The Growing Community Toolkit – a free resource for community groups and volunteers in Sussex and beyond
What’s the Growing Community Toolkit and how can it help me?
The Growing Community Toolkit evolved through conversations over many years between volunteers and community groups in East Sussex. Community groups often felt they were trying to reinvent the wheel, and it was hard to get good quality, accurate information for our local area. So the Growing Community Toolkit was born! The aim of the Toolkit is to provide everything you need as a green spaces volunteer or community group in East Sussex. From how to set up your group and whether you need insurance through to when to sow carrots and mental health resilience, we hope you’ll find something here. We’re running a series of live workshops throughout autumn, winter and spring of 2024/5 and you’ll find details on the News and Events page.
Who’s the Toolkit for, and who’s involved?
The Toolkit has been created by – and for – volunteer groups in East Sussex, and is focussed in the Havens, Seaford and Lewes District areas. But wherever you’re based, we warmly welcome you to take a look around – we’re sure you’ll find something useful.
The project is led by GIA (Gardening In Action) CIC and made possible thanks to the Sussex Community Development Association’s Making It Happen Programme. The Toolkit is created in partnership with SCDA, the Grow Cook Eat Network, 3VA, and many community groups, networks and other organisations too numerous to mention here, but whose work will be highlighted on our Resources Page and across the website as the project develops.
Join the mailing list for updates and workshops:
We’re running a programme of in person and online workshops throughout the autumn, winter and spring of 2024/2025. At the same time, we’ll be adding content to the website. To get the latest updates please join our mailing list. We’ll only contact you with information relating to the Growing Community Toolkit and you can unsubscribe at any time. We won’t bombard you with emails nor will we share your details with any third party.
Get in touch!
If you have any thoughts about the Toolkit we’d love to hear from you! Have we missed something out? Have you got a question or idea? Would you like to contribute a case study or tell us about your project? We believe in the collective wisdom of our communities and will always fully acknowledge authorship and ideas. Unfortunately we can’t provide 1:1 advice or support but we read and respond to every message.