Felt Workshop and Glass Workshop At Bridges Community Centre, Monmouth - 17th & 18th of February

Glass Workshop at Mount Pleasant Farm, Kingswood, Kington - 17th February

Glass & Felt workshops at Pontypool with Young Carers - Thursday 18th February.

Felt workshop at Monmouth Opportunity Group, Mitchel Troy - Wednesday 24th February.

Dry Stone Walling Course at Kington - 2nd to 4th of March

Cooking Course at Talgarth - 4th of March

Buckhalt House Farm Open Day and Video Course - 9th March

Working Horses Course at Mount Pleasant Farm - 21st of April and 4th of June.

GOOD NEWS BAD NEWS FOR WORKERS ON NEW ALLOTMENT IN TALGARTH

Powys Sense were pleased when Powys County Council said they could have an allotment to grow fruit and veg at Talgarth. However they were less than happy two weeks later after 5 guys had bent their backs clearing the allotment ready for planting only to get a phone call from a PCC councillor to say “I have some good news and some bad news… the bad news is that I have given you the wrong the allotment .. the good news is that the allotment owner is really pleased with the job you have done!!”

WORKING FARMS aims are to enable volunteers to become Work Ready and achieve a level of employment or work. We promote Healthy Lifestyles on farms, allotments and drop in centres with stimulating outdoor activities, work ready qualifications, life enhancing produce and healthy cooking/eating.

Personal Development Plan: All volunteers have a personal development plan for a 6 week accredited course which will be reviewed at the end of the 6 week course. The courses provide healthy activities on farms & offer land based skills allied to Open College Network qualifications (e.g. fencing, dry stone walling, sheep care, hedging, horse care).

Tasters & Placements: As part of the PDP and as further training the farms offer a range of activities such as gardening, horse care, feeding the animals, pond maintenance, fencing, egg collecting, lambing & wool gathering, tree maintenance, tidying the environment, cleaning barns & sheds, walling.

Horticultural projects: We are working on several allotments to provide healthy outdoor work, recuperative placements and training and to encourage healthy eating. Also we aim to use the herbs, fruit and vegetables grown for food packs for volunteers and for the cooking courses at drop in centres, as well as in the long term develop employment opportunities via sales and community gardening.

Cooking: Building on the cooking courses we intend to run ‘Healthy Food Days’ at drop in centres,  where we will provide cooking skills, menu planning, simple recipes that can be used at home and take donations for serving the food to the centre users. In association with the horticultural sites and local suppliers we will cover areas such as  pickling, freezing and recycling jam jars.

Courses include Basic Horse Care; Dry Stone Walling; Fencing; Hedge Laying; Sheep Tasks; Gardening; Cooking; Mentoring Skills.{We are also able to offer training via Individual Learning Accounts} 

Powys Sense Ltd set up in January 2007 as a company limited by guarantee with a voluntary governing body has via its main activity ‘Working Farms’ provided over 500 placements on 20 farms (in Powys, Monmouthshire & Herefordshire) for 60 individuals. Funding has come via UnLtd, Social Risk, Laura Ashley, RCA Monmouthshire, GAVO’s Grass Roots, Monmouthshire County Council (CEDS), WCVA Social Risk EFO &  Communities First Nexus. Having recently received 3 year staff funding from Tudor Trust our aim is develop several social enterprises that provide employment opportunities & ensure the project becomes sustainable

Monmouthshire County Council’s  Community Enterprise Development Scheme was launched by David Davies, MP at Middle Ninfa Farm, Llanellen and provided funding for over 30 individuals on a dozen farms.  

After a profitable project in 2007 we were one of 15 (out 0f 200 projects) that WCVA Social Risk provided additional funding to enable individuals to access placements and a range of Open College Network courses such as horticulture, farmhouse cooking, strimmers, lawnmowers,  fencing, hedge laying, dry stone walling, horse care or outdoor certificate in the Brecon & Llanellen areas. (Against an estimated 380 hours the volunteers in fact completed 1300 hours!)  

 Community First Nexus funded Ment4Work to provide training in 4 key areas – fencing, dry stone walling, horse care, hedge laying – plus tasters and placements on local farms.

 WORKING FARMS: The Farm Package enables farmers to diversify, share their skills and increase individuals confidence and employability. The package includes:

a)      Liaising with farmers to look at possible risks of work and needs of the individuals.

b)      Producing structured work plan for individual based around OCN units

c)      Drawing up a placement agreement

d)      Carrying out a CRB check

e)      Arranging introduction, transport, refreshments, protective clothing etc for individual

 Individual Work Sampling Pack to assist those disadvantaged in job market to participate in healthy recuperative placements includes:

a)      Mentoring Support

b)      Day tasters

c)      Training Plan

d)      Opportunity to undertake OCN course or outdoor certificate

e)      Health & safety, Equality & Diversity, Environment, Vulnerable Adults, Volunteering etc policies