Saving Our Bees – climate action project
During 2021, ACE was supported by LCR Community Environmental Fund, promoting the city’s green pledge to protect our natural environment and to improve air quality, we embarked on a community bee-keeping project in partnership with Merseyside Bees and Honeycomb engaging adults and children to learn bee husbandry skills on rooftops and in our community centre garden. Last summer, 25 children took part in community beekeeping activities, learning everything one needs to know about how to keep bee colonies healthy and safe. They also discovered the various ways honey bees help sustain the balance of biodiversity through pollination and producing and extracting local honey and the many wonderful purposes that honey, bee pollen and beeswax can be used to make an array of cosmetic and medicinal uses.
The young participants also became ambassadors for the city and took part in the filming of Liverpool City Region’s ‘100 Voices’ video featured in various media channels and exhibited at Glasgow’s 2022 COP26. On the eve of COP26, 100 children and young people from around the Liverpool City Region tell us what they think about climate change.
‘”Children’s beekeeping project creates buzz in Liverpool’s community“.
Young children have been busy beekeeping in a special project to teach the importance of insects to our survival. Under the watchful eye of local ‘bee whisperer’ Barry Chang, dozens of children, aged between 7 and 11 years old, have donned beekeeping suits over the summer to tend to the hives and extract honey.
They also featured in a Netflix summer production with Bee whisperer Barry Chang
Read the Press release issued during a visit from Metro Mayor, Steve Rotheram when he visited the children in the apiary.
Young children have been busy beekeeping in a special project to teach the importance of insects to our survival. Under the watchful eye of local ‘bee whisperer’ Barry Chang, dozens of children, aged between 7 and 11 years old, have donned beekeeping suits over the summer to tend to the hives and extract honey. Twenty-four hives, each with thousands of bees, are split between two sites at the Caribbean Centre and on the roof of nearby John Archer Hall. Community Organisation ACE was awarded almost £20,000 from Liverpool City Region Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram’s Community Environment Fund to teach, train and mentor people about beekeeping. The Community Environment Fund paid for new hives, bees, beekeeping equipment, and classes.
The project aims to bring beekeeping to people unable to afford the cost of keeping hives – while educating communities about the importance of bees. Workshops were held every week during the summer holidays with Barry Chang, who hails from the Black River area of St. Catherine’s, Jamaica, which is renowned across the island for its honey. Barry has kept bees for more than 40 years and is so experienced he is able to work without a protective suit. Honey extracted from the hives is being sold – with the income put back into the project to establish a sustainable model. Toxteth Honey is described as light golden, clear, runny, and ‘absolutely delicious.
Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram said: “Bees are vital for pollinating plants, yet the bee population is in dramatic decline – and that’s a huge long-term challenge to our region and the world.
“Tackling our climate and an environmental emergency comes in many forms and seeing children in our city region confront bee decline is inspiring and gives hope for the future.”
“I continue to be amazed by the achievements of our Community Environment Fund projects and how they are promoting environmental issues at a grassroots level and to younger people.
“Tackling climate change is a top priority for all of us and that’s why we became the first city region in the UK to declare a climate emergency and commit to becoming zero carbon by 2040.”
Anyanna Ndukwe from ACE, who applied for the Community Environment Fund grant said: “It has been fascinating watching the beehives colonies with the help of the local community. We have enabled people who wouldn’t usually have the opportunity to look after a hive, to do so, and since the project started, a number of them have now joined the British Beekeepers Association.
“We’ve even been able to engage with primary school children in the area over the summer – our junior beekeepers – teaching them about biodiversity. It’s about empowerment and raising aspirations and we’ve enjoyed every minute.
“It’s been wonderful to see 25 children go from being fearful of bees to wanting to put on the bee suit and open the hive to see what’s going on.”
Save Our Bees was among 58 projects across Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens and Wirral that were supported by the £500k Community Environment Fund. These projects contribute to the City Region’s green commitment by promoting community engagement in local programmes that lead to more awareness of environmental issues.
Growing Community Roots
ACE continues to help protect our local environment. Our latest environment project is the ‘Growing Community Roots’ initiative funded by an LCR Community Environment Fund grant to transform an empty unused space at Toxteth Town Hall garden in the Dingle area of L8. local residents have opportunities to learn gardening skills and how to care for our local biodiversity to create a sustainable source of food, learn new recipes using ingredients from the garden to plate, and maintain health and well-being. Children will also get involved in our healthy food curriculum and will sow seeds, maintain plants, harvest vegetables, and learn how to prepare and cook a savoury dish using vegetables as the star and main ingredients. Children will be encouraged to try out new vegetables and sustain healthy eating habits beyond the project.
Look out for further updates and press releases on our: facebook@empowermentace
Holiday Activity Programmes (HAF & MPAC)
ACE’s Holiday activity schemes are funded by MPAC (Merseyside Play Action) and Liverpool City Council to provide free holiday provisions including healthy food and enriching activities for children support to children in receipt of free school meals through holiday periods. Despite the restriction of grants to only cover Summer, Winter and Easter by the government, MPAC and Liverpool City Council have endeavoured to keep this promise and have funded the gap in provision, to ensure that children on free school meals during February, May-June and October half terms can access free holiday activities that provide hot food, education activities to support children to have great experiences.
We offer children aged 7-11 a programme of sports, arts and adventure during the school Summer and half-term school breaks. Our holiday programmes are based at Belvedere Academy, 17 Belvidere Rd, Princes Park, Liverpool L8 3TF
Below is a link to Mersey Play Action Council (MPAC)
http://www.merseyplay.com/haf-holiday-activities-and-food-fund/
