Teasel Cooperative
Written by Aimee Parker, the group’s Egin mentor.
Queer and trans people have long been disconnected and excluded from rural and semi-rural spaces and have sought sanctuary in cities. Teasel is a queer cooperative project based in Cardiff, that focuses on land justice and land connection. Their intention is to engage with local and wider communities in (re)connecting with the land through workshops, skill shares, celebrations and political education. Through reconnecting with land and growing food from the soil for themselves and their communities, they seek to be the prefigurative place for the world that they know is possible.
A vision of ecologically produced food that celebrates diversity
Their vision is of a world in which everyone has access to good, culturally appropriate, and ecologically produced food, where different cultural land and food practices (new and old) are celebrated, and where we can all be nourished through connection with the land and the more-than-human world.
The group were keen to have some support with gaining clarity on the programme of workshops which they were planning to develop and run. They had ambitious ideas and wanted to ensure that they were clear on their objectives and understood the purpose, aim and potential outcomes of the workshops they were developing. They were matched with Aimee Parker – community-focused climate and sustainability consultant – as their mentor who felt that a consensus building session would work well with the group.
Thinking big and getting ideas down on paper
The session started with writing down all potential workshop session ideas on post-it notes and placing these on a flip chart. The idea of this was to ‘think big’ and get all ideas down on paper. Once this activity was complete, it was easy to scale it back / remove post-it notes for ideas that were agreed to not be within the scope of the project at this stage.
Once the group were happy with the workshop topics on the flip chart, the post-its were then grouped into themes and named. This was an interesting part of the session and after a lively conversation the group decided that the emerging themes were;
- Land based skills and culture workshops,
- Political education and organising including training programmes, courses and workshops
- Healing and collective care events focussed on ‘being, connecting and experiencing’.
Image – Flip chart of workshop topic ideas.
Identifying network, skills, and knowledge gaps
Each of the themes were then explored in more detail. The group had already completed a detailed network map which was used to consider who may be able to support them with the workshops. This exercise enabled them to identify network and knowledge gaps. They were also able to identify the strengths and skills gaps for different members within the group, which varied from sustainable food production and land practices to facilitation skills. This enabled them to pinpoint the external training needed to better support their community and use this an element to strengthen their funding application.
An intentional space, held for them
The group found that the workshop helped to inform their project development and their grant application to the ‘Sustainable Steps’ programme. They felt that it was useful to have an intentional space held by someone external to draw out their ideas and get them down into a structure. At the end of the session the group had a list of workshops and events that they wanted to offer to their community. Their funding application was successful, and the group are continuing to develop their programme.
We will be watching with interest to see what the future holds for this passionate, committed and knowledgeable group!
Check out Teasel’s website here.
This group’s facilitator is Lisa Williams, who supports their project development and journey with Egin.
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