspired by the smart, driven, progressive young people who – when listened to and supported – come together and bravely step forward to offer innovative ideas, skills and creativity to tackle some of the biggest challenges we face as a species. Unafraid of tackling challenging conversations around inclusivity, mental health and structural inequalities, we have noticed young people’s aptitude for fostering greater connections within communities by looking for what unites rather than divides.

For the team at The Rural Youth project, it has been a pleasure to gather together these stories. It has led us from Bristol to The Orkney Isles, from Ullapool to Lebanon and touched on numerous subjects including creating digital communities, improving LGBTQ+ visibility in rural places, re-imagining education, re-imagining global trade and reimagining our food systems. We are seeing numerous examples of collective action leading to radical change.

Our hope is that through these inspiring stories of young people and not so young, building communities and creating change, we can proceed armed with the knowledge that a different world is possible.

Using your imagination could help save the planet

4

Finding reasons to stay local 7 Community Toolkit The power of food to unite

11 12

Community nourishmentFood story and health 13 Make food, not war!

14

The town is the menu

15

Reviving food form a horse-box 16 Highland Good Food Partnership

17

Teign greens: Growing together

18

Growing a digital rural community through RYP Smart Village 19 Tracing the changing pattern of the Scottish Borders community 22 Queering rural Scotland

24

Community resolution to rural housing woes

27

Connecting communities

30

From social media to the summit

32

Contributors' Directory

34

m h o tr S ie ll E & ie ig a Jane Cr Cover image: Teign Greens

www.ruralyouthproject.com

3

Food stories

Over the past year or so, never perhaps has the presence of, or lack of community been more strongly felt. Many of us have looked upon our local communities with a new lense, perhaps realising our interconnectedness and inter-reliance where previously we hadn’t needed to.

CONTENTS

ISSUE 2

Tread

USING YOUR IMAGINATION COULD HELP SAVE THE PLANET WORDS ELLIE STROHM

E

arlier this year, the Rural Youth Project spoke to writer and environmental activist, Rob Hopkins who told us about his experiences as co-founder of the, now worldwide, Transition movement. He explained what he had learned through writing his latest book, From What Is to What If? which has been described as, “a call to action to reclaim and unleash our collective imagination”.

There is no avoiding it, we are living in a time of great challenge. We are facing an ecological and climate emergency; vast bio-diversity loss; food insecurity; a social justice calamity; continued racial, sexual, and gender-based discrimination; economic inequality; a housing crisis; and a pandemic that has gravely emphasised these issues. Tragically, it is young people – both urban and rural – who are bearing the heavy burden of these challenges.

At the Rural Youth Project, we have heard young people describe how overwhelmed they feel. Many talk of feeling numb, fearful for their futures, and unable to change their stories or that of their community.

In such a time of crisis ‘imagination’ may seem frivolous. The capacity to create, evolve, and conjure images and ideas for scenarios that do not yet exist, seems an unlikely result under such pressure. Indeed, Hopkins recognises that imagination is, tragically, often a privilege reserved for those who can already meet their most basic needs.

However, he argues that limitations, “offer our imagination a structure, a space in which to thrive”.

“One of the most beautiful things about imagination is that the more limits you put around it, the more imaginative you can be,” he continues.

We only have to look at responses to the covid lockdowns to see this in action. People were creative and communities came together to look after each other, people did not wait to be told to help or what to do, they came up with solutions themselves.

4

‘If we wait for governments, it will be too late. If we act as individuals, it will be too little.

But if we act as communities, it might just be enough, and it might just be in time.’

- Rob Hopkins Founder of the Transistion Movement

DEVELOPING OUR IMAGINATIONS

TRANSITION NETWORK

Rob is far from alone in his view that developing our imaginations is a crucial factor for us to be able to fully explore and create new opportunities and solutions to the challenges we face.

In its own words, the Transition Network is, ‘a movement of communities coming together to reimagine and rebuild our world’. It is about local communities joining forces to crowd source solutions to tackle the big challenges and taking action in their immediate environment that collectively, has a big impact.’ This movement has now spread to over 50 countries, through thousands of groups in towns, villages, cities, universities, and schools.

Science has shown that imagination stimulates brain function and activity. It literally expands the mind as it encourages connections between numerous areas of the brain. It allows us to explore beyond the constraints of our environment and our reality, into a world of dreams, where creativity and invention are at their strongest.

And he says that it is only “with welldeveloped imaginations that we have a chance of emerging positively from the mess we are in”. Indeed, we must ask, how can we get to the future we want to see – if we cannot first imagine it? As poet Rilke said, “The future must enter into you a long time before it happens.”

Rob Hopkins’s conviction is not born from a hopeful theory, but from the numerous examples he has come across on his journey with the Transition Network, and from the two years he spent researching and writing From What is to What if? where he visited hundreds of projects and communities around the world that are making imaginative change happen for themselves.

It all began with Rob and some friends in their local pub in his hometown, Totnes. Originally just an experiment, it was their response to questions such as: ‘What if the change we need to see in response to the biggest challenges of our time came not from governments and business but from you and me; from communities working together? What if the answers were not to be found in bleak solitude of survivalism and isolation and the tweaking of restless commercialism, or in the dream that some electable saviour will come riding to our rescue, but rather in reconnection to community?”

As they put it, 'If we wait for governments, it will be too late. If we act as individuals, it will be too little. But if we act as communities, it might just be enough, and it might just be in time.’

Transition communities come together to learn about the truth of all the challenges

www.ruralyouthproject.com

we face as a species. As Rob says, “it always starts with understanding the truth of the situation”. Then, he says, comes the question – “does it have to be as bad as that? Surely it could be better than that?!” From there they create a ‘What if?’ space – the imagination space. This is the ‘re-imagining’ part of the Transition Network’s mission – where all ideas are on the table, explored and taken seriously, no matter how bizarre.

Importantly though, this is not just about dreaming. The re-building part of the Transition mission is about getting out there and doing something to create tangible change in your community. It is about meeting up with shovels tomorrow to plant 500 trees around the village or starting a crowdfunding campaign to fund the community wind turbine or creating a local currency to encourage local pounds to be spent with local people thus making the local economy more resilient.

In practice, Transition Networks look like communities reclaiming the economy, sparking entrepreneurship, reimagining work, reskilling themselves and weaving webs of connection and support across the globe.

Participants have described being involved with Transition Network as, “engaged optimism” or “hope with your sleeves rolled up.”

5

ISSUE 2

Tread

GETTING OUT AND DOING

KIDNAPPED ATTENTION

On an individual level Rob reflects that; “getting out and doing something changes your perception of your powerlessness.”

On phones, Rob says; “Our attention is being kidnapped by these things we carry around in our pockets – very, very addictive devices that we are evolutionarily programmed not to resist, which are forever screaming at us and shouting at us to get our attention.”

Imagination is creativity in action. It can be using our brain and our senses to create an image within our mind. Imagination draws on our experiences and knowledge of the world around us and combines this with the complete unknown to make something new.

Needless to say, we are losing out.

Where our attention goes, our time and energy follow – and these are finite. What opportunities and ideas are we losing in the endless hours spent trying to get to the bottom of our social media feeds?

Rob explains, that if we do not feed our minds with great memories, thoughts, and knowledge – we are unlikely to be able to imagine great things.

Worryingly, Rob recalls that the CEO of Facebook recently named their main competitor as sleep.

Rob freely accepts that we are not likely to all be throwing our phones away any time soon. But the key is to dedicate time and space to explore our imaginations. Whether it is a company, community group, school or family, play is important as is storytelling.

“Storytelling hits us on a deeper level, sustains our concentration and by shutting off the visual swiping we can listen and let our minds form their own pictures,” Rob says.

Whether in Paris, Totnes, Forres or Humboldt County, California, initiatives are being launched to encourage us to leave behind the “Yeah buts” and move towards asking, “What if?”, “Why not?!”, to “How?” and “When?”. The Transition movement and the rate at which it has spread is a perfect example of how small-scale creativity and action, can have a big impact and create big cultural shifts, fast.

But it is clear that the scale of the challenge we face, requires bigger shifts still, and from a far greater number of us.

In From What Is to What If?, Rob asks, “why are we so incapable of coming together to create, sustain and carry out a vision in which we capably address global crisis and enjoy our lives more in the process?”

According to Rob, “change comes from a deep longing”. He believes that we have lost the longing because we have lost the ability to imagine anything beyond the gloomy proposals we are presented with daily.

Many of us have lost our fight and opted for passive acceptance of a dark fate instead.

We are experiencing an imagination crisis, he says. “It seems like we are becoming less imaginative at the very time in history where we need to be at our most imaginative. Our imagination should be taught and well exercised, instead it is flaccid and untoned.”

Rob cites the main reasons for our “flaccid” and “untoned” imaginations as, the rise of technology use, the rise in school examinations, and the absence of play and storytelling in our everyday lives.

6

“We urgently have to reinvent our relationship to these things. How many brilliant ideas that could have saved the planet from the climate and ecological emergency have been lost, just because Facebook won in the battle for our attention?”

Are we aware of what we are filling our heads with? What are we really consuming on a daily basis? Are we filling our brains with inspiring creative optimistic content? Is this translating into our own lives? Or perhaps are we facilitating out own defeat by mindlessly absorbing the colossal negativity at our fingertips each day?

So, how can we reclaim our imaginations and unleash our individual and collective potential?

Rob Hopkins views are not without precedent. Albert Einstein said that imagination is more important than knowledge: “Knowledge is limited, imagination encircles the world.” www.rophopkins.net @robhopkins5085

Check out Rob’s fantastic book ‘From What is to What If’ available from all good bookshops. Rob also has a podcast ‘From What If to What Next?’ available from most podcasting services.

U

llapool’s history has centred on fish and sea trade. In this 360-degree view of today’s village, our conversations reveal how capitalising on opportunities coupled with a strong, can-do community provides inspiration and a rich future for its younger generation.

Ullapool High School in Northwest Scotland has the largest catchment area in western Europe. If you were one of the pupils attending the school, especially one of those with a daily 60-mile round trip, you might be forgiven for harbouring pessimistic thoughts about continuing to live in a rural area when schooldays are over.

FINDING REASONS TO STAY LOCAL

And you would not be alone. Indeed, assuming a continuation of recent trends, The James Hutton Institute projects that the population of Scotland’s sparsely populated areas - over 40% of the country by area – will decline by over 18% between 2018 to 2043. For the working age population, the estimation is a higher rate of decline – their predictions total over a quarter

WORDS ELLIE STROHM

www.ruralyouthproject.com

7

ISSUE 2

Tread Meanwhile, in England, recent government figures suggest that the rural population fell from 17.2% to 17% of England’s total population between 2011 and 2018 while the average age of rural dwellers increased further. The peak age group in rural areas in 2018 was 50-54, while that in urban areas was 25-29 years’ of age. This phenomenon is observable across Europe.

However, the coastal village of Ullapool demonstrates that, encouraged by the local community, young people’s attitudes to remaining or leaving are by no means cut-and-dried - there are attractive, local alternatives to heading for the city in search of higher education, employment and a future.

Ullapool is a village of around 1,500 inhabitants in the northwest highlands perched on the edge of the beautiful Loch Broom. Originally founded on fishing, it draws visitors from around the world and its economy is now fuelled by tourism. But fishing remains an important part of life there.

SEAFOOD SHACK Kirsty Scobie and Fenella Renwick are two young people who did remain in Ullapool and started their own business, the highly successful Seafood Shack. They cook - to

8

order - simple, quick, and fresh seafood caught by their friends from the village.

The daily menu changes with the catch and regularly includes line-caught haddock, hand-dived scallops, and creel-caught lobster. Their signature dish is a tasty haddock wrap.

that’s seafood. As a village that was founded on fishing and with our partners both involved in fishing – it felt fairly obvious.”

Kirsty and Fenella both grew up in and around Ullapool and wanted to build their futures there. They were determined to create a business that would enable them to live as they wanted in Ullapool balancing hard work with time and space to play.

Determined to bring something different to the village, they were both in their 20s when they launched their catering trailer in 2016 with very little money behind them.

“It’s the young people who are starting these things up – it’s up to us,” says Fenella.

“We spotted a gap in the market as, despite so many inshore fishing boats landing in Ullapool harbour all year round, a high percentage of this produce was leaving the village. We wanted locals and visitors to experience it,” says Fenella.

With just the two of them cooking and serving food all through the long summer months, their business is completely shaped around the place and community in which they live. “We started out wanting to do something a bit different,” says Kirsty.

“We didn’t want to step on any toes at the existing businesses here, but we did want to stick with what Ullapool does best, and

In just six years they have established a successful food business, won countless awards and have published their own recipe book.

“When we first started the shack there weren’t many young people coming back but there really are now and I feel like that is because people like ourselves or the guys who started the paddleboarding centre – we’re all young. I think it does feed other people because you think ‘well my mates up there doing this, I could go and do it’. I think that is a huge part of getting to young people,” she adds.

YOUNG INSPIRES YOUNG The example that Kirsty and Fenella have set is certainly having an influence “Every time you see a local-run business, like the Seafood Shack, doing well, you get a little buzz of pride at how people are using the rich seas and flow of tourists to create something super successful,” says 16-yearold Meg Loftus, local student, sailor and member of Ullapool Sea Savers. “There’s an enormous sense of community within the village.”

“Every time you see a local-run business, like the Seafood Shack, doing well, you get a little buzz of pride at how people are using the rich seas and flow of tourists to create something super successful.”

- Meg Loftus, Ullapool (age 16)

Meg, whose father is a boat builder in Ullapool, has a positive experience of rural life. “Living in the country makes you sort of old and young at the same time, I go sailing without my parents for days at a time, kids in my class own parts of farms and even know how to deliver a lamb,” she says.

“By far the best thing about Ullapool is how I can leave school at 3:45 and by 4:00 be slipping off the mooring and heading out to sea.

“It’s hard to explain why I love it so much, but it feels like home, I can’t walk through Tesco’s without seeing about five of my classmates and probably one of my teachers. Trying to drag Dad through without him chatting to someone for half an hour is tricky,” she says. “We grumble and roll our eyes at the tourists gawking and taking photos on the seafront but knowing that your home is so beautiful that people stop and stare always brings a little hum of contentment.”

Despite the idyllic setting and a lifestyle that many city dwellers dream of, particularly so following the Covid 19 pandemic, there are downsides to rural life in such an isolated location.

“The thing a lot of young people in Ullapool really struggle with is travel,” says Meg. “Some of my school friends are

www.ruralyouthproject.com

spending up to three hours on a bus each day, and that’s not the wild countryside freedom that people imagine when they move out of the city.”

urban areas, not only because it is a loss to the Ullapool community, but also because conversations with young people suggest leaving is often not what they want.

She adds that the bus services can be erratic, particularly at weekends, and expensive. And she says that the infrastructure, particularly roads, is lacking.

“While tourism brings in most of the money to power the local economy, the endless stream of campervans clogs our tiny roads and adds to travel times.” She points out that it is not the fault of the tourists but that identifying roads which they can and cannot use would help.

“When we speak to students - in common with much of the Highlands - we find that there's a tremendous push, they feel that pressure to leave. But a lot of them say that they don’t want to leave, they’d prefer to stay, but they want housing and transport opportunities that don't currently exist here.”

Internet access is also an issue, particularly for younger people. “In Ullapool, most Wi-Fi services are fine, but in the more remote valleys it can be patchy and slow,” Meg states. “Kids need to be able to pursue their passions, whether that’s gaming and other Wi-Fi-based pastimes, or enjoying the beautiful countryside.”

IT STARTS AT SCHOOL Such experiences can influence young people’s decisions about the future and deter them from remaining in the area which is a concern for Ullapool High School head teacher Robbie McFedries.

One of Robbie’s key concerns is how many young people migrate from Ullapool to

So, providing an awareness of the career opportunities that exist in the area helps to provide the counter argument to moving away.

“We want to give our students the opportunity to go and experience things in the world, but we want them to come back! We want them to have opportunities, choices, and chances in their local community, because it's a great community, it's a really special place.

“It doesn't serve young people well, to think that [university/leaving is] the only route. So, we work with many [others] in a partnership called Developing the Young Workforce.”

The partnership works to identify local employers to help with apprenticeships and to set up strong links with the colleges in Ullapool (West Highland College, part of the

9

ISSUE 2

Tread

“Freedom doesn’t mean laziness. Freedom meets that genuine ability to author your own life. ” - Robbie McFedries, Ullapool High School.

University of the Highlands and Islands) and Inverness.

“I want youngsters to be unafraid to have the experience of going to college in a bigger city and if they experience it now, they’ll be better able to make that decision.”

As part of this mission to broaden horizons, Robbie and his colleagues also work closely with LANTRA - the leading award body for land-based industries - to deliver outdoor courses on things such as crofting and countryside skills. The school also partners the John Muir Trust to involve young people in activities such as the peatland projects, support them to get qualifications, such as Junior Ranger qualifications and the Explorer award, as well as working to improve the school’s environmental credentials.

LOCAL WORK EXPERIENCE The school has linked up with local gamekeepers to provide work experience in countryside management. A local fish farm provides experience in aquaculture and is developing a fully sponsored apprenticeship program. And Ullapool Harbour Trust is developing a fabrication facility in the village where apprenticeships in engineering can take place in the future.

An advantage of Ullapool being such a small school - there are just 250 students between the ages of 12 and 18 - is that it is more able to involve students in decisions about course provision and to uniquely tailor courses to enable students to access subjects that they are interested in. And average year-group size of 40 enables flexibility, for example, if six students want to study say sound production, or marine biology, it can, and has been made possible - both of these subjects are now taught at the school.

Although it would be impossible to meet all the needs of all the students in such a small facility, this is where the strength of the partnerships that Robbie and his team have developed come into play.

“The big vision that we all have in this school is that we want our young folk to be active in the community, active locally, but

10

also globally,” he says.

“School would be unrecognisable for any of us who [attended] more than 10 years ago,” he says. “Some [teaching] is virtual delivery, some of it is actually delivered at the college in Inverness, some of is delivered here by people from Inverness.

It is a very exciting time and gives us the chance to offer choice.”

When asked what his dream for his school and education would be in 2030, Robbie’s unwavering response, was the abolition of exams; “I don't want to see examinations.

I don't want to see youngster stress. I want to see young people that are happy. Some people equate happiness with being lazy, and in doing nothing. I think happiness comes from doing stuff so I want our young people to feel that they can try things. I want to see them continuing those links with local communities, to feel engaged, to feel empowered.

“If this pandemic helps us get to a system, whereby we think ‘how strange it is to think that we can measure someone from three hours in an examination room’, that'll be a really good thing.”

Robbie says that moving away from rigidity that we currently experience and allowing people more freedom is important.

“Freedom doesn't mean laziness. Freedom meets that genuine ability to author your own life. And I think that's really important,” he says.

“Why should senior pupils be in school five days a week? I think there are other equally valid things that young folk can do.

Some of them do need the security of their school, to help them do that to try things out, to not be afraid to try something, to think well, that's not for me, and that’s great.

“I think it's really exciting times for schools in the next three or four years as we as we try and come up with something different at a personal level.” www.ullapool.com www.seafoodshack.co.uk www.ullapoolhigh.highland.sch.uk

ULLAPOOL SEA SAVERS The Ullapool Sea Savers (USS) is an environmental awareness group created by a collective of passionate young people and aimed at supporting their peers to learn about, protect and promote sea and marine life locally and globally.

“We have come together to raise awareness of the challenges facing our local marine environment and to celebrate and promote all that is wonderful about the sea around where we live.” – USS The four pillars of their approach are to empower other young people to recognise that their passion and energy can grow to real, effective action; to have fun supporting each other to stay positive and energised to face new challenges; to campaign for protection of the marine environment; and to commit to ongoing learning and sharing their knowledge. The group work with expert individuals and groups including marine biologists and British Diver Marine Life Rescue medics to support their mission.

This year USS were recognised for their achievements when they won The Young Scot Award 2021 in the Environmental category

“People protect what they love – we teach people what there is to love about the sea from the smallest copepod to the biggest whale.”

- Ullapool Sea Savers

COMMUNITY TOOLKIT WORDS ROSE MOGGACH

A

theme which has permeated almost every story shared in this magazine has been the impact of the pandemic, and what this has meant for both individuals, and the significance of their communities. Now, we do not simply uphold the geographical definition of a community, which concerns groups of people in the same region or demographic. We extend our characterisation of community to include individuals unified over a shared vision.

Depopulation of rural areas continues to be a global concern, but what if we could think of a way to help keep people in the places they call home, and develop strong, vibrant communities which could support a whole range of businesses, social enterprises, and other initiatives for greater good as a result? On the back of this philosophy, and following on from previous RYP activities that have centred around collaboration, education and confidence-building and taken the form of training workshops, ideas cafés and learning journeys, we have crafted a ‘Community Toolkit’. It has also derived from calls from communities all over Scotland who want to better equip themselves with the know-how for activating prosperity in their rural areas.

So, ‘what it this Community Toolkit?’ you may ask.

Well, if you live (or want to live) in a rural area; you want to understand how ‘community’ works; and you want to effectively engage with your community to get an idea you may have off the ground – then this is for you! A collection of practical steps to take and accompanying case studies for each stage in action, this free downloadable document exists to help you get to where you want to be, and tackle, head-on, what you want to achieve within your community or fundamentally, how to foster it.

www.ruralyouthproject.com

Download your copy at www.ruralyouthproject.com/learn/community-toolkit So, what are some of the phases listed in our handbook for building community? First of all, we acknowledge the importance of having a solid vision of what you would like your community to look like in the future, as this will underpin all future activities. Only then can you get out there, get to know your community and discover new unknowns about your place. Then, it is time to tell your story. A strong communications strategy that connects you to others is essential. We later go through what it takes to effectively engage with and influence those you approach, highlighting the importance of utilising a tailored plan. Then, it is imperative to reflect on your activities Donald Mackinnon so that you remain adaptable and resilient when faced unexpected challenges. Once all this has been accomplished, you live it! We demonstrate how to keep going once you have established yourself, and get the most out of your endeavours.

"Your opinion about the future of your community matters.

And – if it isn’t you, then who will it be?”

As Donald, one of our case study stars puts it: “Your ideas are as good as anyone’s. Now, more than ever, we encourage you to join hands with your community and have confidence in the knowledge that great things can be achieved when collaboration is held at the heart.

This toolkit is by no means an exhaustive methodology for creating and sustaining community, but the hope is that by sharing useful tips alongside inspiring stories, it can stimulate strong and vibrant rural areas now, and in years to come.

11

ISSUE 2

Tread

THE POWER OF FOOD TO UNITE WORDS ELLIE STROHM

F

ood is powerful. How we grow it, process it, cook it, eat it, waste it, and share it has a profound impact on the health of our planet, our bodies, and our communities. It’s also an important avenue for young people to start businesses and engage with their local peoples and place. And food is at the heart of rural places – the land from which most of our food is borne.

As a nation, we are perhaps more connected to our food than we have been for decades. With greater climate awareness, nutritional understanding, and experience of food scarcity; we have seen people wake up to the power of their consumer choices, local supply chains and the food poverty that exists within our communities. Everyone has a right to access healthy, nutritious food and feel welcomed around a table to eat alongside others.

For three months during the start of the pandemic, everyone was touched in some way by food insecurity.

The fragility of our global food system was illuminated by the pandemic, and it forced us all to look at our local food systems very differently. For many, it was a time where they felt greater connection, reliance, and safety in shopping locally, compared with taking the risk of going to the supermarket.

Food helped people forge relationships they didn’t have before, and, perhaps, develop empathy for their local food producers, fishers, and chefs.

Amazing initiatives have been born, and in many ways, we have seen the absolute best of society as people have risen to take care of one another - ensuring key workers, the vulnerable, and our neighbours get enough to eat.

12

Food is emotive. For me and many others, the ache of not being able to freely share and celebrate food with loved ones and strangers, highlighted how far beyond basic sustenance food runs in our culture and relationships.

When we can slow things down, the simple joy of sharing and celebrating good food that has been lovingly grown, harvested and cooked, creates often profound and lasting connections - not only with others but with our bodies and with the earth.

“The fragility of our global food system was illuminated by the pandemic.”

In the following pages, we hear from individuals and organisations with inspiring stories to tell of how food is at the heart of connection and community in different places. They are young people who have been called to question – how can we build better food systems for our planet and for society?

Their stories demonstrate how food can be a powerful vehicle for change, bridging social, economic, and cultural divides; building stronger connections between producers and consumers; delivering experiential education around nutrition and soil health; and providing safe spaces where the marginalised in society feel included and cared for. These young people are community leaders helping foster more resilient local food systems and inclusive communities to build a better tomorrow.

Food story

COMMUNITY NOURISHMENT AND HEALTH WORDS ARI CANTWELL CORN

“C

oexist Community Kitchen is a non-profit cookery school in Bristol, UK. Our big, over-arching vision is that we want to live in a world where everyone is nourished and healthy. By ‘nourished’, we mean so many things - our bellies, our souls, our hearts, our minds and our communities, and the same goes for ‘healthy’- our individual health, our emotional health, our societal health... and these are not exhaustive lists.

From our beautiful kitchen in the South West; full of plants, murals and food- our core work is running cookery classes with young people and adults that are accessing support services. This could be mental health support, drug & alcohol recovery, working with young people out of education, cooking with people who are part of the asylum system and many more community groups.

We see food as a vehicle to work with people who are experiencing isolation, social marginalisation or are in need of greater connection and joy in their life.

Our cookery classes are very relaxed and informal and are a space for people to come together and have a bit of respite from the world around them, or just come in and share their expertise in cooking and food.

We definitely do learn culinary skills, but the focus is so much about coming together over food. There is no wonder why there is a cliché about the kitchen being the heart of the home.

www.ruralyouthproject.com

JOYFUL FIGHT FOR RIGHTS Our society works for many people at the higher echelons; however, we see that this does not necessarily trickle down to rest of us. It is obvious to us that there are devastating outcomes due to our segregated society- on our physical and emotional health. Poverty & isolation destroys communities, families and individuals and leaves us with less resilience and dignity to joyfully fight for our rights to feel connection, feel respect and nourish ourselves and others. Our passion is that everyone should be able to have spaces in which they can share food together, learn and teach skills and create strong connections with others. Eating. Laughing, learning and sharing!

We see food as the most simple and easy way to support each other in building a stronger, healthier and more joyful society.

We have been doing this for over 11 years and have worked with 1000s of people across Bristol and the South West. This has been through small cookery classes where people learn and share skills around food but most importantly meet each other, build connections, share food and feel at home.

We have built strong partners with many organisations in Bristol that want to do the

same- drug and alcohol services, mental health organisations, refugee and asylum seeker groups.

REPLICATION RURALLY Over the years we have been doing this, we have seen people, including ourselves, experience great change, build friendships and feel part of our home. We would love to see this kind of work replicated in other communities; urban and rural and are very happy to share and collaborate.

We can really see this working in a more rural setting, especially with the access to growing spaces, projects and farms and how this can only encourage us all to respect, know and understand our food systems and how to eat better for ourselves and the land.

We understand that the small act of chopping an onion, or chatting to someone over the rice pot, will not necessarily change the world in of itself- but what we do feel is it brings moments and times of joy, connection, and a sense of belonging.

These are all things that help us all feel more resourced, more resilient and more able to make or demand the changes we need to see for ourselves, our communities and our planet.” www.coexistcommunitykitchen.org

“We see food as the simplest and easiest way to support each other in building a stronger, healthier and more joyful society” 13

ISSUE 2

Tread

Food story

MAKE FOOD, NOT WAR! WORDS JANE CRAIGIE

K

amal Mouzawak is a changemaker, a social entrepreneur and a believer in the power of food to unite people. He is from Beirut in Lebanon. I visited him there in 2017.

Lebanon’s civil war raged from 1975 to 1990 and the country, bordered by Israel to the south and Syria to the east and north, has not known real peace since. Its complex religious landscape [18 official religions, and six unofficial others] creates tension which spills into politics and society. The legacy of its troubled times is clear in its twelve refugee camps which date back to Palestinian refugees from the late 1940s, to an influx of over 2.5 million Syrian war refugees over recent years.

The stalls are all run by small farmers and producers from all over Lebanon. It has significantly improved their incomes and their livelihoods.

Souk el Tayeb’s social endeavour hasn’t stopped with the market. Kamal and his team also run food festivals and have established five restaurants named Tawlet, which translates to ‘table’, and a number of B&Bs in stunning old Lebanese houses.

We met an Armenian woman at the Tawlet in Beirut the day after we arrived. She had travelled in from her village to prepare the food in the restaurant for the day. The spiced and herb-laden foods were delicious and unique to her village and culture. Her food was the focus, not her religion.

In the early 2000s, Kamal enacted his journey. Kamal’s vision was that social and religious divides could be bridged through the sharing of food by the people who produce, prepare and serve it, whatever their beliefs.

The following day’s catering would have been by a woman from another village; she may have been of Christian, Suuni or Shia in another faith; her food would also have been made with love, and shared with many people of differing beliefs.

So, in 2004 in downtown, trendy Beirut, amongst designer shops and cool bars, he set up a farmers’ market - Souk el Tayeb [‘souk’ means market, ‘tayeb’ translates to good or tasty]. Prior to the Covid pandemic, the market frequently hosted 85 stalls, attracting up to 3,000 shoppers during the peak months from October to May.

The most challenging of our visits was to Borj El Brajneh, a Palestinian refugee camp in the southern suburbs of Beirut – against the Foreign Office’s advice. We were all nervous during our drive there as we passed through a number of heavily guarded check points dotted throughout the city.

14

Borj El Brajneh is a ramshackle, hugely overcrowded camp built in 1948 during the Arab-Israeli war, the residents – many of whom were born there - live hand-tomouth; the women rarely work and struggle to make ends meet.

In the camp I met an incredible young woman called Mariam Shaar (middle picture below) who has set up Soufra, a food catering enterprise – with the help of Souk el Tayeb, This team of 20 women has learnt how to prepare and make food to a professional standard. They now run a food truck and are catering with traditional Palestinian foods to organisations outside the camp, including embassies and universities.

Soufra has given the women meaning and purpose in what would otherwise be a diminished and sometimes demeaning existence.

Amidst conflict, political uncertainty and social divisions, Kamal has achieved so much through food, its celebration and its sharing, and in the process of his work he is preserving culinary traditions, rural heritage and protecting the natural environment. www.soukeltayeb.com

THE TOWN IS THE MENU

Food story

WORDS ROBYN WOLSEY

T

he sharing of food is a great leveller. Every other Friday at Deveron Projects in Huntly, a small town in Aberdeenshire, we invite people to speak about topics that relate to art, their travels, gardening or many other walks of life. At lunchtime our little team, along with artists and whoever else wants to join us, have lunch together and get involved in this sharing of knowledge.

For the past 25 years Deveron Projects has been slowly growing ideas around art, food, walking and eating, together with the communities of Huntly. We inhabit, explore, map and activate the place through artist driven projects. Huntly’s small-town context, its 18th Century streets and the surrounding Aberdeenshire countryside offer an abundance of possibilities to work with, especially since the recent development of a new community kitchen and project space at Square Deal.

Throughout the summer, as part of a residency at Deveron Projects, artist-chef Kawther Luay invited the community to take part in foraging walks. Folk gathered to walk and talk, sharing their knowledge about what wild foods are available, paying close attention to our local larder and the movement of seasons. Herbs, flowers, and all manner of edible plants were pointed out and harvested for discussion.

Marking the end of Kawther’s residency, we hosted a Midsummer Meal in Huntly Town Square for everyone to enjoy. Two long tables stretched across the Square, with live music and poetry performances, locally sourced food, and, luckily, glorious sunshine.

Celebrating the simple act of eating together after a year-long social fast, the meal celebrated our relationships with food and with each other, setting a space to playfully invite friendship and closeness amidst ‘social distancing’ measures. This invitation extended to the wild, utilising the natural larders of Huntly’s local ecology, from the White Wood to the banks of the River

www.ruralyouthproject.com

Deveron. Plants and herbs from close to home were hidden in each of the dishes, or perhaps taking centre stage!

“Kids joined to learn kitchen skills, cook new flavours, collect fresh garden grown ingredients and play with all this new knowledge. ”

Training up the next generation of growers and chefs, in collaboration with local social enterprises Neep & Okra and Honesty Bakehouse, we recently ran the first Summer Cookery School in Huntly at Square Deal over the school holidays for children aged 10+.

Kids joined to learn kitchen skills, cook new flavours, collect fresh garden grown ingredients and play with all this new knowledge from Neep & Okra and Honesty Bakehouse. Creative activities were sent out each week to everyone involved to build on the skills learnt in the workshops - think vegetable mask and costume making, garden comic strip designing and recipe booklet printing! These materials are still available to all, get in touch with us to find out more.

Facing up to the global climate and ecological emergency, growing, cooking, and eating food together can also be used as a tool to rethink how a community might feed itself in the future. Food, and the hospitality that comes with it, is a way to inspire new connections, friendships, and valuable cultural exchange. You can join us every other Friday for lunch if you like, everyone’s welcome. www.deveron-projects.com

15

ISSUE 2

Tread

REVIVING FOOD Food story FROM A HORSE-BOX A C O N V E R S AT I O N W I T H R O S I E G R AY

P

arked on her driveway in Kincraig - a small rural village outside Aviemore in the Scottish Highlands Rosie Gray runs Reviving Food her mobile micro-bakery from her bright yellow horse box. Here, Rosie bakes and sells her highly nutritious sourdough bread and delicious cakes to feed her local community.

She has also built strong local ties with local businesses who might regard her as a threat to their custom. “Relationships are everything - It was very important to me I made friends with potential ‘competition’ to ensure I didn’t step on toes. Now the local café owner calls me ‘partner’ and we direct custom each way. He even lets me sell my bread in his café.”

Rosie is passionate about connecting people with their food, the producers behind it and the land we all depend on.

Rosie describes what she is doing as, “quiet, gentle activism” and sees her role within the community as integral to the health of her people – both physically and mentally.

Her mission is to move people’s perceptions through sparking their curiosity and inviting them to be a part of it. It would be impossible to buy bread from Rosie without also having a “good chat!”

Having launched during the first UK Covid-19 lockdown, Rosie’s original intentions for her business have shifted to respond to our changing world. Originally Rosie’s motivation for being in a horsebox was to be able to move between local villages to sell her bread. Instead, the horse box has remained on her driveway and people have come to her. Rosie says, “it's been absolutely great and created a kind of place where people come and meet each other.”

Se says: “I was surprised at how many customers came my way because they had seen my yellow painted sign! It feels important not to forget the very simple ways of letting local people know about what you do.”

Underpinning everything Rosie does, is a mission to “reduce our impact on the environment whilst improving the health of individuals and creating better food systems that treat everyone involved with dignity and respect”. Having spent many years travelling around the world learning how to grow and cook food, Rosie became passionate about joining the dots between the people that produce food, and the people that eat it by celebrating their stories.

Rosie has forged close links with the grain growers, the millers, and the salt producers she relies on to bake her bread.

She is committed to telling their stories and bringing the human connections alive. In the future she hopes to have the portraits of everyone involved displayed in her horsebox for everyone to see.

16

For Rosie, it is about “moving away from expecting perfection in our food system but about gently educating people about their food, how it is grown and the imperfections that naturally result from weather and temperature fluctuations”. Sourdough is perfect for this – “it’s alive and it changes depending on the weather. I enjoy talking to my customers about the changes in the bread. Instead of being disappointed, they’re interested - it’s the quirky parts that make us stop and think and remember there is a human at the end of this!”

Rosie’s interest in sustainable agriculture and soil health have led her to work with grain growers who are practicing rotational growing. As a result, she is now selling peas and beans which are planted in between wheat crops; “the fact is, if we want to keep eating wheat, we also need to keep driving the demand for things like peas and beans, and all the other things that are growing within rotation to maintain healthy soil.”

In a normal year, Kincraig experiences huge seasonal fluctuations in visitors and often businesses respond to this and close during the lulls. Importantly for Rosie, Reviving Food will be a consistent part of the Kincraig community, “Bread is a staple and I want to be a staple for my community… the point is to feed the people that live here.

This year has been probably perfect for that because of the way the lockdowns have been. It's meant that my whole core of the business working is based on local people – and visitors have just been a bonus.” www.revivingfood.co.uk

“Reviving Food is an act of quiet, gentle activism.”

Food story

THE HIGHLAND GOOD FOOD COMMUNITY WORDS MARTIN SHERRING

THE PROBLEM – AND OUR SOLUTION It’s easy to see the things that are wrong with our food system at the moment – we have a biodiversity crisis, a climate crisis, a health crisis and a poverty crisis – and there are even signs that we may be on the brink of an empty-supermarket-shelves crisis. Food is an issue in all of these – the ways it’s grown, processed, marketed, sold and consumed. But there are individuals and groups who are doing things differently, and the Highland Good Food Partnership aims to show that, working together, we can make things better.

WORKING TOGETHER We haven’t been going all that long – the initial blogs and podcasts were launched in August 2020 – but in that short time we’ve discovered that re-imagining the food system involves people from all walks of life. To give just one example, we know that, globally, growing food that goes to waste accounts for around 10% of greenhouse gas emissions. If we want to sort that out, we need schools to teach ways to cook with leftovers, but also to look at the waste from school meals – and get parents to monitor the waste from packed lunches. We need people to grow more of their own food, so they respect it, find imaginative ways to use it all, and value the compost they can produce with potato peelings and outer cabbage leaves. We need cafes and restaurants to design menus and portion sizes to minimise waste and share their own ideas about re-using leftovers. And if we can do all that, we’ll find that people are healthier from spending more time in the garden or allotment, and from eating less ultra-processed food. Kids will have a better understanding of how good food is produced, and more of them will be interested in a career in the food sector – so we’ll be able to source more of our food close to home, reducing the need for transport and the risk of empty shelves. Everything and everyone seem

www.ruralyouthproject.com

A BETTER WAY So, what does “better” look like? Our vision is of Highland communities where: • locally-grown food is available in every town and village; •

“Re-imagining the food system involves people from all walks of life.”

community groups and schools have their own growing spaces and support each other with shared ideas, tools and seeds;

• the feeling of belonging to the community includes a passion for local food and specialities; •

people know where and how their food is produced, and prefer to buy from the growers who work with nature rather than against it;

• surpluses are shared around so that everyone has access to fresh food, and nothing goes to waste; •

children are taught the value of fresh food, and how to avoid wasting it;

• as people get closer to the source of their food, their diets become healthier – both for themselves and for the planet; •

local food producers and schools work together to bring the best food into schools, and make careers in the food sector aspirational;

• local food is at the heart of social gatherings of all scales – Burns Night of course, but also apple days, harvest festivals and maybe even asparagus weeks!

to be linked, so it’ll come as no surprise that our evolving partnership already includes farmers, crofters, climate activists, teachers, community growers, university professors, FE college trainers, doctors and nutritionists, local politicians, local authority buyers, and of course people who just care about what they eat and how it’s produced. www.highlandgoodfood.scot

17

ISSUE 2

Tread

Food story

GROWING TOGETHER WORDS TIM DICKENS

I

t was March 2020. Suddenly, supermarket shelves ran empty of fresh vegetables, fruit, meat, and loo roll. Overnight, the vulnerability of our broken supermarket food system was exposed for everyone to see. It was then that the queues at our rickety wooden farm gate stall began. This was the backdrop to the birth of Teign Greens, a community-owned vegetable growing enterprise on the edge of Dartmoor.

As we celebrate our first birthday this month [September] we have nearly 70 local families receiving organic veg bags from us every week - with everything grown here on the farm using agroecology and agroforestry. All our members live within the Teign Valley - and within 3-4 miles of the farm. Many also volunteer some of their time to help us tend the land, weed, and harvest. We grow our vegetables on about 4 acres of land on an Organic and Biodynamic-certified farm, with annual veg crops grown between alleys of local Devon varieties of apples, plums, and pears.

As a Community Interest Company (CIC) any profits we make in the future will be reinvested in the business or other local community assets. As a social enterprise, one of our biggest objectives is to support the local community and provide them with access to health, affordable and nutritious food.

Community Supported Agriculture, or

18

CSA, is a radical way of producing food that puts the power back in the hands of both the consumer and the producer. Customers, or members, share the risks and rewards of small scale, sustainable farming in several ways. Members commit to a share of the harvest over a season, or a year, to help give the farm the security it needs to plan a year of crops.

The CSA model empowers communities to come together to take control of their food at every level. Instead of giving money to huge supermarket corporations for bland, nutrition-lacking food grown in an unsustainable way, they can support local jobs and support a way of farming that strives to nourish humans and the planet.

All of our food miles are in single digits, and with almost no single-use plastic or packaging involved. It’s a resilient model of food production on so many levels.

Encouragingly, the numbers of CSAs in the UK doubled last year in response to the Covid pandemic.

At many CSAs, like Teign Greens, members are encouraged to spend some time volunteering at the farm to help grow the crops. We want people who eat our food to come and connect with the way it’s grown; we want kids to know what it means to dig potatoes or pick tomatoes. It’s a fun, physical and social event each week for many of our volunteers, who range in age from 19 to 85.

At Teign Greens we feel we have a responsibility to educate people about how their food is grown, about seasonal eating and about biodiversity. But we also want to teach people how to grow their own food. This summer we have three young trainees working with us, and we aim for them to learn all the skills necessary to go on to set up their own small agroecological farm somewhere soon. We also hope to do courses on small-scale growing and CSAs in the future.

Setting up a market garden or small farm with a CSA model is a very real prospect for young people with a drive and passion for small scale farming. CSAs like Teign Greens can be set up without too much capital investment if you have access to land or can start in partnership with an existing landowner, who may have the buildings and machinery you need to get going. There are a variety of grants available - including through the Prince’s Trust and Landworkers’ Alliance, to support new entrant young farmers and these opportunities will only increase with time.

You can also get support from organisations like the LWA and the CSA Network UK. Other ways to access land for your small farm project include via the Ecological Land Cooperative, which develops small plots of farmland for new entrants to either rent or buy as they develop their business. www.teigngreens.co.uk

GROWING A DIGITAL RURAL COMMUNITY THROUGH THE RYP SMART VILLAGE WORDS AMBER MASLEN AND THEO GILLAN

B

orn from the pandemic when disconnection, isolation and limited opportunities were exacerbated, the newly launched Rural Youth Project (RYP) Smart Village responds to a need providing more and equal opportunities for young people who live, study or work in rural and remote locations.

Amber Maslen and Theo Gillan - two of the platform’s Digital Champions - teamed up to tell the story of how the RYP Smart Village was created and why they believe it is such a vital resource.

This community is the first of its kind to exist in the UK, specifically for rural young people. It has been created to deal with the problems catalysed by lockdown, but the problems aren’t new. Of the resources available to those across rural Scotland, none of them have anything to do with young people. Additionally, almost no resources or large projects have been created by young people. The Rural Youth Project Smart Village is the start of change.

“We believe – through sharing knowledge and skills, making opportunities more accessible, and fostering greater connections and collaborations with others - we can build strong, vibrant rural communities and local economies,” say Amber and Theo.

www.ruralyouthproject.com

WHAT IS THE RYP SMART VILLAGE? The RYP smart village is a website with many layers. It includes an opportunity map sharing the latest job opportunities and events; an embedded Discord platform - a forum where rural young people can connect and talk about the rural issues that matter to them; a Zoom room where RYP and other youth organisations or individuals can host talks and events to benefit rural young people; and numerous resources, news articles and blogs – all free and tailored to rural young people.

“The RYP smart village is an opportunity to help rural young people to think outside of the box that previously was.”

The final website has been the work of a team of designers and web developers but behind every decision made has been a team of young people – the Digital Champions – who have referred to wider research, as well as the feedback from their own communities, to determine what would be most beneficial to rural young people.

HOW DID THE DIGITAL CHAMPIONS GET INVOLVED? So, who are the Digital Champions? Well, that’s us – a team of young people from all over rural Scotland, brought together by the Rural Youth Project - from the Borders in the south to the Hebridean islands in the west and Orkney in the north. We’re from

19

ISSUE 2

Tread

different areas, different backgrounds and all have different plans. But what brought us together is love for creativity and life in rural Scotland and a desire to make it a better place to live for other young people.

We’ve tried to recreate what’s needed on a larger scale for the rest of rural Scotland – and beyond. All our Digital Champions come from varied backgrounds. From business owners to students to farmers to athletes. We built our own small community, met regularly on Zoom, talked in group chats and shared our own stories of living and working rurally. We wanted to get to the bottom of the barriers that can make living and working rurally a challenge and find creative solutions. How could we make things easier for other rural young people? What are the dots that need joining?

We gave advice and helped each other to tackle issues that we faced as individuals in life after high school. Stuff like how to start a business, how to choose a career path, how to move away from home? Now, these solutions will be open to the whole of Scotland. We want the community to span as many professions and pathways as possible, so there is space for absolutely anyone to get involved.

The Digital Champions all felt that,

20

unless you have an established pathway in a local industry such as farming, you must move away from your rural area to a city or town to pursue a serious career.

Additionally, young people in established career pathways can feel as though there are no other options – as though they’re limited to their own sectors and networks. There are so many options to expand and diversify the rural experience. On our website, there are many real-life examples of people doing it with just a little help. For example, the current World’s Strongest Man, Tom Stoltman is from Invergordon. You may not associate elite sports with rural Scotland, but Tom proves that with help from his community, rural Scotland is in fact the best place he could have possibly grown up.

Living and working in rural Scotland is rarely advertised to young people. Our Digital Champions all share an enthusiasm for where they live and want to encourage other young people who might just need one more incentive to stay. One of the goals of the RYP Smart Village is to facilitate communication, connection and opportunities that may not have previously felt possible in rural places. We’re getting rid of all the negatives of rural life by connecting young people in a way that previously has only been possible in the city.

WHY IS IT NEEDED? Typically, in rural areas there are already established career pathways and ways of life, for example farming, hospitality, catering, and outdoor activity provision.

Our Digital Champions feel that, in rural Scotland, everyone knows one another, yet nobody really knows their neighbour or their peers. It can feel as though young entrepreneurs are few and far between, and it certainly hasn’t felt like there are a lot of specific opportunities for young people. The RYP smart village is an opportunity to help rural young people to think outside of the box that previously was.

Now is the perfect time, lockdown has triggered digitisation of many things that would have taken a long time to come online. Almost anything is now available, service or product, from anywhere in the world. Starting a smart village for a specific niche, for young people who want to live and work in their local rural communities under their own terms, couldn’t have come at a better time. The smart village aims to connect, lend opportunity, guide, and entertain – you don’t have to move away from somewhere you love to thrive and be successful in whatever way you see success.

WHAT CAN YOU FIND ON THE RYP SMART VILLAGE? Calling the RYP Smart Village a website feels strange, as the actual website was one of the last things to come together. We all had different ideas on how we could achieve the goal of connecting communities and bolstering rural enterprise, but that didn’t mean we had to choose which idea was best. We worked together to incorporate everything we feel we need into one platform.

1.

Toolkits and templates ...to assist young people looking for guidance that isn’t easy to find on the web.

Google “invoice” or “how to do a tax return” and the volume of results is overwhelming.

The Digital Champions filtered through the results and uploaded the simplest, easiest versions of everything they feel would be most useful for rural young people. The best part is, they’re free - all you need to do is to create an account.

2.

Case Studies ... to offer inspiration from other young people’s stories, pulling together resources and real-life experiences, to illustrate the variety of possible pathways for young people in rural Scotland – and beyond our shores - and how they can be reached.

3.

News and Blogs Giving young people from rural Scotland a voice, with an audience of peers. Rural Scotland is incredibly popular for tourism, which means that much of the social content and funding is focused on those who don’t live in these areas. The RYP Smart Village balances the scales by allowing people to be a part of their communities.

This not only encourages and enables young people to get into writing and to share their voice but allows people to see the perspectives that are often pushed to the side by established urban institutions.

4.

Opportunity Map The most exciting feature available on the website – in our opinion. This is a national platform maintained by our team of Digital Champions and open to anyone to contribute to. Businesses or individuals can create their opportunities for the whole community to see. The map is essentially a visual database of job and volunteer opportunities, events, support groups, training, mentoring opportunities and more. designed to provide a national platform – including those that may only be heard of by word of mouth.

“Starting a smart village for a specific niche, for young people who want to live and work in their local rural communities under their own terms, couldn’t have come at a better time.”

Check out the site and sign up for a profile to access all areas and join the community today: www.rypsv.com

www.ruralyouthproject.com

21

ISSUE 2

Tread

TRACING THE CHANGING PATTERN OF THE SCOTTISH BORDERS COMMUNITY WORDS ALANA BLACK

F

irmly stitched to its textile manufacturing heritage, the Scottish Borders’ patchwork of rural towns presents unique challenges.

With a focus on building confidence and wellbeing, the Scottish Borders’ collaborative, human approach to cultivating strong communities is what makes it stand out.

During the 19th century, the Scottish Borders became a hub for textiles manufacturing. With this new industry, whole communities formed around the mills and factories, providing stable jobs, a thriving economy, and vibrant social networks.

Things began to change in the 1980’s and 1990’s when shifts in consumer attitudes – especially toward the quality of clothing - occurred. This, coupled with the major outsourcing of production to adapt to globalisation, resulted in huge changes for people in the Borders.

The knock-on effects of diminished manufacturing in the area have continued to have an impact, many generations on.

Approximately 122,000 people call the region home. The National Record of Scotland cites that, between 1998 and 2019 the population increased by 8.9%. On face-value, these figures seem positive, but when you scratch beneath the surface, the numbers paint a stark demographic picture.

Of those relocating to the Borders, the 65 – 74 age group grew the most – by just shy of 50%. In stark contrast, the 25 – 44 age group suffered a significant decline of just under 25%.

Like many rural areas, the Scottish Borders suffer from limited suitable and affordable housing, few job opportunities, and poor transport links. This ecosystem of disadvantage forces many young people to flock to the cities, in search of new experiences, for work or further education.

Often, they never return. Or, when they do, it is later in life to raise their family.

This results in an imbalance in diversity of thought, experience, and people.

Our communities are only as rich as the people in them, and young people are

22

their lifeblood. The burden to support young people in rural areas is often heaped onto the dynamic and innovative social enterprises and community groups that form to address some of the endemic challenges.

KNITTING TOGETHER A SENSE OF COMMUNITY Local funding programmes such as LEADER have played an important role in supporting projects that strengthen the community.

LEADER is a bottom-up method of delivering support to communities for rural development. Grants are awarded by Local Action Groups to projects that support delivery of a Local Development Strategy.

The aim of LEADER is to increase support to local rural community and business networks to build knowledge and skills and encourage innovation and cooperation in order to tackle local development objectives.

Gary White is the Chair of the Scottish Borders’ local LEADER Local Action Group (LAG) which has supported a number of youth focused projects.

“Scottish Borders has some of the best youth work provision in Scotland,” says Gary. “ Our youth work networks are well organised and deliver some really innovative work, but there are still a lot of young people in need that aren’t accessing those services”.

Gary adds: “Many young people particularly if they’re struggling with confidence, may not be attracted to traditional types of youth work”.

So, how do we create a community that appeals to broader range of young people?

“Young people particularly after the recent lockdown, can find themselves isolated and getting into spirals of negativity. To reach those isolated young people we need to understand and support what wellbeing means for them personally. This can have a consequential effect in terms of building confidence and empowerment”.

“...the Scottish Borders suffer from limited suitable and affordable housing, few job opportunities, and poor transport links”

Food Punks at Peebles Market

“Through our own work, and the projects that LEADER support, we’ve found that it’s starting with the basics, it’s about building that self-assurance through the application of practical skills” says Gary. “Small wins can be hugely empowering”

FUELING CHANGE Teaching young people practical skills to positively impact their lives was the inspiration for Dave Hodson to set up Food Punks in the Borders.

Food Punks is one of Tweeddale Youth Action’s income generating social enterprises and was established in 2015. It started as an initiative to teach simple cookery skills that would help young people learn how to cook local fresh food from scratch and lead lower carbon lifestyles.

It’s now evolved into a popular catering business where any profit generated goes back into youth work and services for young people. This skills-based youthwork is an example of empowering young people to challenge the sometimes negative stereotypes they receive.

Dave says: “Using a kitchen as the medium, some coin in the pocket, hard graft, a bit of fun, in a pretty highpressure atmosphere - it’s essentially an exceptionally good way of reaching young people perhaps on the fringes.”

Food Punks isn’t alone in their skills-based approach.

Connect Berwickshire Youth Project, also LEADER funded, support young people to attain Rural Yachting Association qualifications, alongside Cirdan Sailing Trust.

www.ruralyouthproject.com

Empowering young people, building their confidence and making them feel part of something – whether that is a kitchen team or a sailing crew – means that they start to value themselves and their community.

SEWING THE SEEDS OF SUCCESS Simon Lynch, Scottish Borders LEADER facilitator, has helped a number of groups, which support vulnerable aspects of the Scottish Borders Community.

He says that we need to change our mindset on how we approach these problems to a more collaborative human approach.

“As there is only a set amount of money to support all of these organisations it can, unfortunately, lead to competition between them instead of collaboration.

“If we levelled the playing field and encouraged cooperation,I think you’d find that this would free communities and projects up to be innovative, to be more disruptive and to take on bigger projects, because they’re not constrained by this competition and the funding structure itself.”

Simon commented “The future focus for funding should be looking at personal wellbeing, understanding the needs of our communities, working in partnership to address complex issues and having learning and capacity building as key outcomes”.

Regardless of the changing industrial landscape, the River Tweed continues to weave its way through the hills, inspiring the textiles still produced there with its hue.

23

ISSUE 2

Tread

QUEERING RURAL SCOTLAND WORDS KIERAN SINCLAIR

T

he LGBTQ+ experience is different, depending on where you live in Scotland. In 2020, The Scottish Equality Network launched ‘Further Out: The Scottish LGBTQ+ Rural Equality Report’, dedicated to illuminating the specific issues that LGBTQ+ people living in rural Scotland experience.

Alarmingly, the report displayed a clear divide between those living in rural and urban Scotland.

70% of respondents felt that more needs to be done to tackle inequality outside of bigger cities, and 62% believed that LGBTQ+ people outside of Scotland’s bigger cities face higher levels of inequality. Reasons were wide ranging, from poor access to essential services, such as health and wellbeing support, to scarce LGBTQ+ visibility, and virtually no LGBTQ+ inclusive spaces. (Further Out: The Scottish LGBTQ+ Rural Equality Report. 2020:33).

The report provided so many barriers that prevent LGBTQ+ people from staying in their home communities, or new residents from moving in. What we know, is that LGBTQ+ people are leaving rural areas, and moving to the city. Reading these statistics, I feel motivated to do something. Frustrated, by the lack of action in tackling these disproportionate levels of inequality. Yet, hopeful, that progressive change will happen – if we make it so.

ORKNEY’S ACCEPTANCE AND OPENNESS Growing up on the Orkney Isles, I feel I have a hopefully story to tell. My home island has a community of about 350 folks. Everyone is a neighbour, friend, relative of sorts. The island is small in population, but huge in community. The Island of Hoy has a proud heritage of acceptance and openness to others.

During WW2, the island became a military base.

The population escalated. But the local community welcomed their new neighbours. My own family opened their doors to strangers, who soon became friends. My home island has a philosophy: take people as you find them. Your character is what matters, not your label. I feel, this philosophy has transcended time.

HAPPY GAY DUDE My experience as a gay dude, is a really rather happy one. From what I can remember, the island embraced that part of me. There were questions about sexuality, but those who were asking, did so from a point of curiosity to learn, I felt. Because I knew most islanders, there was an established relationship, from which

24

promising conversation evolved. Of course, homophobia was not eradicated. However, voices of prejudice were certainly the quiet minority – not that I heard them.

I have always felt a strong sense of belonging and profound connection to my home island. Maybe, this has been in part due to my community of allies. But not everyone has the same sense of safety and belonging to their home.

Despite the warmth of community, I do still resonate with many of the issues that the Scottish Equality Report surfaced. For the past year (or however long the pandemic has been going on for now), the lack of LGBTQ+ visibility, expression, and community has left me feeling isolated. Without a Queer Space, you do feel, in a sense, left on the periphery. You are alone.

Without an established queer space, such as a gay bar/ café, meeting groups, the ability to forge connections is difficult. The Equality report suggests that this feeling is widespread. Many respondents said that in order to socialise with LGBTQ+ people, in safe and inclusive spaces, they travelled to the city. (Further Out: The Scottish LGBT Rural Equality Report. 2020:33).

Otherwise, they would not have had the chance to meet likeminded people. But is it really fair to expect people to travel miles away from home, in search of connection – a basic human need. The degree of disparity is layered, for the opportunity of travel is restricted to those who can afford the time and cost. Financial insecurity therefore plays a role in limiting the LGBTQ+ community from accessing safe and inclusive spaces. It’s time to talk about the LGBTQ+ experience in rural Scotland as unjust. Now, we need to curate a platform of expression, where many more queer voices can be heard.

ACCEPTANCE AND EQUALITY In a recent Ideas Café, hosted by Rural Youth Project, I joined a panel of speakers, where we discussed Acceptance and Equality for LGBTQ+ people in rural Scotland. Julie-Anne Lyons and Paula Manners, represented LGBTQ+ Youth Scotland, and talked about the importance of Queer visibility and allyship in local communities, in order to demonstrate inclusion. A simple gesture, such as placing a Pride Flag in a shop window, a subtle, yet bold way to show your support.

An excellent example of this was shown by the Orkney Pride Group. Orkney was due to celebrate its first ever pride celebration (the most northernly pride celebration in Britain) but was unfortunately postponed due to the pandemic.

“My own family opened their doors to strangers, who soon became friends.

My home island has a philosophy: take people as you find them,” Kieran Sinclair

Agrespect at Brighton Pride

AGRESPECT Agresepect is a rural LGBTQ+ network who aim to support people to be open about their sexuality and to live authentically in their community.

Their aim was to start a conversation about diversity, equality and inclusion in the countryside and to demonstrate that rural areas and associated careers can be vibrant, tolerant and welcoming places for everyone irrespective of gender, ethnicity or sexual orientation.

“We want to show that embracing our differences doesn’t only make life more colourful, it can also bring success and resilience to communities and rural enterprise” - Agrespect Founder, Matt Naylor Agrespect invite organisations to join them in their mission and to use their logo as a symbol of their support. ‘We stand against prejudice and support rural diversity, inclusion and enablement’.

www.ruralyouthproject.com

25

ISSUE 2

Tread

“I have always felt a strong sense of belonging and profound connection to my home island. Maybe, this has been in part due to my community of allies.”

- Kieran Sinclair

However, the entire high street of Kirkwall was lit with Pride colours in shop windows and rainbow flags flew high above the town. A credit to the pride group. The town was enchanted and enriched. This was a symbol of collective allyship, unity and support for the LGBTQ+ community. An important statement, that let everyone know that Orkney accepts and embraces their queer islanders. For someone who might feel insecure about their identity, this symbol of allyship will hopefully remind them that support is there. Of course, there is more work to be done, but this was a great step toward achieving equality for everyone. In the Ideas Café, we discussed the importance of looking at individual communities, as having distinctive identities.

Paula and Julie-Anne said that experiences of discrimination or acceptance vary significantly, depending on the locality. Moving the conversation forward, I think we need to consider the importance of creating safe, vibrant, and inclusive spaces where LGBTQ+ people can make meaningful connections, especially in the countryside. I’m enthused that the Ideas Café is concentrating on creating digital platforms for Queer Voices to be heard; however, they are no replacement for physical spaces, where individuals can forge connection and community. We need more, diverse, tangible environments. I want to explore the connection between Queer identity and rural landscape. Cities pride themselves on having brilliantly fun Queer spaces, like Gay Villages, bars, and coffee shops. Let’s explore what Rural-Queer Space can be.

EQUALITY A MATTER OF INFRASTRUCTURE Perhaps, we as a country, should consider Equality as a matter of infrastructure. Just as improving Wifi access is fundamental, so too is LGBTQ+ quality of life. Access to health and wellbeing services, should be readily available in your local area – people from Wick should not feel it necessary to undertake a trip to Glasgow for heath service support. UK government National LGBTQ+ Survey found that two thirds of respondents, in a same sex relationship, said that they were uncomfortable holding hands with their partner in public. Thus, the role of LGBTQ+ inclusive spaces are vital. Rural Scotland lacks the infrastructure that prevents LGBTQ+ people from authentic self-expression and the capacity to make meaningful connections, in a safe, inclusive, dynamic community. I would be interested to see how a social, cultural, wellbeing hub

26

would transform the lives of LGBTQ+ people living in Scotland’s rural landscapes, such as my home Islands, and even attract people from the cities to our rural communities. Reimagining rural communities has grown in appetite. Curiosity for the 20-minute village to be embedded in Scottish society is growing.

The notion that everyone should be able to access necessary amenities within 20 minutes of where they live. What if we put LGBTQ+ equality as an essential objective at the core of this project? No longer would Queer people be left feeling alone, unsupported, and on the edge of society. Reimagined community could be developed from the perspective of queer people. Rural Scotland faces the issue of depopulation, especially among young people, so can we really allow the LGBTQ+ community to migrate to the city? We are losing dynamism and potential.

The tide toward equality is tumultuous, yet there are so many reasons to be hopeful that we will get there.

When I started school, Section 28 (2A) remained in place, meaning that the promotion of LGBTQ+ lives were prohibited. By the time I left, Equal Marriage had passed with a bipartisan majority in the Scottish Parliament. Throughout my school life, society had evolved at speed. This gives me enormous hope, that we can overcome social challenge, together, and with haste. We must illuminate and challenge lingering prejudices in our society, in the endeavour for inclusion, acceptance and celebration. But let’s remind ourselves why we should be hopeful, that equality for everyone is achievable. In an ideal world, I would like to see a government initiative, where LGBTQ+ Grants were awarded to every local authority in Scotland, to ensure that every part of the country, rural or urban, had access to LGBTQ+ visibility and the resources to support the activity. If I were to obtain an LGBTQ+ specific grant, I would launch a cycling community, across the Highlands and Islands, that embraced the stunning landscapes of the outdoors, with all of the wellbeing benefits of cycling and socialising. I would like to see LGBTQ+ Citizens Assemblies, where platforms for queer expression are built and those in positions of power will listen to their needs. We need to invest, listen and response to LGBTQ+ experiences in rural Scotland.

For progressive change to happen, we must pay close attention to local communities, and respond with local solutions.

Community Housing in Finland

COMMUNITY RESOLUTION TO RURAL HOUSING WOES WORDS JANE CRAIGIE

A

my lives on Jura, a Hebridean island off the west coast of Scotland. She encapsulates the endemic challenges that young, rural people have - finding a house to live in, juggling multiple jobs to make a living and needing a car to get anywhere.

Like many under-30s, she left home to study and decided to return home to live her life. To do so, she says, she needs to be resourceful and needs the support of her strong, local community.

Without young people, their energy, sense of can do and their perspective on a better, more environmentally conscious future, our rural communities will struggle to survive. If our young people leave, we lose both local services and the sense of community that you see with strong intergenerational places.

One of the biggest challenges for young, rural dwellers is the lack of affordable, or ‘decent’ housing. Amy lives with her partner in a static caravan on her parent’s croft.

Many of the available properties in the UK countryside are large, expensive to rent and to heat. In popular tourist areas, like Cornwall, the availability problem is exacerbated because so many properties are holiday lets. The post-pandemic desire to flee the cities to the countryside, or coast, has compounded the problem, with frequent stories of ‘outsiders’ paying a year’s rent upfront to secure a ‘getaway’ property somewhere rural and beautiful.

The UK isn’t alone. In Canada, Reuters reported that, in some communities – triggered by Covid - house prices jumped more than 75% in one year. The migration to rural places is locking local people – particularly the young – out of the housing market.

“Without young people... our rural communities will struggle to survive.” www.ruralyouthproject.com

So how are rural communities and policymakers tackling the endemic challenges - the lack of sufficient quantity, quality, or suitable properties for local, rural dwellers of all ages? And how can the investment also support the community’s income-generation, particularly young people without the capital to start their own business?

27

ISSUE 2

COMMUNITIES WITH PURPOSE

Tread

Finland and South Korea are two countries which put community and self-help at the heart of planning infrastructure and services. Arguably, they paint a picture of what the future of rural communities could look like - shared wealth and prosperity and communities that care – in particular - for their young and their old.

In South Korea, the Government had spearheaded ‘sustainable’ investment into these communities, all focused on wellbeing – healthy communities, healthy food and self-help.

One village had built a community kitchen and supermarket, where local growers and small-scale manufacturers could make, pack, and sell their foods.

The facility gave young people a way to make their living and an anchor to stay locally.

Another community is best described as a retirement village – but not an archetypal one. The houses are small and beautifully kept. The residents are all over 70.

In their communal kitchen they make the traditional Korean staples of tofu and kimchi – which they sell to give the community its income. The community looks out for its own ‘folk’ and has a strong sense of purpose and reason to exist.

Finland shares a lot of similarities to South Korea.

It is officially the happiest country in the world and is one of the most sparsely populated, with 50% of the population living rurally. The country has been experiencing a counter-urbanisation trend since the early 2000s. Covid has escalated this migration.

Busan, South Korea

28

“Finland and South Korea are two countries which put community and self-help at the heart of planning infrastructure and services”

FINNISH VILLAGE MOVEMENT Tackling rural housing is something that the Finnish Village Movement Association (FVMA) is doing via 4,000 village development associations. Its purpose is community led local development (CLLD), community wellbeing and public participation.

The FVMA is a movement that emerged in Finland in the 1970s, encouraging people to organise at a local level. The movement focuses on small-scale, collective action over individualism. Communal facilities are prioritised or restored, as are public and social services, such as health, postal or transport services – and housing.

During the 1960s and early 1970s, Finland experienced rural depopulation. By 1974, there were first signs of a modest rural revival. The ‘counter-urbanisation’ treaded started in earnest between 2002-2009 and Covid has created another spike in a return of people to live rurally.

Kirsi Oesch, is project coordinator for the Luopionen and Kukkia villages on the shores of lake Kukkia in Southern Finland.

There are 700 permanent inhabitants and over 1,000 more summer residents.

Kirsi describes these communities as having a lot of social capital, know-how and new ideas, resulting in a wave of growth in associations, social enterprises and co-ops.

www.ruralyouthproject.com

Covid has been a game-changer. Lots of part-time residents returned to the region – they needed housing, workspaces and services.

Luopionen and Kukkia’s communitycoordinated housing project is running from 2005-2024. Building types have been reinvented and designed by a local architect. The wooden, prefabricated units are made in Helsinki from Finland’s abundance of trees. They are as ‘eco’ as they can be, with no plastic used in manufacturing and low energy use resulting from being ‘airtight’.

Kirsi describes the principle of the design is a small house with small emissions and less ‘stuff’. The houses suit Finland’s demographics – for example, over 1 million Finns live alone – and also tap into the growing need for wellbeing. Homes planned range from just 27 m2 up to 100m2 and all have large gardens ranging from 300-500 m2 to grow vegetables and fruits. Prices start from €120k to buy and €400/month to rent. The funding for the project is from a mix of sources, private investment, EU funding (LEADER) and a local bank foundation.

The homes have shared spaces – roads, saunas and waste management. Co-working spaces have desks and audio-visual meeting rooms, hot desks cost €200 euros/year or €10 euros/day.

29

ISSUE 2

Tread

CONNECTING COMMUNITIES ACROSS OCEANS BY SAIL WORDS ELLIE STROHM

P

owered by the wind and a web of passionate people, New Dawn Traders is an experimental business working with sail cargo vessels to import delicacies from across the Atlantic and along European coastlines, pollution-free. It shows what is possible from the raw, human ingredients of passion, drive and a desire to change things for the good of people and planet.

New Dawn Traders is building new models of trade that put people and planet first. Harking back to a bygone era, New Dawn Traders bridges the gap between small producers and customers by building relationships with distant farmers to bring ethically produced, high-quality produce to the UK with a carbon footprint that is close to zero.

With a growing network of ships, sailors, farmers, producers, and ‘port allies,’ New Dawn Traders’ mission has been to cut the supply chain down to its vital parts to allow more transparency for customers and fairer prices for farmers and consumers.

Alex Geldenhuys, founder, and director of New Dawn Traders says, “our journey is a symbolic one, playing our part in the global movement to bringing food trade to a human scale and consumerism to a conscious level.”

She adds that, with this model, farmers and producers pass their cargo to the crew of ship, which is then passed directly from crew to buyer when the ship arrives at port. At its destination, ‘port allies’ encourage coastal communities to pre-order products from the ships and set up events at the docks to celebrate the full process and the cultural significance of the cargo when the ship arrives.

Whether it’s a single bottle of olive oil or rum or several tonnes of goods ranging from chocolate to nuts, or to wine, New Dawn Traders is encouraging people

30

to invest in the creation of a sustainable shipping economy by reconsidering their buying patterns. Alex’s philosophy is to encourage people to buy in advance, in bulk and to collect their goods themselves, from the ship.

In terms of risk, the voyage costs and those for storage, packaging and distribution are saved, or shared with the community. Alex says that this makes it possible for New Dawn Traders to pay farmers and producers a fair price, whilst charging buyers a fair cost for the products.

Nowadays, Alex runs the operation from her home at Argal Farm in rural Cornwall. But her inspiration for the venture arose from the travels of her twenties – hitching lifts on sail boats from her homeland South Africa to the Caribbean and South America.

Along the way she was inspired by the resilience she observed in local food movements but also touched by the rich cultural exchange and celebration that comes through sharing the fruits of our land with others. Her vision was to bring this human-to-human connection between producer and consumer to international supply chains without causing harm to the planet.

New Dawn Traders officially began in 2013. While working as a chef on the ship Tres Hombres, Alex sailed back with their first cargo - a single barrel of rum from the Dominican Republic. It was the first sail-shipped rum barrel to be landed in the UK for nearly 100 years.

The rum’s journey ended when it was blended, bottled and sold as New Dawn rum in the Cornish town of Falmouth.

To Alex, and many others who have joined the sail cargo movement, clean transport is the missing link in our food systems. She says that many allegedly sustainable or ethical goods are transported on ships that pollute the air and sea and are a big contributor to

climate change*.

Whilst Alex acknowledges that sail cargoes are likely to remain limited by their logistical challenges, because there are only a relatively small number of vessels undertaking a limited number of voyages in the more benign seasonal weather, she is confident in the growth of the sector.

New Dawn Traders is now one of more than 70 shippers that are part of the International Windship Association which was established to help the sector collaborate on initiatives which can help to make windpowered shipping more economically viable.

Currently, New Dawn Traders is co-creating the Sail Cargo Alliance (SCA) to support a new and growing community interested in shipping ethical cargo under sail. It is a collaboration of ship owners, brokers and producers and anyone interested in working together in a healthy transport culture.

“Twenty years ago, buying organic was seen to be a bit ‘hippy’, but that has gone mainstream now along with buying fair trade and recycling. Understanding the impact of transporting goods is the next frontier.”

- Alex Geldenhuys, Founder and Director of NDT

“Beyond building viable trade for these sailing vessels, the SCA is committed to setting the highest standards of ethics across the supply chain,” says Alex.

Alex recognises that New Dawn Traders plays a role in inspiring change and enhancing understanding of sustainable shipping practices.

“We might not be the solution to how everything is shipped in the world, but we can make people think about what they’re buying and how it’s getting here.

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed and helpless. But we can all do something. We don’t need one solution to everything, we need a thousand solutions that can exist simultaneously.”

Alex adds, “Twenty years ago, buying organic was seen to be a bit ‘hippy’, but that has gone mainstream now along with buying fair trade and recycling.

Understanding the impact of transporting goods is the next frontier.”

W newdawntraders.com W sailcargoalliance.org @newdawntraders

* According to the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), shipping is responsible for 90% of world trade and accounts for 3% of man-made carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, burning 5 million barrels of fossil fuel per day.

www.ruralyouthproject.com

31

ISSUE 2

Tread

FROM SOCIAL MEDIA TO THE SUMMIT

WORDS ROSE MOGGACH

O

ver the course of the last three years, Iona Rendall has transitioned from a police officer to a nurse, has moved from Aberdeenshire to Edinburgh (via Aviemore) and has transformed from a nature novice to a hiking devotee, all whilst mobilising a community of like minds who have joined her on that journey.

craving more, even if it was just to seek a more pleasant hillwalking experience the second time around. Admittedly, the call from the mountains had been there since she first laid eyes on the stunning, but equally intimidating Cairngorms; it was more a case of mustering the courage to put one foot in front of the other and head for the hills.

For her first five years of living in the heart of the Cairngorms, Iona Rendall took the trail less travelled, opting out of hill-walking adventures from her home in Aviemore. Her fear of the pursuit was borne of her inexperience.

Beginning with the less demanding local trails, and slowly venturing out of her comfort zone to embark on greater challenges, Iona began to share photographs and videos of her daily walks on social media, establishing a Facebook group called Iona’s Adventure’s. Here, she talked of fitting her newfound passion around a busy work schedule, eager to communicate the huge benefits she was experiencing – both mentally and physically – to others, inspiring them to do the same. Very quickly, Iona built a community of people that were keen to follow her hillwalking discoveries and share experiences of their own.

She remembers her first encounter with a ‘Munro’ – a mountain over 3,000 feet: “It was boggy, misty and windy, there was no path, and it was such a struggle getting up there. And I just thought to myself, I don’t know why I’ve wanted to do this for so long. It’s absolutely horrendous.”

In spite of this, the overwhelming sense of achievement once she made it to the top got her

32

“I think one thing I am determined to communicate to people, is that if you open up a conversation with someone about their mental health - you are not planting ideas - but it could be a huge relief for them to talk about it.”

- Iona Rendall

STRIKING THE RURAL BALANCE Life required some adjustment when Iona pursued a career change, accepting a job as a GP nurse in Edinburgh after she qualified. Determined to strike the balance between city living and outdoor accessibility, to preserve the connection she had fostered with the hills in the Highlands, Iona and her partner made the decision to live in the outskirts of the city so that they could be in reach of the Pentland Hills. As she began to explore and enjoy her new surroundings, she increasingly felt like she would like to continue to share her adventures with others.

Realising she already had an established community of like-minded people online, who often commented that they ‘would love to join’ her on her walks, Iona took a leap of faith and opened her walks up to everyone – the vast majority of whom she didn’t already know.

And so, it began – Iona would say where she was going and when, clearly state, “This is a social and I am not a mountain leader, but if you want to join, come along!”

And people did.

Iona’s walks have attracted a huge variety of people with huge range of previous experience, fitness levels and passions. Together, group members have explored walk routes all over Scotland and have been part of expeditions abroad.

Iona says, “I have made some really good friendships – friends I would now class as my best friends. And it’s seeing the other connections grow that has been so, so magical.” A couple who first met on an expedition she was organising in Morocco, have just had a baby! Iona says, “it’s the most incredible success story!”

As time marched on, Iona realised that she was not only forming lifelong friendships with her fellow hikers but was learning a great deal from them too. Areas of expertise varied within the group, but those qualified in field of mountain expedition naturally passed on their knowledge and guidance as they walked with the others. This got Iona thinking: how could she impart this information with as many people as possible, and get them accessing and enjoying the outdoors too?

HOBBY TO SOCIAL ENTERPRISE Three years since beginning her hillwalking hobby, and leaving 2020 on a high, Iona crowdfunded well over her intended £1000 target to kick-start her new social

www.ruralyouthproject.com

enterprise – also ‘Iona Adventures’. With five qualified Mountain Leaders at the helm, Iona’s Adventures will provide outdoor skills courses to empower more people to spend time exploring the outdoors safely, and with confidence. It is fundamental for Iona that these courses are affordable and inclusive, regardless of gender, geography, ethnicity, or background. Hence, Iona is currently building relationships with many of the charities in Edinburgh who support marginalised communities, in the hope of future collaborations.

Conscious of its pitfalls and negative potential, Iona is still a huge advocate for the positive power of social media for gathering community and opening challenging conversations about things that matter to her. When adopted with honesty and responsibility, Iona believes that it can be truly be reclaimed as a tool for greater good.

Evidently, Iona speaks with refreshing candour, both in person and on social media. Her down to earth, approachable nature lends itself well to her role as a nurse. And undoubtedly, her experience as a nurse - dealing with all manner of issues, including sexual health - gives Iona an unflappable confidence to broach often avoided conversations around mental health: “We all have mental health, so we all need to talk about it. I hear from so many people who are struggling with mental health who perhaps don’t have good support networks. I think one thing I am determined to communicate to people, is that if you open up a conversation with someone about their mental health you are not planting ideas - but it could be a huge relief for them to talk about it.”

Another priority of Iona’s is to increase awareness of the often unseen, environmental consequences of outdoor activities. As passionate as she is about getting people outdoors, she feels a duty to educate budding explorers on how to respect and appreciate their surroundings. She wants to ensure people can continue to access these inspiring wild places, whilst minimising, if not eliminating, the environmental damage and ultimately, leave feeling good about the impact they have had.

To follow Iona’s journey and unlock your adventure potential, why not head to her website: W ionasadventures.com @iona.adventures @ionaadventuring

33

ISSUE 2

Tread

CONTRIBUTORS' DIRECTORY

AGRESPECT

FOOD PUNKS

LGBT YOUTH SCOTLAND

W agrespect.com

W www.foodpunks.co.uk

W www.lgbtyouth.org.uk

@weareagrespect

@food.punks

@LGBTYS

@weareagrespect

@foodpunks

@LGBTYS @LGBTYS

COEXIST COMMUNITY KITCHEN

HIGHLAND GOOD FOOD PARTNERSHIP

W coexistcommunitykitchen.org

W highlandgoodfood.scot

@coexistcommunitykitchen

@highlandgoodfoodpartnership

@coexistcommunitykitchen

@highlandgoodfoodpartnership

@coexistfood

@highland_food

W deveron-projects.com @deveronprojects @townisthevenue @deveronprojects

34

W www.newdawntraders.com @newdawntraders @newdawntraders @newdawntraders

JANE CRAIGIE

REVIVING FOOD

W www.janecraigie.com

W www.revivingfood.co.uk

@jcmandco

@revivingfood

@JCMandCo

@revivingfood

@JCMandCo

DEVERON PROJECTS

NEW DAWN TRADERS

SCOTTISH RURAL NETWORK W www.ruralnetwork.scot

IONA'S ADVENTURES

SCOTTISH RURAL ACTION

W www.janecraigie.com

W www.sra.scot

@iona.adventuring

@scottishruralaction

@iona.adventuring

@scottishruralaction

@scotruralnet @scotruralnet @scotruralnet

@ScotRuralAction

SMART VILLAGE SCOTLAND SOUFRA FOOD LTD

SOUKEL TAYEB

W www.soufrafilm.com

W www.soukeltayeb.com

@soufrafilm

@soukeltayeb

@soufrafilm

@soukeltayeb @tawlet

W www.smartvillage.scot @smartvillagescotland @smartvillagesco

Image: Teign Greens

TAP O NOTH FARM @tapfarm @taponothfarm @taponothfarm

TEIGN GREENS W www.teigngreens.co.uk @teigngreens @teigngreens

www.ruralyouthproject.com

35